I find this interchange shocking. In light of the Leiby Kletsky murder, the State of New York decided to spend a million dollars installing 150 security cameras around certain neighborhoods of Brooklyn in order to help keep the kids safe. if anything should God forbid happen, the cameras would quickly help the police find the perpetrator, and also knowing there are so many cameras and probably very few blind spots would be a deterrent to such violent crime.
The cameras have yet to be installed due to a dispute over who will operate them. The Shomrim people did not want the police to have full access to the videos, out of fear that it would hinder their efforts to keep incidents of domestic violence quiet. The police, on the other hand, don't believe there should be a filter between the police and a victim or evidence of a crime.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind came up with a solution appointing the Agudah as the administrators of the video system, but that is held up as well out of concerns due to Agudah's official position of not going to authorities with knowledge of a crime (specifically the crimes of domestic violence) but going to a rav who would then decide whether the police can be brought in.
(sources: NY Daily News, VIN)
I don't even understand the hava amina, the suggestion that the state might invest a million dollars in surveillance cameras and then give it to a private organization to run. It's precarious enough when the government does it, with all the claims of "big brother" and invasion of privacy, but then to think that a private organization should have access to all that video footage? What are they thinking?? And that is without even taking into account the criminal issues involved of why would they think the police would let them agree to determine crime? And the chutzpah to say in public that we dont want the police finding out about our domestic violence issues...
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The fact that they're even having this discussion tells you a lot about the leverage this community has with the gov't and police.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they just self finance with vaad hatznius extortion?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, this will give rabbonim more control over the lives of BP jews.
I cannot miagine that it is legal for a private organization to install a network of cameras in public places and "spy" on the community..
ReplyDeleteVery well said. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe concept that rabbonim have jurisdiction over criminal allegations, investigations and even dispensing 'justice'to criminals - is a delusion which is alive and well in RBS, and many other ultra-orthodox communities. Indeed it has the official backing of Agudas Yisrael.
ReplyDeleteThe sooner these long-discredited & dangerous policies & practices are stamped out, the safer we will all be.
It is outrageous that such aberrations are now "accommodated" by the State authorities in NY.
The NYPD should be rounding up the rabbonim who are covering up crimes in the community - and imprison them for interfering with police investigations, perverting/obstructing the course of justice, and failure to report mandatory reportable crimes.