Texas has started broadcasting live images of the U.S. border on the Internet in a security program that asks the public to report signs of illegal immigration or drug crimes. A test Web site went live Thursday at texasborderwatch.com with views from eight cameras and ways for viewers to e-mail reports of suspicious activity. Previously, the images had only been available to law enforcement and landowners where the cameras are located. Information e-mailed by viewers goes to the state's operations center and local law enforcement in that area.
Is this the stupidest law-enforcement arrangement you can think of? Set up a camera and hope the right xenophobe will be watching its feed and email (not even call) the police when he witnesses a crime? Sounds like a plan that could be built upon: We could give radars to MADD members and have them FedEx the license numbers of speeders to their congressman. Bank robberies could be thwarted by account holders sleeping in bank vaults and calling the FBI when they are let out each morning after a hit.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
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JJ, I thought you liked A&M. Tu quoque? At any rate, here is what they actaully say:
As part of the Virtual Neighborhood Border Watch Program, the State of Texas has been testing video surveillance cameras in different environments along the 1240 miles of Texas/Mexico border using the internet to transmit the images. The last stage of the test is to stress the system by providing public access to numerous surveillance cameras.
From what I understand, this is just a test of the system, so help from the good denizens of Texas is sought, in order to work out the kinks. What's wrong with that?
Also, why is that trying to stop illegal border crossings into Texas (or any other state/country) a sign of "xenophobia"? I'm a loss at the implication you seem to draw.
1) Aggie jokes are permitted to Aggies.
2) I think it is no way to do law enforcement to set up cameras, ask citizens to watch their feeds and wait for emails. I make clear why with my analogies to bank robberies...
3) About the xenophobia, that was part of a caricature I was drawing. That said, I wonder what normal person would watch the feed from one of those cameras in the middle of the night, out in the middle of nowhere other than a dyed-in-the-wool wacko anxious about the US territorial integrity and the purity of our precious fluids.
4) I quoted the article honestly. Why do you write,"here is what they actually say"?
1) OK
2) Agreed that's not the way to do it. But as a test of the system, why not?
3) Hmmm... I dunno, JJ. You may be raisng a strawman here, or maybe not. To my ears, it sounds like you're playing to the Pepean fantasies about wacko yahoo ricains more than analyzing things straightforwardly, in this instance.
4) Your paraphrase was more-or-less OK, except that I, for one, missed the "testing" element from it. And this seems to be a non-trivial point to me -- that's why I quoted ad literam.
Let's be as cynical of our allies on the right as we are of our opponents on the left, AI. If we can say that Kerry has it almost in his blood to insult servicemen as not quite elite enough for his tastes, then we can rationally criticize this nonsense as wacko rabble-rousing though it's billed as a test.
All these supposed supply-siders ought to report their neighbors that hire illegals and get legislation passed making that a serious crime. That's the solution to illegal immigration for economic gain. As a national security issue, the military should be called out to enforce the borders. The state has nothing to gain in encouraging vigilantism.
It's all very interesting. Core Mexican religious beliefs match with the Conservative Right moreso than the Virgin Mary-hating Left. But the Left says they defend "minorities" -- whatever that means these days.
JJ said: All these supposed supply-siders ought to report their neighbors that hire illegals and get legislation passed making that a serious crime. That's the solution to illegal immigration for economic gain. As a national security issue, the military should be called out to enforce the borders. The state has nothing to gain in encouraging vigilantism.
This might work, JJ. But how do we get the xenophobes to narc on their fellow xenophobes? Maybe something is lost in the translation...
As a national security issue, the military should be called out to enforce the borders.
Noble sentiment, JJ. But where do you get the manpower to do that? The military is already stretched to the limit by all sorts of commitments overseas. Unless you re-impose the draft, how you gonna square the circle, man?
I think maybe Red W Neck isn't gonna help much on this. Also we have plenty boys stateside that can do the job. Also, there is probably open source software that can watch the tv for Mr Neck and make an alert to the cops straightaway.
The point of all this is that this border tv net nonsense is a stupid ploy. The repubs when they had trouble in Texas would put nonsense on the ballot like a nonbinding referendum on making English the official language and crap like that. All the rednex would show up and boost their numbers.
This is one of those ploys. It's not a test. It's a crock of shit we pay for in tax dollars.
It would be nice if he paid his taxes, though.
My beef with that is that tehre are zillions of other would-be legal immigrants, waiting patiently in line in other god-forasken corners of this world, playing by the book, and getting the shitty end of the stick. In the meantime, just becauuse Mexico shares a border with the US, gazillions jump the line. No fair, says I.
Totally. People should obey the law. And the government should enforce the law. The government should not jack off the citizenry in some electioneering law-related bullshit.
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