den Otter [neosapient@geocities.com] wrote:
>Nothing that onboard video surveillance combined and a swift & sure justice
>system wouldn't fix. A more liberal policy with regard to keeping and
>bearing arms would probably also help.
Yeah. I'm sure the little old lady will feel really happy as she lies dying on the floor after the thugs beat her up, knowing that -- Thank God! -- a surveillance camera recorded the whole thing and the thugs might, possibly, be caught. If the operator wasn't using the zoom lens to peep at the other women in the carriage; which is apparently the single largest use of the British police surveillance cameras, according to a recent report.
This is the whole problem with surveillance; it's purely an attempt to deter criminals with the threat of potential capture, and most of them aren't going to stop because of it. I recently saw a surveillance video of a few kids on a British housing estate who smashed up a car with rocks then set it on fire, in full view of the camera. Maybe the kids were caught -- though the resolution was so low I doubt I could identify them from it -- but I'm sure that won't make the car's owner any happier.
Mark