August 14, 2007
SFist Blotter
Huh -- remember that huge fight we all got into about whether or not to put cameras at high-crime intersections in SF? Turns out the cameras at the public housing sites are pretty much useless. To wit, they've only been used for evidence in two cases, neither of which were the homicides that they said the cameras would help solve. Whether this is because cameras don't deter crime, or because the restrictions that the civil libertarians have put on the camera usage is debatable. Also, it could just be that the cameras we have aren't great, and are particularly not useful at night, when most of the crimes occur.
Matier and Ross report that Attorney General Jerry Brown, the man in charge of enforcing the law in California, had his car broken into a few blocks from City Hall, where it was parked outside the State Building. We're just impressed Jerry Brown managed to find street parking on Golden Gate Avenue.
And finally -- who's looking for more news about crime in San Francisco? We got sent a link to the new blog San Francisco Crime, which is not only putting up regular updates about assaults and gunshots and the like, but is also keeping that ongoing 2007 murder log for San Francisco that we've been meaning to try and compile but still haven't gotten around to, along with a list of suspicious deaths. Man, there's no need for us to even try to compile a Blotter anymore, this website's really good! Where are you getting all this stuff, San Francisco Crime? Do you have a police radio blotter? Can we borrow it if you do?
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Very cool blog. Thanks for sharing, Rita. I'll have to review it for a few weeks, but I'm thinking it would be a good resource in my classes--specifically for my Always Running unit. After all, a lot of my kids live in the neighborhoods where the majority of this insanity is happening and it would be interesting to see their reaction to this blog.
That map is fantastic.
The cameras inside the projects were never really debated - the feds just put them in.
Maybe we need CCTV that works and have people actually looking at the images recorded.
http://fromsf.blogspot.com/2007/08/why-dont-we-use-cctv-more.html
Interesting that the death of Hugues De La Plaza was ruled a suicide. Wasn't he the guy whose death was reported on SFist prompting some posters to whine that only young hipster deaths make the news?
The Tenderloin Housing Coalition is trying to silence the man who videotapes and blogs about their slum hotel:
link.
link.
I'm surprised to be astonished, but the names of murder victims gave me chills reminiscent of the Super Bowl Sunday 9/11 memorial featuring U2. Powerfully disturbing but hopefully the facts you've exhumed will help to usher change.
I don't want a police state to prevent fun. On the contrary, I want clean, safe streets to allow San Francisco to florish. It's hard to concider Quality-of-Life issues when faced with a site featuring homicides. We need cops walking beats - period! Naturally, I added a link and you can expect a post shortly. Thank you!
Gavin Sucks.com endorses Newsom (Who else?)
Nono, the cameras worked just fine. The vendors and contractors are fat and happy.