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April 18, 2006

Big Brother, Big Schmother, Say Bushwickers

camerasA new NYPD program which aims to install over 500 surveillance cameras in over 250 locations around the city in the next year kicked off with little fanfare in Bushwick last week. The cameras were positioned at three consecutive intersections on Knickerbocker Avenue. While the New York Civil Liberties Union is raising objections, it sounds like residents of Bushwick are willing to trade a sliver of their freedom for a big uptick in safety. "This is like having 24-hour police protection, and we need it," said Alan Vera, a 27-year-old dispatcher at Bushwick Car Service on Knickerbocker Avenue. "The cameras are great because you never know when there' s gonna to be a shootout over here," said De los Santos. We'd be willing to make the same trade on Putnam and Grand.
Here's Looking at You [NY Post]
NYPD to Add 500 Cameras [Boston Globe]




Posted by Brownstoner at 8:54 AM | Comments (23)
Categories: Neighborhoods

Comments

Somehow I don't think that would solve the problem of Putnam and Grand. It might move it to Putnam and Downing, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what goes on there.

Posted by: Roberta at April 18, 2006 9:02 AM

I think that it's a great program. They should have cameras on Putnam and Grand as well as all of Fulton Street. Same for the trains too. NYCLU get lost! Their safety is not at risk. To them, it's simply an academic/legal exercise. To the rest of us who are actually residents of high crime areas, it's a matter of life and death. I say bring on Big Brother! The only ones who should fear the cameras are the criminals and not honest, law abiding citizens.

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 18, 2006 10:13 AM

Sure, the cameras are going to leap off the pole and save you from getting shot.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 10:28 AM

Putnam and Grand is not a dangerous area nowadays. Stop your whining.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 10:34 AM

I wonder how much those cameras cost? The police know whats going on in that area and continue to ignore the petty drug dealers.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 10:38 AM

Anon 10:28, it's called deterrence. It won't stop 100% of the crime because some criminals are too stupid to know any boundaries, e.g., bank, gas station, convenience store robbers, etc. But it will do a lot to deter those criminals who do not want to go up against video evidence. Moreover, it will certainly provide law enforcement with another tool to combat crime and hopefully achieve higher conviction and incarceration rates. To me, that's very good thing. It might not save me or anyone else from getting shot but it might help to get the perp off the street and thereby save someone else from a similar fate. How is that a bad thing?

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 18, 2006 11:08 AM

I hope that the video quality is good. Often, the images are grainy and barely discernible. Then again, these cameras are probably hi-tech. Hopefully it will help make the area safer.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 11:12 AM

if we want a 24 police presence, then that's what we should demand. Not cameras which provide little deterrence to against crime and certainly no protection in the middle of it. this is the lazy, easy way out of avoiding a real problem.

Posted by: mikelite at April 18, 2006 11:34 AM

24/7 police presence on every corner? Wake up buddy......

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 11:49 AM

i watched this go up a few weeks ago and wondered if it would do anything at all. was there a lot of crime going on right there (corner of starr & knickerbocker)? I walk by literally 2 a day and it just seems to be a hangout for bums. Some of the bums have seemd to shuffle off now maybe as a result of this. I don't know.

My question is why the police don't do something about the petty drug dealing. I get so disgusted watching deals go down in plain daylight at cars down my block. If everyone on my block knows about this the police have gotta know, right?

Posted by: bushwicker at April 18, 2006 12:30 PM

My cynical side says this is all about PR, nothing more. But, it can't hurt I guess...

Posted by: bushwicker at April 18, 2006 12:32 PM

There are more cops on foot patrol from Grand to Classon on Putnam. But the area won't change until the junkyard removed and the vacant homes re-occupied. I caught one couple wandering into new construction on Classon for a quickie (I recognized woman from her strolls).

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 1:49 PM

Where's Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson when you need them?!?!

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 18, 2006 2:12 PM

What's next? Remotely controlled machine guns to accompany the cameras? Is this going to happen in places like East New York and Lefferts now?

Posted by: Harry at April 18, 2006 3:22 PM

lol Brownbomber aren't you the one who lives in bs and gets all huffy everytime someone mentions how much crime is in the area lol...

Posted by: Anonymous at April 18, 2006 3:45 PM

I live in CH but I own in BS and SH so I'm partial to the entire area as a whole. I never deny the presence of crime in BS. Read my posts. However, being the conservative, elitist, Republican snob that I am, I have a 0% tolerance viewpoint on crime! LOL! ;-)

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 18, 2006 4:15 PM

I suspect that people who live in areas with high crime will welcome this development even if if gives others pause. Meanwhile, the 2nd wave of London subway bombers would never have been caught w/o all those identifying images of them taken by ccc.

Posted by: Anon at April 18, 2006 6:36 PM

And being the liberal/moderate, Democratic populist that I am, I also have no tolerance for crime. :-)

However, I wonder how effective those cameras will really be? In public places I have no problems with cameras. But when Big Brother puts RFID's in my clothes and furniture (as "inventory control"), I get very unhappy.

Posted by: Bx2Bklyn at April 19, 2006 11:55 AM

i live a block away and trust me, it's changed nothing.

Posted by: matt at April 19, 2006 4:10 PM

Seriously.. What can we do about Clason and Fulton. Cameras? Heck I will buy my own camera’s and paint the NYPD logo on there if that will help. Make some kind of neighborhood pact to bombard them with 411, 911 building department calls. If every resident makes it a point to complain at least once a day would they just get sick of us and clean it up?
There must be 600 building department code violations. I will call it in every day.. just make it some ritualistic thing.. wake up.. brew the coffee.. call the fire department.

Posted by: sick of putnam at April 21, 2006 8:34 AM

I think cameras in the street are an invasion of privacy!

Posted by: Anonymous at May 3, 2006 7:08 PM

yo, cameras are fucking stupid.They cant help anyone being raped,beatin,stabed or shot.Personally I think the cameras are for the goverments entertainment.

Posted by: sodapop at May 3, 2006 7:22 PM

no one can stop demestic violence cause everyone is n.y defiant!

Posted by: astoria at May 3, 2006 7:43 PM

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