Topic: The threat to your privacy

[Terry in Australia]

[Terry in Australia]

Man now I really got find a job.  ha,ha,ha 

Yeah mate, get yourself a job quick, before the whole of the USA succumbs to totalitarianism, apparently it's just around the corner!

[dusterdude]

Its trying sheriff

[calj737]

Yeah mate, get yourself a job quick, before the whole of the USA succumbs to totalitarianism, apparently it's just around the corner!

I wonder if that isn't the same smug retort Samuel Willenberg's neighbors had right before they were uprooted and shipped off to Treblinka. You suffer from an incredible lack of memory or awareness. I don't know which. But neither is a laughing matter.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah mate, get yourself a job quick, before the whole of the USA succumbs to totalitarianism, apparently it's just around the corner!

I wonder if that isn't the same smug retort Samuel Willenberg's neighbors had right before they were uprooted and shipped off to Treblinka. You suffer from an incredible lack of memory or awareness. I don't know which. But neither is a laughing matter.

Ha ha, well I tell you what Cal, if and when they shove me in a train for a one way trip to a concentration camp, with my last dying breath I'll apologise to you and the rest of your fellow pessimists in the United States of Paranoia.

But until then, I'll continue to view the world with my usual "Glass half full" optimism, and if you don't get dragged off to a labour camp anytime soon, I'll expect you to PM me a nice apology, starting with, "Hey Terry, you were right all along"!

I heard on the news there was another massacre in the US today. Some white male nutbag in his late 50's driving around shooting people dead from the comfort of his own car, apparently. If I was you, I'd be more worried about my neighbours than anything your government's planning, right now?

[seanbarney41]

Yeah mate, get yourself a job quick, before the whole of the USA succumbs to totalitarianism, apparently it's just around the corner!

I wonder if that isn't the same smug retort Samuel Willenberg's neighbors had right before they were uprooted and shipped off to Treblinka. You suffer from an incredible lack of memory or awareness. I don't know which. But neither is a laughing matter.

Ha ha, well I tell you what Cal, if and when they shove me in a train for a one way trip to a concentration camp, with my last dying breath I'll apologise to you and the rest of your fellow pessimists in the United States of Paranoia.

But until then, I'll continue to view the world with my usual "Glass half full" optimism, and if you don't get dragged off to a labour camp anytime soon, I'll expect you to PM me a nice apology, starting with, "Hey Terry, you were right all along"!

I heard on the news there was another massacre in the US today. Some white male nutbag in his late 50's driving around shooting people dead from the comfort of his own car, apparently. If I was you, I'd be more worried about my neighbours than anything your government's planning, right now?

yep, that was in mine and Ekpents good old home town of Kalamazoo, Michigan.  I was at the bar getting stoned watching the #$%* unfold the whole time on the news.  Got kind of sick of the poor news coverage so I went outside for a smoke  (so anyway, one of the shooting sites was at a Kia auto dealership, and ironically, that dealership just happened to have purchased a nice chunk of advertising time slot during this news coverage, yeah the American way!) and while I was smoking, cop cars started swarming just down the block,   ...turns out the shooter was apprehended about 60 yards from my usual watering hole.  Later, I was talking to the chick who does the entertainment booking at this bar, and she claims the guy was in the bar and she had a rather bone chilling conversation with him...

[Sgt.Pinback]

Just for my understanding : who normally is in charge to  collect the tickets if you don't pay them?

[JWExperience]

It depends on the municipality. Here it's the pd, one of the uses of plate readers is locating non payers. It more than doubles the payments that our city receives. Prior to 08' millions of dollars in tickets were unpaid each year.


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[chewbacca5000]

It depends on the municipality. Here it's the pd, one of the uses of plate readers is locating non payers. It more than doubles the payments that our city receives. Prior to 08' millions of dollars in tickets were unpaid each year.


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I was watching a a local show on modernizing government on tv last night where they were talking about merging Onondaga county with Syracuse in order to reduce expenses.  In a nut shell they said that we are at the end of the road and can't keep going like this.  They need to merge the multiple fire, police and other services or risk default.

A shrinking tax base with increasing expenses is the driver.  We have some of the highest property taxes in the nation especially for a place with no jobs.  I could see paying a premium for the rent I mean taxes if this place was booming, but it is not.  They should tie property taxes to economic performance imo. Live in a boom city pay more.  Live in a bust city pay less.

