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NY Blogger Criticized For Posting Photos of Teen Vandals
- stretchwithme 16y agoOnce again, the expectation of privacy while committing crimes is violated. oh, where will this end? Must we be accountable for every little thing we do? Of course, I'm joking. I applaud the posting. We had a similar thing near here where a package thief was recorded making her rounds. And the thieves among us commented how terrible it was that she was put on public display for her crimes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poMTVXcvGoo This actually foreshadows a future where petty crime becomes very difficult. Not only will there be more cameras, but software will improve to the point where it can recognize suspicious behavior and unrecognized persons and anticipate crime. Maybe even zoom in on it, call other mobile cameras to the scene to capture the action from multiple angles, track the criminal until law enforcement can get to them, alerting the neighbors to steer clear. And criminals will have their countermeasures. Burglaries may be performed by robots that fly into your garage as the door closes when you leave for the office.
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- stretchwithme 16y agoYeah, that's a good idea once motion has been detected by a computer. I just saw a Nova program about elevators where this guy was stuck in an elevator for 41 hours and there were paid humans on duty the entire time who had video they never looked at. Here's the story: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/trapped-in-an-elevator-captured-on-video/ I think the case was settled for $200,000. A motion detector would have more reliably sounded the alarm or some electronic sensor indicating the elevator was stuck. I have to wonder sometimes if people in old industries like this know what's going on.
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- pbiggar 16y ago> Must we be accountable for every little thing we do? Of course you're right that in general people must be held accountable for their crimes. However, it's somewhat different for children, who need and deserve some protection from the stupid things they do in their youth. I fully support the punishment of the children, and any and all legal ramifications they receive, but I don't believe they should be help accountable forever. I suspect that when these kids go for jobs in 10 years, the first result in Google will be the post with their names and their foolish youthful actions.
- bbuffone 16y ago"the first result in Google will be the post with their names and their foolish youthful actions..." Actually it won't be... Google works like the world does. If these kids were to do more valuable things with there time and be recognized for that, then these pages with fall in their ranking.
- pbiggar 16y agoPerhaps, but their attempts to do valuable things will be more difficult. They'll have a very hard time beating a viral video before they apply to college, and getting into college is going to be incredibly difficult once the selection committee Googles them.
- jimbokun 16y ago"They'll have a very hard time beating a viral video before they apply to college, and getting into college is going to be incredibly difficult once the selection committee Googles them." Are you saying that these kids should be admitted into college over kids that don't throw rocks at people and destroy other people's property?
- akgerber 16y agoThere are plenty of decent-quality state universities that have essentially mechanistic admissions by functions of GPA, class rank, & standardized test scores.
- yan 16y agoHm, that neighborhood is a few minutes from me. Some of the schools in that area are just foul.
- kmfrk 16y agoPeople in "my" country get sentences for posting security camera footage of robberies in their shops. I find that to be utterly ridiculous.
- meelash 16y agoMan, I wish those punks would do something like that in my neighborhood. 5 or 6 guys should get together with some nice, big sticks and go patrol the streets. Let some kid throw an egg at them and then go beat the crap out of him (meaning hit him once or twice in a non-vulnerable part of the body until he cries but not cause any actual physical harm). It will only take one kid, one year. Problem solved forever. Self defense.
- lhnn 16y agoI will be so bold as to say this: I doubt there are many places in Texas where this would have happened without those kids getting arrested, or barring that, being rightfully assaulted. When one attacks another's person and property, one should expect retribution.
- jamesbritt 16y ago" I doubt there are many places in Texas where this would have happened without those kids getting arrested," I think the problem here was that these kids are the children of local cops, who willingly turned a blind eye.
- patrickgzill 16y agoPeople in Texas are allowed to have guns. NY not so much. Just ONE adult with a shiny chrome .45, 1911 frame or shotgun would have stopped all of this in its tracks. EDIT to add: "An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." -- Robert A. Heinlein
- Locke1689 16y agoIn Baltimore anyone dumb enough to do that deserves the bullet they'll get in their head.
