Should cameras be used to monitor American streets for crime?

I voted no because HELL NO!! was not an option.

 

We are, but I don't vote. As an american, my vote doesn't even matter anyway, and I'd rather not vote than be forced to choose the lesser of two evils that are going to mess things up anyway. I just leave that to the people who believe that their vote counts.

 

Exactly. Guns are used to hunt, but also to kill.

Sure, cameras might make it easier to catch someone who has done something wrong, but I could also see them creating a 'Minority Report' type of society wherein everyone caught on camera doing something they shouldn't be; smoking a joint, drinking a beer, smoking a cigarette within designated "smoke free" area, not picking up after their dog, etc. would be prosecuted because there is tape to prove them guilty. That'd be great for a money hungry economy...

Could you imagine how stuffed courts would be, and potentially prisons if this were the case?

What?

I was looking forward to your response to stinkfoot's question but you didn't answer it.

What exactly and who exactly is fucking "these things" up? We have a Prime Monster who's all for tough on crime policy and about to implement some hardcore laws, if that's what you meant.

 

But what about the right to secrecy for those who are responsible for, by not having a tax accredited, a further continuity of the recession (the main street way (huh?)). This so-called escaping bail-out losses because of sober betting is going to far. Not was making lazy money during the boom. And we'll never know.

 

pros and cons, but i believe the answer should be a no.

you should be teaching people not to commit crime, rather than forcing them to be more incognito about it.

though, even that raises more questions than answers.

 

They would help us find criminials and yeah

 

Best answer in this thread, and it applies to a lot of other subjects. Teach people to be good, intelligent people, rather than forcing them to become animals by restraining their rights as a whole.

 

Bullshit. We've got loads of cameras in the UK, and not only do they not serve to prevent crime, they mostly don't help to detect criminals because either the cameras are pointing the wrong way during the execution of a crime or the criminals confound the multi-million pound CCTV systems by, erm, putting their fucking hoods up.

IMO, cameras only serve to increase paranoia and diminish people's sense of civic pride and responsibility.

 

I don't think so. Too invasive to people's right to privacy. Meliai has a few good points. Having cameras watching city streets would help to identify an attacker, but would not aid in catching the criminal. If you ask me, street cameras are more of a police-state tactic.

I had a big problem just with cameras at intersections. In our city, they had an article in the Riverfront Times about how subsidaries were only supposed to put 250-300 cameras up as a trial period. Within the trial period, they put up more than 750 cameras in several counties/districts, already abusing their intersection camera policy. In my opinion, sure, they help prevent accidents at said intersections, but at the same time, people are speeding through intersections and/or slamming on their brakes to avoid getting a $100 traffic ticket in the mail causing more accidents at stoplights.

(Again, don't quote me on the numbers... or anything for that matter. Just facts that I read and remembered from a while back.)

This information does not reflect the views of Terrapin2190 or any friends on HipForums

j/k

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx6UtQlEEJ4"]YouTube - CCTV LEVELLERS

 

I used to live in one of the only US cities to have city-wide camera monitoring: Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was creepy and I hated it, despite not doing anything wrong. It didn't deter crime at all. Just made people pissed at the government.

 

The Amish are always up to no good...

 

haha. You would be amazed at how different the City of Lancaster is compared to the County of Lancaster. The crime rate is comparable to that of any mid-sized, blight-ridden East-Coast city. But, I still don't think the cameras are a good idea.

 

This would actually have me in favor of cameras being deployed so that more people can learn to be pissed at the government. As long as the ever-changing abstract concept of "too far" isn't reached... and an apathetic public will put up with anything. Apathy is dis-empowerment. Rage is passion- it can motivate and it can empower.

 

They often dress it up as something good, so people will believe that that's all it will be used for. *sigh*

It has been used in the UK for monitoring crime. I remember seeing something about it on the idiot box a few years ago. The cctv on the street was turned and positioned to watch a suspected dealers house.

Another case a few years ago, someone here in Australia, was watching cctv / webcam, in a seaside location in the UK. Some kids were having fun, not doing anything wrong, in the evening UK time. So, Aussie bloke called the UK police to alert them, that kids were up to no good. They investigated, the kids weren't doing anything wrong.

People might think it dries up the crime problem in that area, but it really moves it somewhere else.

 

That is a silly wannabe argument.

Women will not feel safer, if you want that teach them to defend themselves, and catch people who would harm them. Cameras don't make ANYONE safer, at all, they're just chunks of electronics on poles. All they do is let private business be monitored.

If you care about making women feel safer, go buy and hand out some pepper spray, or go teach some women how to kick some ass.




As for the whooooole idea: FUCK that.

 

The only reason your opinion wouldn't matter is because you say it doesn't and refuse to vote.

Be a part of the solution, because apathy is part of the problem.

By refusing to choose the lesser evil, you are automatically choosing the greater evil.

If you don't like the two evils, go start a movement, go stand on street corners with signs, go to a coffee shop and start telling people about politics, go organize events, and add your own non-evil choice.

But until you've put forward a non-evil choice, choose the lesser evil. Again, refusing to is automatically choosing the greater one. If people like you had all voted in 04 (I realize you weren't old enough) we wouldn't have had to deal with bush again, and we could have avoided much of our current predicament.

 

I'm pretty sure you're a criminal, and that there are a lot of people who think you should be found through the use of invasive big brotherly spy devices and prosecuted.

Have you ever inhaled a fly, and spat in public? Ever had to take a leak with no bathroom in sight? Ever smoked a joint? Ever cut across your mean neighbors lawn? Ever walked down the street (NOT driven) while technically intoxicated?

Cause all that, together, could lead to some serious time. Even one of those could, if you didn't happen to have the hundreds of dollars that bail could cost, in your pocket at the time of apprehension. Not to mention a nasty charge that will keep you from even being considered for pretty much all good jobs. And none of those crimes actually hurt anyone, in the first place.


Yes, I just tripple posted...... I thought they're an important three posts, though.

 

absolutely not.

 

That's what I'm saying.

I think that a lot of people on here probably want privacy to be able to continue smoking in peace, which I definitely support. If drugs, or at the very least soft drugs, were legal, would there be as much of a moral dilemna regarding cameras on the street?

Not in your home, obviously, but in the street.

I mean, the tech teacher at my High School told me once that we're all photographed 20 to 30 times a day anyway without even realizing it. Has anybody come knocking on your door?

Edit: Just to be clear, I totally understand the argument against it and why people don't want to be monitored, and there are definitely some very good points to be made to that end. However, I feel like if the bottom line is less crime, in particular less violent crime, that can't be a bad thing.