Comments about ‘Cameras purge and relocate crime’

So let's get this straight.

The cameras have not beaten crime, they have just pushed it out of an open park into the side streets of neighboring communities? And this, you say, is a positive result?

And then...

"As for those who wonder if police use of surveillance cameras may be a slippery slope toward trading freedoms for security, we feel that's over-thinking the issue."

Of course, you offer no rebuttal of that concern, only a casual dismissal. After all, if you have nothing to hide and all that, right? Great.

Let's put cameras in your house first.

I agree, Pioneer Park needed help; it was a dangerous area to even be around. We frequently eat at Iggy's and the Rio Grande restaurants but do not enjoy the walk to get there from downtown.

Clean up the area but don't just relocate the problem. There must be a solution for the homeless and drug traffic?

The legislature has ignored law enforcement for far too long. These cameras are an inadequate substitute for the resources that law enforcement really needs to eliminate crime.

to sugarhouse..duh...fairmont park area. the illegals have taken all their job options and these are suppose to be citizens of this country yet get relegated to the side of the curb. true civil servants recognize this and need to get those college age students out their as this is life and not always in a book! not all want to be homeless and the solutions are workable if the leaders of these so called academic institutions would not get so complacent in finding them.

I agree that we have traded our freedoms for cameras, but this is what attornies and the people of Utah seem to want. Big Brother is out there and it is getting worse and worse as the popultion grows.

I'll reserve any praise for cops re Pioneer Park until those same cops allow their kids to run barefoot throughout the park.

Sigh. Once again: decriminalize most drugs; shift funds to treatment and prevention awau from "law" enforcement. Will there be more junkies? Yes, probably. Studies in other countries showed a spike of five to 10 percent when drugs were decriminalized. Will there be less dealers and drug-related violence? Yes, signficantly. Scarcity of supply engenders a vigorous defense of territory, and removing the profit margin completely removes the motivation to deal. Is it possible to keep people from using unhealthy--but legal--substances? Yes of course it is, and for proof you need only look to the step decline in rates of tobacco use over the past 20 years.

California will lead the charge because they're out of money for locking people up, and when the rest of the country sees that society doesn't crumble when pot-heads are allowed to eat Twinkies and play video games unmolested, other municipalities will follow suit.

Man I love watching dinosaurs become extinct. And Dick Nixon's DEA-asaurus is one odious, wasteful thunder lizard.

. . . more cameras.

I freely consent to having my boring, mundane life recorded for posterity if it reduces opportunity for criminals to take over the city.

I have nothing to hide.

Let's chase these ne-er do wells from pillar to post until they leave Utah altogether, or learn to do well. Keep up the pressure.

The residents in that area have had enough of these sorry wretches. Make it easier for them to change their lives than to continue to lie, steal, sponge, and deal in death.

Government video cameras are dangerous for two reasons. (1) They change the nature of policing by taking power away from citizens, and (2) they restrict or eliminate the possibility for alone time out of doors.

(1) Video surveillance radically strengthens the power of the state. Without cameras, victims or nearby people who empathize with victims are the ones who report crimes. This is an incredibly important natural safeguard on police power, because people can choose to not report violations of unjust laws. This is why black people could sometimes escape slavery, unions could organize, and people today can smoke marijuana without going to prison. Video cameras destroy this natural safeguard. When the government records all activities outside of the home, the state can pick and choose which crimes it wants to go after, and it can easily prosecute innocent people who normally would have been protected by their fellow citizens.