Democracy and Surveillance Cameras

There was a report on the French TV noon news today about a city in the south of France, Sète, where the local government has installed TV cameras on a lamp pole across the street from a bakery. The cameras are wired to the Sète police station TV screens and anyone who double parks to run in and buy the all-important French baguette, gets a parking violation ticket.
For some reason, that hit me as a final straw.
Just who thinks that parking between pre-conceived lines is so important that people have to be surveyed with hidden cameras and fined for disobeying, i.e., parking outside the lines for the two minutes it takes to buy a loaf of fresh bread.
The bakery in question is losing business as any reasonable person would expect. But, then governments are not often reasonable. They take an oath of office and suddenly we are subjested to their personal world view. 'Subjected' is the right word, because citizens have nothing to say in the matter. The only recourse is to await the next election and vote for someone else, hoping against hope that that person, once elected, will be better.
Was there a crime wave in Sète, with armed bandits sweeping down on the bakery several times a day to steal bread and the money in the poor baker's cash register? Evidently no. Did the good citizens of Sète hold a town meeting to express their disgust at the parking situation outside the bakery? Evidently, no. Did they vote to install a surveillance camera in order to bring the outlaws to their knees by fining them for bad parking habits ? Evidently, no. Did they ask the bakery and people who use the street in question if they were bothered by the double parking? Evidently, no. Was anyone killed or injured because of the double parking? Evidently, no. Had they elected a mayor based on his promise to install surveillance cameras so as to rid the city of criminal drivers? Evidently, no.
What I cannot understand is why we, in France and all over Europe and America, have so meekly submitted to this Soviet tactic of spying on its own citizens in order to arrest or control them by fear tactics. Are we so unaware of our rights as free people that we do not understand that these tactics are undemocratic, that they are attempts to foist on us the sense that only police and cameras will make us safe, that we are obliged to obey the government no matter how absurd its actions may be.
It is utter nonsense that free men and women should be watched by the state and its police. George Orwell warned us, but we laughed at him. Well, dear friends, 1984 is here and we aren't even struggling to free ourselves from it tentacles.
It is enough to make one despair for the future of humanity.