NYPD installing skywatch patrol tower in Harlem?

[shance]

Conditioning Americans for the internment camps?

Wonder if this hits you like a propaganda piece as well. The Harlem residents are "oh so happy" to have their safe patrol tower? Don't think so.....


First they came for the Muslims.......


http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=64500

The NYPD has installed a patrol tower in a Harlem neighborhood in an effort to cut crime in the high-risk neighborhood.

The two-story booth tower, called Sky Watch, gives the officer sitting inside a better vantage point from which to monitor the area. Officers in the booth have access to a spotlight, sensors, and four cameras. The tower is portable and can be moved to the areas that need it most.

Residents in Harlem say they like the idea, though some wonder if the appearance of Sky Watch has anything to do with the two new luxury condos built on a nearby corner.

"There was crime around here before and they never had it. Now all these expensive buildings, it's true,” said one area resident. “But actually it's good though, because then I used to see a lot of crowd here and sometimes I was scared to pass here, but guess what, that doesn't happen anymore. It’s a kind of deterrence and it's good."

Police say the Harlem tower was placed there to combat a rise in murders.

[Rex]

1. Law enforcement is authoritarian in nature. If no one has control

over the entities in charge, they will become Big Brother. It is in the nature of population control.

[shance]

2. So what propels "law enforcement"? Abuse of power? Obsession to control?

Whats the core issue that drives this need to have absolute control over everyone?

Don't these people have enough to do?

[Rex]

3. Order.

They see the need to keep people 'in line'. Some of them cannot handle the power. Kinda like politicians and generals. They are put into positions with the potential of causing systematic abuse. It has been like this for over 50 years now in America.

Law enforcement people will go out of their way to do what they think is right. Even if they are wrong.

[The2ndWheel]

13. Entropy

Or the need for order, like the post above says. It's the completely natural thing for civilization to do. That's why it's going to be such an issue in the 21st century. Not that it hasn't been a problem in many societies before, but today we have the technological ability, and very rational reasons, to do all this stuff in an unforced way. We won't need a Bush-esque administration. It will come from the need for control, and not just by law enforcement. We've been attemptng to take chance out of life for thousands of years. That, to me, is what drives us. Plus our entire lives are becoming more categorized, calculated, and numbered every day.

[shance]

15. What defines "order"? Certainly the laws of nature have been greatly

manipulated by man's abuse.

However, natural order doesn't come from oppression and abuse. It will only cause more trauma and fear which will create more chaos and misguided abuse and violence.

[The2ndWheel]

18. Who defines might be the better question

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct04/Jensen-Draffan1009.htm

[Jcrowley]

4. Panopticon

on the streets of your town.

[Lautremont]

5. That thing looks totally creepy.

[annabanana]

6. Imagine this thing

even with your bedroom window:

[Jose Diablo]

16. It won't last

there is no way to get donuts and coffee once in position.

[Jose Diablo]

7. I don't know about anyone else

but I wouldn't want to be a cop sitting in a chair on a tower in Harlem. The tower is only 2 stories tall? That would be like a clown sitting in a chair over a tank of water with a bullseye target next to the chair. Those guys in Harlem can probably slam dunk a ball in a basket if its only 2 stories up.

Do the people in Harlem feel the same about cops in general as in say the city of angels?

Then there is the problem of getting up into the tower. Will the cops be expected to climb an exposed ladder to get into position to observe? I doubt it has an armor covered elevator.

This sounds like a bad idea just for the safety of the police. If I was a cop, I'd prefer to have both feet firmly on the ground or in a tub of hot water with epsom salt.

edit: the tower looks like it could be tipped over pretty easy.

[hsher]

8. Why did they choose Harlem?

Everyone knows this coming revolution's going to come from ALL OVER.
Not just where the black people are.

As far as I'm concerned, Albuquerque's the epicenter because I live here. I'm going to bring my piece of it from exactly where the F I am.

[shance]

14. Don't think Beverly Hills would be so hip to it, do you?

Predators begin at the weakest most vulnerable places and move up from there.

