Downtown cameras an invasion of privacy

Really, the local old boys and the police have tried to push this agenda for more than 10 years. We fought them at city council and won and then they tried to sneak them in through the police board & again we fought it and won.

So lets make it clear we , the public does not want survielence in the downtown. We see it as just another way for the city and DBIA to continue to oppress the poor who are frequently in the downtown core. The poor spend allot of money in the core and frequent services in the core and the vast majority do not commit crimes or disturbances unlike the drunk middle class young adults who frequent the bars. I challenged the city council about the number of bars and costs to the community of the policing drunk young adults the core. The silence was deafening. If you want a safe downtown lets get rid of the party atmosphere and make it more attractive & have more people live downtown. This strategy was effective in other cities and would work here.

We need to fight this by writing letters to council, the media and by electing councilors who oppose the camera. The interest of one private group does not override the privacy rights of the others in public spaces. The police need to get out of their vehicles & walk a beat in the core. They should be creating relationships with the folks in the core which would result better safety outcomes.

Ron Zinck, Haden Ave.