Friday, July 13, 2007 Seares: ‘Big Brother’ Byron and his spy cameras By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THEY haven't called him that yet---Big Brother, from George Orwell's novel "1984"---but Byron Garcia, the governor's brother who's consultant on security, is coming close.
Orwell's Big Brother is benevolent but omnipotent state that intrudes into everyone's life. The term means all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful leader.
With spy cameras all over the place, Bryon has begun to earn the name. With audio capacity soon added, what won't he see and hear inside Capitol?
His purpose is sound and valid: security.
The shooting to death of an election bet for mayor in the Capitol compound wasn't caught on camera but scenes before and after the execution probably were---and maybe next time the murder itself is recorded.
Now Byron has another reason for the spy cameras: employees' decorum.
What better way, he told dySS radio's Bobby Nalzaro the other day, to enforce Governor Gwen's order against discourtesy?
Debate still on
Corporate chiefs still debate the issue of spying on one's employees. What do they see? A plus: Excuses and denials won't stand against video clips. A minus: An employee may feel stifled and stunted by his employer's clear distrust.
Plus this minus: It's indiscriminate. Workers coupling in an empty room can be spied upon. But so can a news reporter pocketing snack food or an official going ballistic over Cris Saavedra's zany questions about Capitol funds.
Will Byron cut and delete those scenes that mustn't be seen by a hostile ombudsman?
A US president named Richard Nixon convicted himself with his own trove of tapes collected from in-house spying.