Don't think Harlem has much representation on Capitol Hill......

[hsher]

9. " It’s a kind of deterrence and it's good."

He don't know New York very well, do he? :evilgrin:

The NY-ers *I* know and recognize will twist that thing into a fucking pretzel and have it up his momma's ass by sundown tomorrow.

Deter these nuts. (Edited to add) New York is something no one can deter.

[951-Riverside]

10. ...Just what we need, some NYPD cop looking in windows and jerking off

...Notice the windows are tinted :D

[Jose Diablo]

12. Well, it's got cameras so he could also take picture so all of them can

choak the chicken back at the station.

Edit: Sorry mam, the pictures in the camera are part of an ongoing police investigation and are not subject to citizen review.

Woman- But why has the same tower been placed outside my bedroom window every night for the last 3 weeks?

Policeman at desk- I cannot answer that qustion mam, it's part of police business.

Sounds like a Vargas moment.

[spillthebeans]

11. Reminds me of a siege tower

[lithiumbomb]

17. seen those many times

Simply a tower so an officer can see a distance down the street, and it's portable. It's on a scissor lift on a trailer. Usually I see them in large parking lots so someone can see across the lot. Also, the windows are tinted. So is someone in there? Or not? You don't know.

[shance]

19. Really? Where specifically have you seen such prison like towers?

In what cities and when?

[Richard Steele]

22. I'd really like to hear the answer to that question as well.

But I'm not holding my breath, KnowhutImean?

[shance]

23. Yayus I do.

;)

[windbreeze]

20. "Residents in Harlem say they like the idea"......

sure they do...and this is exactly how such things become standard practice...kinda like all those cameras now positioned in store parking lots....I don't like them...but, for those who are scared of their own shadow, they are great...then pretty soon, NO ONE has a choice, because these things were met with such great appreciation by the few...

The powers that be, know exactly what they are doing, introduce shit like this, a little at a time, in a "dangerous" area for the masses who want someone else to keep them safe...remind me once again, please....those who would sacrifice liberty for the sake of safety, deserve neither liberty NOR safety...no thanks...I would not want to see this thing or anything like it, in my neighborhood...

Wake the hell up America, wake the hell up...
windbreeze

[bigriver]

21. What the FUCK is with this paranoia?!

Get a fucking hold of yourselves, people.

[Kellyiswise]

24. i would welcome a tower in Philadelphia. I think the residents are really

happy to have this added measure of security. I think they are more outraged by police brutality than having this tower in place.

[bigriver]

25. I think there is a serious disconnect

between people who sit comfortably in their low crime suburban houses posting about their police state paranoia and people WHO ACTUALLY LIVE IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS and understands the need for better policing and better security.

[windbreeze]

26. How about....

people start helping take care of themselves? and their neighborhoods?? what happened to block watches...or neighborhood watch organizations...?? How many stories have we read about people who decided they'd had enough and organized their neighbors to HELP the police keep watch??? How they cleaned up their areas, and made them safe and livable again through their own determination/actions/efforts...? How they made it so rough for the bad guys that they left....I guess nowadays people are too busy to be bothered...they want someone else to do it for them, right? Perhaps they have the, it's not my problem mindset? But if it's your neighborhood being trashed, and you watched it happen, it IS your problem isn't it??? and by doing nothing to stop it, wouldn't you consider part of the responsibility for the degradation was yours???....

Crime doesn't just happen in cities...it happens in suburban/rural areas also...and I am awful damned sorry...call it "police state paranoia" all you want.....but this IS just the way you end up being permanently baby sat by "big brother", and have him watch over you 24 hours a day...it happens, stealth like, a little at a time.....hell, you actually might be glad he's there, until all of a sudden you realize that what you welcomed at first, has become invasive and uncomfortable...but by then it's a far bigger fight to reverse the situation...I still wouldn't want to see one of these in my neighborhood...I would hope that with the help of my neighbors we would take action and root out whatever may cause the need for this kind of surveilance...BEFORE it became necessary...
windbreeze