Comments on: Who are They Really Surveilling?

By: Ave.MariaLewis

Ave.MariaLewis — Fri, 02 May 2014 04:09:33 +0000

I think you brought up some really good points. I’ve read an article on this topic and I don’t think it will do any good for civilians. I also think about who is going to be looking at the cameras and how they will go about presenting the evidence in court. And to be honest we know the cameras will only be used as evidence in communities of color to get catch illegal drug busts and any other actions that can be tied to breaking the law. I would like to see how this story continues to develop in Lake Placid.

By: Chelsey

Chelsey — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 21:03:45 +0000

Tatiana, I definitely understand and agree with the points that you are making; but, I also wonder if these cameras could be used as evidence that police officers are spending more time monitoring African Americans than White people. Since the officers would have the cameras on their uniform at all times, couldn’t the footage be used to investigate what group of people the officer has been focusing on? I definitely agree that this could lead to more mass incarceration of Black people, and that it could be used to “bust” more Black people on the streets. But, if someone took the initiative to look into the footage, maybe these cameras could stop police officers from targeting Black people in the future.

By: rachelbrookland

rachelbrookland — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 18:56:37 +0000

You raise a really interesting point that I would have never thought about myself. In theory, this does sound like it is a great idea but it will be very difficult to tell who they are actually watching, like you said. I agree with you completely that this could end up just causing an even greater increase of mass incarceration. As lauren stated in her comment, I also am curious to see how this would affect major cities. It will be very interesting to see what this ends up doing in Lake Placid Florida.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 03:03:29 +0000

This is a really interesting post and I think it shows colorblind ideology. The police force is able to say that they are placing the cameras to watch the police officers and keep track of their encounters, when really, like you said, they could be looking into what civilians are doing, especially African Americans. I wonder what would happen if this was employed in a major city like New York or Philadelphia. I wonder if their would be more backlash from the community and people would realize the potential racism behind these cameras.