Cardinal Points

Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Sam Hollingsworth

They're watching you. Well, not yet, but they want to. The City of Plattsburgh is making plans to install video cameras on downtown and city center streets. Why? So the powers that be can keep tabs on you mischievous college kids.

It's one of numerous proposals made in a thick report put-out this summer by a school-city commission. The hope is that the recommendations can help mend the dysfunctional relationship between we college students and the community members.

That would be great. We recognize that, often times, alcohol overwhelms rational thought. Many of us could confess our drunken sins for hours. Some other students might feel uncomfortable listening to those sins.

But community members have certainly earned the right to try to figure out how to sleep at night or keep beer cans off their lawns. The new commission represents a good opportunity to do that.

It's members, four appointed by Plattsburgh State President John Ettling and another four by city Mayor Donald Kasprzak, worked hard for several months preparing 39 detailed recommendations for fixing the perceived problems.

But some of their suggestions, especially calling for video surveillance on city streets, concern us deeply. We won't stand for measures that have the potential for abuse. We, as Americans, value our constitutional rights. Drastic measures like video surveillance just move our society ever so further away from the values this nation was built on.

We've already seen stepped up police enforcements - one of the proposed measures. In the first two weeks of school, 62 PSUC students were arrested. If they all committed the crimes they're charged with, we respect that move.

What we don't respect, and what scares us as the city considers more direct measures, is the harassment that has been apparent on city streets. Cops posted up shop on Brinkerhoff Street during the first few weekends of school. What they did, on many occasions, was accost college students for standing on sidewalks, doing nothing wrong.

If our police can't respect the authority they already have, how can they be expected to respect the power video surveillance would give them?

Police serve many important purposes, and ensuring drunken insanity stays in check is one them. But it can be done without violating constitutional rights.

Give tickets for open containers. Give tickets for loud parties. Give tickets for disorderly conduct. Don't give tickets for having a good time.

And don't invade our privacy. We urge Mr. Kasprzak to reconsider his commitment to installing video cameras on our streets. We'll do our best to behave. We promise.

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