afitzy
Former Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2019
- Messages
- 11,285
- Reaction score
- 126,557
Thanks for posting this. I've imposed a personal TO on discussing this topic of cameras in Waveny and CT because I am so profoundly disappointed in the NC First Selectman, NC Police Commission and NCPD Chief K. on the way that this entire issue of public safety and cameras has been handled in NC over the course of many years. This latest petition for cameras in Waveny is just one of similar efforts mounted over the years and sadly all have failed.I searched and didn’t see this posted...
‘Our Hands Are Tied’: Parks & Rec Chair Voices Frustration Regarding Security Cameras at Waveny
As I've posted previously NC has resisted cameras successfully via folks like Moynihan for years. There is always a Moynihan and I've been watching these Moynihans for many many years! Nothing changes on this topic ever!
IMO the burden of personal safety has been pushed on to homeowers who for the most part invest in home systems of varying sophistication. My sense of listening to folks like Moynihan and his predecessors along with the Police Commission for many years has been that this issue will simply be kicked down the trail and never be heard from again. NCPD Chief K. believes his only role in this personal security debate is to remind residents to 'lock their doors' and 'turn on their alarms'. Sorry, but I believe that government has a role and responsibility in maintaining the security of the town.
From the public dialog on this entire discussion it was clear to me a least that the First Selectman is not in a position to direct the NCPD to do anything as he originally put this task of cameras in Waveny into the NCPD hands. Nothing happened and it appeared that the Police Commission (3 people so far as I know) directed NCPD Chief K. to simply do nothing and let the Parks and Rec People do something (or attempt to do something) that was clearly not in their purview and about which they had zero expertise. NCPD Chief K. did what he usually does on these discussions which is "dodge and weave" and "hide under his desk". This all happend after the issue was discussed by the people that created the petition in a forum with the Selectman. Who runs NC? To me, the answer is at present unclear. Do the voices of citizens matter or will a Moynihan always be present to shut down change? IDK.
I'm glad this camera issue is playing out in a public way and that Mike Dinan has written a very comprehensive article about the topic. The other reason I am glad that a much broader audience is seeing this entire situation play out is because it IMO brilliantly shows how things do and don't happen in NC. To see the NCPD Chief K. hiding under his desk for the entirety of this debate about cameras has been hard to watch, but its sadly typical for the way things go on this topic in CT. I won't even go into listing the projects that have been green lighted in the most recent budget as if people could see the list vs thinking about the valuable data provided by cameras in town and in the parks it becomes crystal clear where the priorities of the Town Govt. lie. NC by any standard is a wealthy town so for Moynihan to talk about budgets and 'extraordinary expenses' simply IMO simply pushes credulity.
IMO JD and the Farber family were simply lucky that buscams were in place and that the alleged crime took place when the buses were on the roads. We don't know if JD had a full camera system at Welles and if she did was it activated on the 24th/missing date. A townwide security plan IMO built on 'luck' of having buscams doesn't sound too safe or proactive to me and I'm surprised that the 2,500 signatures that were on the petition didn't seem to mean much to the First Selectman, NCPD Chief K and the Police Commission.
Its all IMO hugely disappointing, but IMO its also just business as usual in NC. I'm just glad that outsiders are seeing how a wealthy town that has one of the largest budgets per capita chooses to allocate its tax dollars.
PS. This will be my last post on this topic as I am so profoundly disappointed in a town that I care about a great deal but I realize that nothing will ever change so long as people like Moynihan believe there is 'no emergency' and the First Selectman is powerless to control the various components of government in the Town.
MOO
Last edited: