Chicago Crime Cams Nab Beer Drinker As Reminder of Big Brother System

[The Straight Story]

Chicago Crime Cams Nab Beer Drinker As Reminder of Big Brother System



Chicago police are constantly monitoring their multi-million dollar surveillance cameras to bust black people drinking beer in brown paper bags on the street, as part of a tactic to remind the city's ethnic neighborhood's that they live in a panopticon, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In contrast, San Francisco's budding network of 248 surveillance cameras are not monitored until after a crime has been reported.

Earl Gardner lounged on the street near his home just west of downtown Chicago, a 24-ounce can of Crazy Stallion beer in his hand.

A mile away, police Officer Al Garbauski slid a computer mouse to maneuver a camera that was perched a block from Gardner. Zooming in tight, Garbauski saw malt liquor meet mouth and sent an officer to arrest Gardner for drinking in public.

"I didn't appreciate it, not one bit," the 55-year-old Gardner said the other day. "The liquor store was closed when I got out (of custody)."

It might seem like a steep expenditure of police resources for a small-time arrest, but Chicago authorities say busts like this serve a higher purpose. They let everyone know that police are watching as the city's 560 anti-crime cameras look in on the toughest street corners, a strategy intended to deter small-time and big-time crime alike.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/09/chicago-crime-c.html

[annabanana]

1. Hundreds of them should start carrying soda in beer cans..

stick the can in a paperbag and bring lawyers for false arrest charges...

[deadmessengers]

3. Sounds like a "civil obedience" opportunity

Send hundreds of black men (because you know these cameras aren't busting beer drinkers in white neighborhoods) into the street drinking soda in brown paper bags. Watch the cops start chasing their own tails trying to arrest people for NOT breaking the law. The system will quickly become more expensive than it's worth.

[porphyrian]

7. The cameras aren't installed in most white neighborhoods.

They're all over the mostly-black South side though. They're high up on poles, like street lights, with blue police lights on them that flash (supposedly when someone is breaking a law near one, but I saw them going off all the time with nothing happening around them). I don't think cops bother with them unless it's a serious crime or they just have nothing better to do. Of course, that was two years ago, and there's no telling how things have changed in that time.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. you stole my idea! thank you for sharing it!

Everyone should be doing that.

Which reminds me of Monty Python. People are not wearing enough hats. Big hats. Face covering hats.

[Socal31]

2. I dont condone breaking the law,

but this sh*t has me scared. We are becoming more and more like our friends "across the pond".

[AndyTiedye]

6. I Don't Condone Vandalizing the Cameras

but you know it's gonna happen if they use them too much for stuff like this.

[porphyrian]

9. They're up on high poles. - n/t

[TomInTib]

5. "The liquor store was closed when I got out (of custody)."

Man, I know exactly how he feels.

[The Straight Story]

8. DUzy winner

:rofl: