Is Big Brother Really Preventing Crime?

I love it!! Bravo NYPD!!! I eagerly await their arrival all along Myrtle, Fulton, Putnam and Classon in FG/CH/BS. It's about public safety and I'm ecstatic that the city is taking this much needed measure. I'm sure the civil libertarians will be up in arms but I hope they focus their efforts on another battle that is more closely aligned with public opinion. Presumably, most law abiding citizens would not mind sacrificing some privacy for some extra safety. However, if you're privacy zealot, a criminal or someone who shares the belief that crime is a necessary form of income redistribution, then you're probably against it.

I know, simplistic analysis (partly tongue in cheek)! But I bet if you poll the residents of high crime areas, most of which are minority communities, they will overwhelmingly be in support of the program since they are more often then not the victims of crime.

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 25, 2006 11:49 AM

Anon, aka "Paranoid Civil Libertarian Freak/Whack Job", please cut the BS! When public safety is at risk, most New Yorkers couldn't care less about gov't monitoring, Big Brother or 1984. For the most part, New Yorkers are law abiding and thus have nothing to hide. Lose the inflated sense of self-importance. Like the rest of us, you're a damn nobody and Uncle Sam doesn't give a rat's ass about you, let alone what you're doing in public spaces.

As for me, I'm not afraid of our gov't but I am afraid of having my children abducted or some asshole putting a 357 magnum to my head and blowing my head off simply because he wants my car, watch or money. Are you going to break the awful news to my wife and children and tell them that their husband and father won't be coming home today but "his privacy was protected to the very end"? Criminals belong behind bars and not on the streets. If surveillance cameras make this more possible than not then I'm strongly in favor of the measure, albeit somewhat "intrusive". My inalienable right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" trumps a criminal's right to roam the street undetected, with impunity and free to victimize honest hardworking folks. And to echo a previous poster's comment, don't forget the pivotal role that cameras played in the terrorist bombing cases in London and Madrid.

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 25, 2006 9:21 PM

Who said anything about cops being holed up in a room watching video screens? Ever heard of computer hardware/software and recorded video tapes and discs. Further, who ever said that beat cops and cameras are mutually exclusive? Can't they be used jointly? Who's going to pay to put a cop on every corner 24/7 and do we even have enough police officers? Are we simply dealing with fantasy here?

And why the big fuss over being subject to monitoring devices? Almost every single school, office building (public or private) and place of business in New York City relies on video camera surveillance as a security tool. This is nothing new. The gov't is not putting cameras into our homes!

Further, the city has installed traffic cameras at numerous intersections in New York to capture red light violators. So are you telling me that it's okay for the city to install cameras to raise revenue but it's not okay to install cameras to protect taxpayers from street crime?

Camera surveillance is merely a complementary tool that will ASSIST law enforcement in doing a MORE effective job. Why? Because (a) its a deterrent and (b) in the event that something terrible happens it will provide evidence which can be used to arrest and prosecute the perp.

"You guys are all crazy. This is the government watching you, keeping tabs of where you go and who you visit. If we allow this to go ahead, there could be cameras everywhere. 1984, anyone? Is this a world you really want to live in?"

You must love Bush because given your desperate and exclusive reliance on scare tactics you are clearly a student of the game. Perhaps you learned at the master's feet?

I highly suggest that some of you critics descend from your ivory towers and take an "academic" stroll to some of the tougher parts of Brooklyn at night and let's see if you're singing the same tune after spending the night in the ICU at Kings County Hospital. Then you'd have some good old fashioned practical experience to help shape your position. If you're too frighten to do that, and I bet that you are, you should read some of the horror stories about crime in Brooklyn at www.brooklynian.com. I can employ scare tactics too! LOL!

I'm sorry to say it but SOME of you liberals disgust me, i.e., no death penalty; no three strikes and you're out rule; no mandatory sentences; no stiffer penalty for gang related crimes, etc. Though I admire your commitment on social issues, you're just too soft on crime and out of sync with the American mainstream. A pity...

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 26, 2006 1:30 PM

Why am I a traitor? Is it because I'm African-American and I don't identify, pity nor support the criminal element in our community or have compassion for the multitude of us who despite having a world of opportunity before us would rather engage in anti-social, pathological behavior that borders on self-annihilation? Is that really your argument? Is this acceptance some basic requirement to being "black"? Is this why we show such high tolerance for crime in our communities despite the fact that the streets are flowing with the blood of our men and women and so many of us are incarcerated in state and federal penitentiaries? Is this what is meant by "keeping it real"?

