Officers remotely operating any of the street’s plentiful surveillance cameras can “paint” suspicious targets with a directed light beam up to a city block away, and follow their movements. Patrol cars are likewise equipped with cameras that scan the license plates of all vehicles and have access to detailed databases containing personal information on drivers — and cross-references to various “watch lists.”

“The message to criminals is: The police are observing you, the police are recording you, and the police are responding,” states East Orange Police Chief William Robinson. Of course, that message applies to everyone within the federally subsidized surveillance net. Furthermore, police in East Orange — like their counterparts in the brotherhood of government coercion elsewhere — are most likely prepared to arrest any citizen who observes, records, and responds to criminal abuse by police officers.