On Friday, Animal posted this shot of a mobile guard tower currently deployed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. By applying the Panopticon principle (thanks, Alex) to sketchy neighborhood intersections, the NYPD hopes to curtail rising crime rates. Got us thinking. The other day, Mitch (Mission resident since 1991) delivered the following rant about about one of our own sketchy intersections:
what about 16th & Mission? How the hell is that blight allowed to exist? [...] crackheads and prostitutes. out in the open, plain as day, 24/7. in what reality is that shit OK? and who WOULDN’T want that shit gone? and why isnt it gone?
Now, I guarantee that Mitch doesn’t support Orwellian shit of any kind — and nor does anyone we’d dare associate with — so what’s the real solution? And hypothetically, were the SFPD to install a collapsible privacy-invasion turret in the heart of the Mission, what would happen?
Previously on Mission Mission:
 to sketchy neighborhood intersections, the NYPD hopes to curtail rising crime rates. Got us thinking. The other day, Mitch (Mission resident since 1991) delivered the following rant about about one of […]</p>
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Forget the turret. How about they just put cops there? Around the clock, two cops on each corner. For a year.
When there’s no actual crime going on, they could, I dunno, maybe maintain a little order.
well, if they did put the turret there, it would quickly be covered with cute Ribbity frogs along with the usual ocean of bodily effluvia the covers everything in our neighborhood. (i like that word, effluvia…)
but i agree, how about an ocean of cops? there used to be a little cop shack on that corner, this is back 15 years. it never had a cop in it far as i could see. then they took it away and put a coin op crack house … uh…bathroom there instead.
your progressive politics at work!
I have one of these in my backyard. It works like a charm. Scares the shit out of the crows. Doubles as the giant metal girlfriend of my Star Wars AT Walker.
who would not want crackheads and prostitutes gone? me an average dude who enjoys the free market of services provided on the street in response to draconian social engineering laws that only exacerbate an existing quagmire. happiness is slavery
privacy-invasion turret indeed. I prefer crackheads. It also seems to me that there’s usually a cop monitering the dealers and prostitutes on mission between 16th and 17th- they dont stop them, but I think they’d step up if citizens were getting messed with. Fuck big brother’s eye in the sky.
yawn.
y’all…your reading comprehension sucks.
the question wasn’t “which would you prefer, big brother or crackheads?”
we’d all pick crackheads. of course. yeah, fuck big brother. that’s brilliant.
the question was…in a world where big brother is right around the corner, like it or not, unless we solve the crackhead problem…because lots of folks believe that crackheads pissing and shitting on doorsteps ARE messing with the citizens…what do we do to preserve the mission we all love?
cause mark my words…in 5 years, if there’s no real solution found…the mission ain’t going to be so appealingly gritty any more. it’s going to be noe valley. someone’s going to grease the right hands and your beloved 16th & mission cesspool is gonna get sold to real estate developers.
in the absence of true activism and solution finding, money wins. and that’s when big bother fucks you blind hipsters with no lube.
but hey, y’all can move to West Oak with the rest of em. that’ll be nice and gritty for another couple years after. maybe. and after that…i have no idea…
cause there aint no bushwick or red hook in the bay area yo.
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