Everyone seems to suggest the above narratives, but in truth this is just not the case. Maybe for 0.0000001% of the time it is the narratives above. But the truth is, if Putin or Jay Jones wants someone dead he will get the right spy and do it without a massive surveillance net.
No, the vast majority of the use case is stopping crime that today we can't stop. I want the crime to stop.
I was thinking more along the lines of cultural/opinion suppression or genocide. This is a very similar type of infrastructure.
https://apnews.com/article/chinese-surveillance-silicon-vall...
The way I see it, there are bad people everywhere (even in the government).
https://local12.com/news/nation-world/police-chief-gets-caug...
And, in a safe country like this one (I am in the United States but most developed countries are pretty safe), if a little petty crime is so scary to them that they need a mass surveillance network to sleep at night... I don't see any reason why the public should have to sacrifice potential freedoms for that weakness.