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California Mayors Demand Surveillance Cams On Crime-Ridden Highways (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on from the improved-security dept.

An anonymous reader shares an Ars Technica report: The 28 shootings along a 10-mile stretch of San Francisco-area highway over the past six months have led mayors of the adjacent cities to declare that these "murderous activities" have reached "crisis proportions." Four people have been killed and dozens injured. These five mayors want California Gov. Jerry Brown to fund surveillance cameras along all the on and off ramps of Interstate 80 and Highway 4 along the cities of El Cerrito, Hercules, Richmond, San Pablo, and Pinole.

5 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. How about by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Withholding federal funding for "sanctuary cities"?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:How about by whoever57 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're confusing these East Bay cities with San Francisco.

      No, the confusion is between San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area. These cities are certainly in the SF Bay Area.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  2. How is this news for nerds stuff that matters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I see no problem with surveillance cameras on public roads. There is no expectation of privacy there, and there's a legitimate reason for the cameras to be there. Lots of highways have cameras, if nothing else to monitor road conditions. This isn't news for nerds, stuff that matters. It's a non-issue.

  3. Re:The tried and true "whack-a-mole" strategy by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Putting cameras on I-80 may deter shootings on the highway but I'm guessing the bullets will start pop-pop-popping up somewhere else.

    Most crime is opportunistic, not planned. If you remove the opportunity, you prevent the crime. There is no "law of conservation of crime", so better deterrence does not cause a fixed amount of crime to shift to other areas. The opposite is true: Lower crime in one area allows resources to be refocused in other areas, and lower crime leads to a positive feedback loop of economic recovery, more jobs, and stronger communities, in both the immediate area, and in surrounding neighborhoods.

  4. Your gov't is not my gov't by BlytheBowman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your country probaly dosen't have a vast gulag prison system, over 2 million people behind bars, or police that dress in heavy body armor, carry big and powerful guns, and burst in homes (no knock) and kill children because they raided the wrong house two doors down from the person growing pot or they were acting on an anonymous "tip". I don't trust the US gov't enough for me to believe they should have these kinds of toys.