CA Court Rules Cyber Cafe Cameras Constitutional

mbstone writes: "A California appellate court has upheld [PDF link], 2-1, a Garden Grove, California ordinance requiring so-called 'cyber cafes' to impose a curfew, hire security guards, and install video surveillance cameras capable of identifying patrons. The opinion is a must-read; the dissenting judge called the law 'Orwellian,' and pointed out that 'even the government of Malaysia' was 'too ashamed to enforce' a similar proposal." It appears that the ordinances were enacted in part due to crime involving "gang activity" and to curtail school-children from using the facilities during school hours (unless accompanied by a guardian).

Comments

Insanity

[Thomas A. Anderson]

This is legislation designed to make up for incompetent busniess owners.

I own and run a gaming center and have zero problems with students skipping class and violence in or near the store. How?

1) I'm only open when the high school is closed. This means I open at 3pm on weekdays (noon on weekends and holidays). This may sound like a big deal, but it's not - 85% of my business comes from local high and jr. high schools (and most of the other are adults who work during the day).

2) I reserve the right to throw anybody out of the store I want. And I do, but only when someone gets out of hand (forgets that it's just a game). I set a tone of "have fun and be respectful" and my customers pick up on this.

No, I'm not in southern cal where there are more gangs, but still - this is not rocket science.

just my experience.