Yes, there’s always some sort of justification towards authoritarianism. The real solution is to fix underlying issues instead. For example, if there is a lot of theft, your social safety net has failed. Punishing people because they react to a problem without fixing the problem is how surveillance- and police states come to be.

We should therefor not fall into spy cameras following our every move. We have to fight them now while they are not too normalized yet. Otherwise, even if underlying problems are fixed, they will still be there, and might get used for far more sinister reasons.

Some good things to understand are the Boiling Frog Syndrome and Ratchet Effect.