Neal Boortz: Kinda wish cameras could shoot bullets

By Neal Boortz

OK, who is this Neal Boortz guy, and what is he doing in my newspaper?

Fair enough. I know that more than a few of you are wondering how this came about.

One word — Polaroids. I’ll admit; this is all rather curious. After all, I’ve spent no small amount of time over the past 40 years saying some less-than-gracious things about The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Well, the paper is still here, so I may as well join in. And besides, with all that’s going on in the world, we’ve never needed newspapers more.

In brief, I’m a Libertarian talk show host who’s been ranting on the radio in Atlanta for 40 years. Nobody’s been doing it longer. Now I’m here to cause you the same grief I’ve caused Atlanta radio listeners for decades.

Hold on. This is going to be a bumpy — but fun — ride. So, fasten your seat belts.

Today, let’s talk cameras.

Cameras on utility polls. Cameras on the corners of buildings. Cameras following you as you walk through town, a college campus, or your own neighborhood.

Upset?

Seems quite a few Atlantans are. And they get madder when they hear the city is ready to spend $14 million in bounty seized from taxpayers (aka stimulus funds, but that’s another column) to install about 500 additional closed-circuit cameras in some of Atlanta’s less-than-safe neighborhoods.

You got a problem with that? I don’t.

As I said, I’m a Libertarian. Gallup says that this puts me between the philosophical sheets with about 23 percent of my fellow Americans. But being a Libertarian doesn’t mean that I want the government completely out of my life. I still want the government protecting me from punks with guns.

OK ... the cameras. I say bring ’em on! The more the merrier.

What’s the problem? You’re probably lugging around a mobile phone that will snitch on your location to anyone with a heartbeat. No biggie; but let the police keep an eye on your location with a camera and suddenly you’re upset?

Let’s say you’re a Georgia Tech student on the way back to your dorm at midnight. You’ve been studying. (Yeah, right.) We know that Tech students are the favorite targets of Atlanta’s predator class lately.

Actually, the predators have a point: If you’re going to rob someone, you want to be the only one with a gun. So, head to a college campus. That’s where you find unarmed victims. Get caught with a gun, they get kicked out of school. A happy hunting ground for predators.

So, there you are, walking home. Maybe tonight’s the night. Maybe that guy walking up behind is going to put a gun in your face. But wait! There’s a police cruiser parked down the road with two cops watching you — and the thug walking up behind you.

Are you going to scream at those cops for spying on you? No? I thought not.

Then try to explain why it suddenly becomes the end of the world if they do it by a remote camera instead of from a police car?

Walk into virtually any retail store in Atlanta and you’re being watched by cameras. You’re being watched in elevators and building lobbies. The boss is very likely watching you at work. So you get your boxers in a bunch if they watch you walking down a public street? Give me a break.

The courts have ruled you have no expectation of privacy in a public place. You want privacy, go home.

These cameras catch criminals. Sure, it would be nice to have hundreds of additional cops on the streets. Nice and expensive. Our streets can be made safer with these cameras — cameras which, by the way, don’t get sick, don’t join unions and don’t eat doughnuts.

Frankly, I think they should equip some of these cameras with sniper rifles. Don’t you just love the idea of a little red laser dot appearing on the chest of some goon who just pulled a gun on a Tech coed — or your wife?

OK, maybe we’re not ready for that yet.

How about tranquilizer darts?

Neal Boortz’s column will appear every Saturday. For more Boortz, go to www.boortz.com.