- Zak 16y agoAs a gun owner and advocate of gun rights, I feel the need to call this out as an example of an inappropriate time to use or display a firearm. Vandalism and misdemeanor battery are not cause to threaten someone with deadly force. To do so is highly irresponsible and usually criminal.
- patrickgzill 16y agoPlease have another look at the article and notice that they were throwing rocks in some cases, and caused the shutdown of a couple of buses due to damage, as well as throwing items at people not inside cars, including someone out with their child in a stroller. From the article: "An older man in his late 60′s was driving along Gerritsen Avenue when his car was hit by eggs, when he exited the vehicle he was pelted by dozens of eggs, rocks were thrown, chucks of brick, and someone tossed a hammer."
- callmeed 16y ago"My sons picture should not even be taken and put on this page with out my consent!" In an age when almost everyone has a camera and Internet access in their pocket, I'm amazed at how ignorant people still are regarding photo/privacy rights ... and I'm not one to have high expectations of society.
- tomjen3 16y agoThat is danish law btw. I can get a court order demanding that my picture be removed from facebook, if somebody uploads it against my will, and I can sue that person under Danish law.
- jrockway 16y agoI clicked through to the link where the people in the town meeting call him a pedophile. I really enjoy watching the town meeting -- 15 minutes of chaos and whining for no reason. People continue to amuse me. BTW, why is it OK to use "pedophile" as an insult? If you used other mental diseases as insults, it's considered offensive. ("You're a retard!") (Incidentally, I am not sure what insult to use for someone that thinks there's a link between wanting to have sex with undeveloped children and videotaping developed teenagers committing crimes.)
- ergo98 16y agoI clicked through to the link where the people in the town meeting call him a pedophile I would like to hear that someone was sued for slander for that. It's an outrageous accusation as a weak "Witch!" cry because their poorly raised, nit wit, addled youth are morons.
- jrockway 16y agoYeah, I don't understand why he even went to the meeting. Let them take him to court. Which they can't do, because he did nothing other than helping the police investigate a crime in progress. Their "pedophile" is my "model citizen", and I think most people are on my side :)
- electromagnetic 16y agoI suppose the good response would be "The term is pederasty, you retard!" I suppose the best response possible would be to be waiting with predrafted legal papers for slander and ask "Sir what is your name?" when they're forced to respond simply fill out their name and say "Consider yourself served".
- bhousel 16y agoI actually work with the NYC Law Department's juvenile crimes division. They normally would prosecute a case like this, and yes, their prosecutors are savvy enough to check the kids' Facebook pages and use it as evidence. Of course if the police don't arrest them, the process won't start, so bringing pressure on the police through the blog and the press might get things started so they can prosecute the teens.
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- asnyder 16y agoI live under the 61st precinct. WORST precinct ever. Internal affairs should be all over that precinct. They don't give a damn. The best way to keep your crime stats low is to refuse to respond to any calls or file any reports.
- kleiba 16y agoMinor remark on the quote at the end of the article: Screenshots were available publicly therefore submitted to the public domain. Again with the public domain? Of course that's not what the whole article is about, but I'm astonished how this kind of reasoning seems to have manifested itself.
- petercooper 16y agoIt's not only OK to record people committing offences, it's an obligation in a modern society where all citizens should be encouraged to take an interest in the safety of their communities (without issuing summary judgments or punishments, of course). We do not deserve to be constantly "monitored" but once you break the laws and rules of a community, you waive a little of your liberty. People who dig their heads in the sand and ignore minor crime while "leaving to the police" are screwing over their communities with their indifference. And teenagers? That's especially when people should get involved - kids who never learn what the boundaries are become shitty adults.
- clr 16y agoYou have to understand the neighborhood in which this happens. This blogger has been fighting a losing battle for years now. The community is so incredibly insular that instead of Dave being a hero for what he does, he's considered to be, well, you saw the footage from the community meeting (and you don't know what he had to do to even get that far, they tried to ban him from those too when he first started, even though he's a resident and entitled to be there). Gerritsen Beach is its own place. I'm not excusing it, but it explains so much.
- bingaman 16y agoThis might be slightly off topic, but the first thing I thought was that if they were black they would have been arrested, guaranteed.