Comment on a colleague’s work #1

This is in response to "Fess Up, Y'all Know Govt Matters" blog posted on April 6, 2010. I honestly believe you are right about having Democrats run our state again. Rick Perry is making us look foolish for just saying no to something that Washington and OUR President tells us. He wouldn't feel that way if one of his buddies was in office or even if he was in Washington or office. Well I just say no to Perry. It is time for him to just let someone else take the role as governor. And not make us look like ignorant rednecks.

Keeping a closer eye on crime in downtown Austin

The Austin Police Department is going through some issues debating whether or not to install security cameras in high-crime areas around the downtown area. The main issue being how long the recorded video should be kept, due to the fact that the video will be available for public view and some might want to use the video for there own civil law suits or just to treat there curiosity.

I believe cameras should be allowed in these high-crime areas regardless of how people feel about the privacy being intruded. There safety should be there number one concern, that’s the entire reason the police department was founded was to protect and serve. As for the videos being used for public viewing, I believe we have a right to see what’s being video taped as well as what’s going on in our neighborhoods. Whether or not the videos should be used for civil lawsuits is completely up to the person pressing the charges. It wouldn’t be any different if the person pressing the charges were to video tape it and use that in there lawsuit. They’ve already tried something similar to this back in 2007 when they used cameras to catch people who ran red lights! People complained about how it was an invasion of privacy but how is it any different than if there was a cop sitting at that light instead of a camera.