A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
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Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#2This is selective enforcement, not equality under the law.
I understand the load police tend to be under, but I really wish they would have some lottery enforcement style that grabbed one random instance of "common" crime like this at a time, and went whole-hog with it. They do it for speeding, so they can make a bit of money with fines, and have the hope of finding connected crimes; what's different about theft like this that they can't do the same?
But back to the all-seeing eyes, I'd far, FAR rather have surveillance footage in the hands of individually distributed private entities, than centralized and auto-analyzing anybody for behavioral pre-crime indicators. If your local McDonald's truly is just its own independent operator storing the footage, then IMO it can still be generally considered "lost in the crowd".
It's only when automatically aggregated and its contents cataloged that stuff like this truly becomes dangerous.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#3This is selective enforcement, not equality under the law. I understand the load police tend to be under, but I really wish they would have some lottery enforcement style that grabbed one random instance of "common" crime like this at a time, and went whole-hog with it. They do it for speeding, so they can make a bit of money with fines, and have the hope of finding connected crimes; what's different about theft like…
Would you consider the idea that if someone has murdered, they are more likely to murder again (compared to those who never have) an example of "pre-crime"?
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#4This is selective enforcement, not equality under the law. I understand the load police tend to be under, but I really wish they would have some lottery enforcement style that grabbed one random instance of "common" crime like this at a time, and went whole-hog with it. They do it for speeding, so they can make a bit of money with fines, and have the hope of finding connected crimes; what's different about theft like…
Would you consider the idea that if someone has murdered, they are more likely to murder again (compared to those who never have) an example of "pre-crime"?
No.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#5The difficulty of enforcing the law is actually a useful part of our overall system because it provides a check-and-balance against the overeager enforcement of bad laws. Imagine a world where ubiquitous automated cameras sent you a ticket every time you jaywalked, or if your car automatically reported you every time you exceeded the speed limit. Yes, it becomes annoying when criminals get away with things they really should not be able to get away with (like the theft in this article) but even in situations like that there are grey areas, like stealing a loaf of bread to feed your family (not the case here, but it does happen). That the law does not get enforced with 100% efficiency can be a feature as long as you don't go too far towards the other extreme.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#6The difficulty of enforcing the law is actually a useful part of our overall system because it provides a check-and-balance against the overeager enforcement of bad laws. Imagine a world where ubiquitous automated cameras sent you a ticket every time you jaywalked, or if your car automatically reported you every time you exceeded the speed limit. Yes, it becomes annoying when criminals get away with things they reall…
I don't totally agree with that.
A law should either be enforced close to 100% of the time (with exceptions at the discretion of a court), or 0% of the time (ie. the law should not exist).
If jay walking, pot smoking, or anti-sodemy laws are not really enforced, to me that's a sign that they should be taken off the books. In an over-legislated society, we should focus on having strong core legislations that everyone agrees with.
Crimes like murder and rape, on the other hand, should be enforced as close to 100% of the time as possible.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#7An Uber driver told me about the time he picked up a credit-card thief. The guy just asked to be driven around (in his SUV) from one side of New York to the other. As the fare ended, he'd hail the driver with a new credit card and start a new one. At one point, he stopped at a house and walked out with a new stack of cards.
The driver [EDIT: said he] was prohibited, by law, from kicking the passenger out mid-trip. Right afterwards, he went to the police station and tried to report the crime. He was told he was free to report it, but it was a low-priority crime that was unlikely to get investigated.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#8The difficulty of enforcing the law is actually a useful part of our overall system because it provides a check-and-balance against the overeager enforcement of bad laws. Imagine a world where ubiquitous automated cameras sent you a ticket every time you jaywalked, or if your car automatically reported you every time you exceeded the speed limit. Yes, it becomes annoying when criminals get away with things they reall…
I don't totally agree with that. A law should either be enforced close to 100% of the time (with exceptions at the discretion of a court), or 0% of the time (ie. the law should not exist). If jay walking, pot smoking, or anti-sodemy laws are not really enforced, to me that's a sign that they should be taken off the books. In an over-legislated society, we should focus on having strong core legislations that everyone…
In a perfect world I would agree with you. But we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a world where laws are made by fallible humans, and sometimes they get it wrong. Inefficiency is a useful mechanism to protect us from legislative foibles.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#9Its funny how the Left (i.e. the NYT) suddenly realizes, now that their gang isn't in power, that maybe mass surveillance wasn't such a good idea after all.
Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
#10An Uber driver told me about the time he picked up a credit-card thief. The guy just asked to be driven around (in his SUV) from one side of New York to the other. As the fare ended, he'd hail the driver with a new credit card and start a new one. At one point, he stopped at a house and walked out with a new stack of cards. The driver [EDIT: said he] was prohibited, by law, from kicking the passenger out mid-trip. Ri…
> The driver was prohibited, by law, from kicking the passenger out mid-trip
That would really surprise me. And he certainly could have declined the subsequent hailings.