Results tagged “1984”

Ugh. Thank you, ESPN Chicago, for twisting the knife and - as the Cubs see their slim odds of a playoff appearance in 2009 disappear in the wake of a season of mediocrity and controversy - reminding us of another Cubs team, one that made a great run through the NL East only to see a two games to none lead in the NLCS (in a best-of-five series, mind you) over the San Diego Padres vanish as the Padres won three straight on their way to the World Series.

Mayor Daley loves cameras. Be it red light cameras, street sweeping cameras, or surveillance cameras, he can't seem to get enough of them. So he must be thrilled after last night's "unveiling" of 200 new security cameras placed around Navy Pier. The new $4.2 million monitoring system comes from IBM and, in a way, makes sense as Navy Pier is one of the city's top tourist attractions; Crain's says 8.3 million people visited in 2008. Or maybe Mayor Daley just wants to keep an eye on all those commies over at WBEZ (we kid!). The system, which was installed in February, has already proved useful.

In a technology upgrade Mayor Daley is heralding as a major step forward in fighting crime, the city's police cameras have been successfully integrated with the city's 911 system so that when a 911 call comes in to the dispatch center, the system will automatically scan for any police cameras within 150 feet of the reported incident. Video would then appear on the dispatcher's screen within seconds, enabling them to forward more helpful information to responding officers.

How fitting for the beginning of Banned Books Week that we come across a story that will have many crying "Big Brother." After Charles Hill became the victim of vandalism at the house he's building in West Chatham, he decided to become the first private citizen to join the city's Private Sector Camera Initiative. The program allows private security cameras to directly beam their images to Chicago's 911 call center, and is already being utilized by various businesses and organizations like Macy's, the CBOE, the Sears Tower and Columbia College. Hill has installed 5 exterior surveillance cameras of his own to monitor his block. But Mr. Hill, don't you think that's a bit, well, ooky?

"Some people talk about the ACLU and all these privacy rights. But if a crime takes place, those individuals had to come from somewhere. I don't care if it's my brother or my mother. If those cameras do what they're supposed to do, whoever suffers will suffer."

Yeah, all these goddamn "privacy rights," fuck 'em! If police want to make random searches of people on the street, do it! If they're not doing anything wrong, they shouldn't worry about it. Check library records, go ahead! Don't read anything suspicious if you don't want to be bothered. Well, maybe one positive thing to come from all the extra cameras is a reduction in PDONP*. [S-T]