Monday, March 31, 2008
"Cops not cameras"
In mid-February,
I said that a 2010 mayoral candidate would do well to link New Orleans'
dissatisfaction with the violent crime rate to its inevitable frustrations with the traffic cameras (which will
go into action tomorrow):
I suspect [Councilmember Fielkow] is gearing up to run a smiling campaign for mayor in 2010. A rival candidate could criticize and exploit Arnie's squishiness on holding city leaders accountable for the violent crime rate, while simultaneously denouncing the intrusive and annoying security/traffic cameras that Fielkow supports.
"We need to fight crime through community policing, not big brother surveillance"... could be the line, or something like that.
Better yet--
"Cops Not Cameras", as these
protesters in Lafayette are saying.
Don't underestimate the political potency of the cops/camera linkage in the important months and years ahead.
---
Update: Related posts at
Suspect Device and
Ethan Brown.
Labels: crime, Elections and Campaigns
5 Comments:
I think that you and I should make it our personal duty to make sure that Mr Rogers does not parlay one extremely ineffectual term as councilman into a mayorship.
I'm definitely with you on the "Cops Not Cameras" mantra. Politicians will do anything to distract from police manpower issues -- and the cameras are all about revenue anyway.
As happens more than either of us would admit, Owen and I completely agree.
We need to separate crime cameras from traffic cameras. Traffic cameras are all about revenue, crime cameras are all about pretending to care...both offensive, just in very different ways.
Actually, I'd recommend that the issues be linked and conflated for political purposes.