Well then it's obvious that I have a higher opinion of our people then you do. Why do we feel the necessity to lower the bar at every opportunity for black folks but then expect everyone to treat us as equal? You can't have it both ways. Given our station in American society (at the rock bottom) we should be doing the exact opposite by raising the bar and not lowering our standards, expectations and goals.

And for your information, I don't think that I'm exceptional because I'm not full of myself. To the contrary, I'm quite average. Perhaps you think you are exceptional thus the low expectations that you have for our people. If anything you're the traitor, not me. You and the other race baiters are leading poor black folks on a wild goose chase that will not produce the results they so desperately seek. Perhaps you are benefiting from a cottage industry that incapacitate black folks while at the same time aims to deliver them from poverty and disenfranchisement. I don't know. What I do know is that it's about time that we start telling poor black folks the truth. There is no grand master white puppeteer manipulating black lives and entrenching them in a life of poverty, hopelessness and despair. That is a outright lie concocted to assuage the guilt of liberal whites and placate scapegoating blacks who need an explanation, other than themselves, for their miserable plight. Why not tell them the truth? Why not tell them that the only way for us to get ahead is through education, hard work, industry, respecting the rule of law, promoting a strong black family and instilling proper values into our children. There is no short cut, no hand out and certainly no quick solution. You seem educated, Anon. You know the truth but you don't share it with thouse who need it the most. You know that we cannot rely on the government or the benevolence of others to solve our problems yet people like you insist on telling them otherwise. Why?

White folks are not our enemy. They have enough problems of their own and are quite frankly more concerned with their own families, jobs and lives then with "holding the black man down." Don't kid yourself, we are not a threat to them. We're not even on the radar. The mental slavery that currently afflicts us is home grown and you are simply a perpetuating agent.

Anon, I'm happy that I'm not like you. I don't make excuses for the worst of us simply to feel better about myself. In life, you get what you put in. Period. I don't give whites credit for my success and I certainly don't blame them for my failures. All I can do is work hard to support my family, respect, love and support my wife, raise my children with solid family values and be a positive influence in my community. If all of us stressed the same then black people would be far better off today.

Now I don't deny the historical truths of slavery, racism and discrimination in this country. It was ugly and remains ugly to this very day. However, the black family, black culture and black community is imploding from within and we are doing more damage to ourselves today then racism could had ever inflicted.

Yes, it's indeed hard for many but what are we supposed to do? Roll over and die? Where's the fighting spirit that help abolish slavery, squash Jim Crow, and later produced the Civil Rights Movement and some of our greatest leaders? We are a people born of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, etc. Yet we are not giving ourselves a fighting chance today. I ask you, is it possible to lower our standards any further? No one is turning their back on black America but perahps we are turning our back on ourselves.

So Anon, please don't ever call me a traitor again. You don't know me. I have more love for black folks then you could ever comprehend.....

Posted by: BrownBomber at April 26, 2006 5:10 PM

Yes, low expectation and underachievement is a huge problem in the black community but we as a group are unwilling to address this issue head on or in a public forum. And you are also correct in your assessment that African-Americans are being leapfrogged by our brethrens from the Caribbean and Africa. It's a really a cultural thing that's extremely complicated but worth exploring.

What upsets me more than anything is the utter refusal of the black community to deal with these issues in any meaningful way that can produce tangible results. Why? Because it will require us to look into the mirror and makes some very painful admissions. Our extreme irrational defensiveness precludes us from engaging in any meaningful dialogue as anyone who is white that asserts black complicity or culpability is a racist and anyone black who cites the same is clearly an "Uncle Tom" with a hidden agenda.

Someday, hopefully sooner than later, I think this internal audit of our community will happen. The Million Man March with it's focus on black personal responsibility and atonement was a step in the right direction but ultimately failed in this endeavor. People marched, listened to speeches, made promises to return to their respective communities to assist in spearheading a new black renaissance movement but in the end nothing sustainable ever came to fruition.

People must accept the fact that self-analysis will be a very painful and divisive exercise. It will be a difficult process laced with internal strife and unfair accusations. But no matter how painful it may be, we owe it to ourselves, our community and future generations to fix the myriad of issues that are plaguing our community.

I personally think that we need to develop a comprehensive strategy aimed at changing the culture in the black community because the best of our culture is being high jacked by the worst. IMO, you can put the best teachers, books, computers and educational resources in black schools but if that child leaves school and returns home to a family structure or community that embodies a culture that doesn't value education then it's all for naught.

In the black community, attitude and culture must be changed in order to break the cycle of poverty and despair. The government or legislative measures can't help us in this regard. The changes must come from within…..

Posted by: BrownBomber at May 1, 2006 8:45 AM