I don't even want to think what NYC will be like 20 years from now.
We should be doing this a LOT more. Remember when the Brits were bombed, and they ID'd the suspects within minutes, and arrested the accomplices? We'd have no idea who did it, if that happened here.
It would also reduce general crime.
Big Brother, your home is in the Big Apple.
"Ring of steel" -- my hairy purple donkey.
It is a ring of mush. Good only for possibly finding the perps after they have committed the crime.
If they want a "ring of steel" they need to allow concealed carry. I have no fear of armed bankers and stockbrokers walking the streets of Manhattan, but the thugs and muggers certainly do.
Taking pictures of the license plates of stolen and rented cars will never prevent terrorism or crime.
An easier solution to the problems of crime in lower Manhattan is to move to someplace else. Like Utah. I moved here 24 years ago and have never regretted it for one second. I'm very happy with a substantially lower income. I can shoot, hunt, ski, camp, fish, carry a concealed weapon with the greatest of ease and especially nice is the fact that the legislature only meets for 45 days once a year.
Of course, none of the cameras has stopped the recent bunch of car break-ins and such in downtown.
Statists of all stripes are dangerous...whether right or left. Cameras will NOT make anyone "safer" and are purely reactive in nature. Something has to happen before they become of any use.
For all the fans of these devices out there...how are you going to feel when you're scooped-up in an investigation because you bear a striking resemblance to a criminal as captured by a grainy image from a faraway camera? One might be cleared down the road, but you have to deal with friends, family, and employers during the media crush.
Call me a Luddite if you wish (I'm not, I'm in the technology sector...) but I'd prefer my police and criminal investigations be fully prosecuted the traditional way. Inviting more and more cameras is a lazy shortcut and will lead to mistakes. Don't fall for the cheap bait of "public safety" assurances.
~ Blue Jays ~
Ping.
This doesn't bother me at all. And if these are like the existing cameras, anybody can link to them via the Internet. Came in very handy during the Republican convention, when I had to be in the office on the weekend, and the leftists were threatening to march through an area very close to my office, that the police had declared off limits, to an illegal mass demonstration in Central Park. I could check what was going on in the streets before leaving the office, to make sure I wasn't going to find myself tangled up in a violent mob scene. The leftists' planned civil disobedience didn't really materialize (sort of like their planned mega-protests this past weekend), but if they had, I could have monitored the situation from the safety of my office, and waited until the streets were under control before venturing outside.
Of course we should be vigilant, and if we detect any abuse of the surveillance camera network, we must raise a massive ruckus. But I'm not interested in hamstringing our law enforcement agencies by declaring them guilty before they've done anything wrong. Keep in mind that al-Qaeda operatives are perfectly free to set up a similar network in the city. There's no shortage of tall, strategically-placed buildings where anyone can rent or sublet an apartment.
George Orwell's book 1984 was not so much a warning, as a training manual.
Doubleplus ungood.
If you want to catch some crooks how about putting some cameras on the floor of the N.Y. Stock Exchange?
Can't wait for the crimewave of camera vandalism to break out.
Did anybody notice that for all their whining about rights, it is the left that is always the first to turn fascist? and that it's always directed against law-abiding citizens while they always protect actual criminals and terrorists?
For criminals: They stand up for their rights, are against the death penalty, want them to be well represented, want to allow illegals into the country and give them government benefits, want to give convicted felons the vote, want to legalize hard drugs.
For law abiding citizens: They want to take away their legal guns, want to restrict their use of property, want to prevent them from smoking, want to tax the heck out of them (taking their money), want to steal their property (Kelo decision), want to restrict their speach ("hate" speach laws, campus fascism, political correctness and "free speach areas).
For liberals everything bad is good and everything good is bad. God and faith are bad, abortion is good. Patriotism is bad, discent and hating the country is good. Sin (including porn and homosexuality) is good...
Our country is in a sad state wehn people demand tyranny.
Not only that, but from what I hear, they are going to charge tolls for driving in downtown Manhattan soon.
Worlds Most Amazing videos must be short on material.
