If anything, "watch everyone to have enough data available to be able to spot a criminal before he strikes". But my point actually is, some amount of watching will always be necessary, and advancements of technology seem to increase the need for that surveillance as the time goes.
> If anything, "watch everyone to have enough data available to be able to spot a criminal before he strikes".
A.k.a. "assume everyone is a criminal".
> But my point actually is, some amount of watching will always be necessary
Sure, if there's reasonable suspicion that the person being watched is a criminal, and there's a real warrant (not some rubber-stamp from FISA) authorizing said watching. Watching everyone because "well we don't know if this person's a criminal or not" is not only ineffective (as proven by the dearth of terrorist attacks actually prevented due to NSA surveillance) but unethical and - per the United States Constitution - illegal.
Of course, none of this would be an issue if law-abiding citizens were encouraged and given the resources to protect themselves against crime, be it physical (by practicing self-defense, armed or otherwise) or virtual (by encouraging the use of free/open software, and strong encryption).