They want more economic development, but can't compete against states with low property taxes and an actual economy.  Syracuse is number 1 in poverty in the usa for blacks and Latinos.  Not really something business say o yeah I want to go there!  Sign me up.

[calj737]

A shrinking tax base with increasing expenses is the driver.  We have some of the highest property taxes in the nation especially for a place with no jobs.  I could see paying a premium for the rent I mean taxes if this place was booming, but it is not.  They should tie property taxes to economic performance imo. Live in a boom city pay more.  Live in a bust city pay less.

They want more economic development, but can't compete against states with low property taxes and an actual economy.  Syracuse is number 1 in poverty in the usa for blacks and Latinos.  Not really something business say o yeah I want to go there!  Sign me up.

They have to charge higher taxes because they don't have the tax revenue. There is something called economy of scale, Chewy. Live small with modern convenience, pay a premium. Live large, spread the burden. Simple enough.

[Duke McDukiedook]

The only problem with that thinking Chewey is the infrastructure of those services need maintaining because the need does not go away just because the tax base does. You will have to start whittling away services that most modern Americans take as a basic right for your taxes to go down. You like fire services within 10 minutes of your abode? That costs money. You want clean, potable water and the ability to send waste away from you humble abode? That costs money. You want electricity every time you flick a switch and heat for that abode? That costs money.

You want cheaper taxes? You probably need to move to a different city with lower taxes.

[chewbacca5000]

If they keep raising taxes it will come to a hockey stick moment where you will see a mass exodus from this city.  Other cities in the North East are in the same situation. They need to deal with facts and some point whether they like it or not.  Half my mortgage is taxes while other places only pay $500 to $1000 a year.

I am glad you did not site schools at they are proud of their improvement in Syracuse from a 48% graduation rate to a 51% graduation rate.

Water is a big expense that many municipalities are not ready to deal with.  Many cities pipes are going on a 100 years old.  The average repair is $5,500.

Maybe it is time to move.  Let someone else pay my share of the bill.

[JWExperience]

It's tough in the city with so many people that don't pay taxes. Syracuse JUST started forcing citizens to pay back taxes. People were living property tax free here for 10-20 years. Not to mention that our college and hospitals own a huge percentage of property in the city and that's all tax free. The democratic government in the city thinks it's wise to let all new development projects to not have to pay taxes for 20-30 years also. Hard to be solvent when you have no income but continue to provide free housing all over the city and have a 100 year old infrastructure that you patch instead of fix.


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[calj737]

The democratic government in the city...

I think you mean to say "Democrat government". Democrat is a party, democratic is type of governance.  All cities and towns in the US are democratic, but not all are run by elected Democrats. Just for clarification purposes.

[JWExperience]

What would I do without you pointing out my lack of smarts...


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[calj737]

It's good to have friends who look after you. Even when you don't know they are.

[JWExperience]

Or I fat fingered my phone and auto correct attempted to help on my special super smart encrypted iPhone.


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[RAFster122s]

The paperwork buries the expeditious collection of fines. The mechanism to collect is hapanstance upon a an officer of the court to serve and collect the fine. When mail is ignored it requires a policeman to  serrve the warrant, but, that gets generated from a court session about the ignored fines. So, it spirals up in cost as more and more people are involved in the ticket collection.Having the data from a license plate collection system they have the ability to know where they might find you if they need to as the time of day and locations where you have been seen before may give them the ability to know your habits and the best place and time to watch for you.
soon, they will outsource that collection to a 3rd party or be granted the right to automatically reach into your bank to withdraw the money.

[BobbyR]

The paperwork buries the expeditious collection of fines. The mechanism to collect is hapanstance upon a an officer of the court to serve and collect the fine. When mail is ignored it requires a policeman to  serrve the warrant, but, that gets generated from a court session about the ignored fines. So, it spirals up in cost as more and more people are involved in the ticket collection.Having the data from a license plate collection system they have the ability to know where they might find you if they need to as the time of day and locations where you have been seen before may give them the ability to know your habits and the best place and time to watch for you.
soon, they will outsource that collection to a 3rd party or be granted the right to automatically reach into your bank to withdraw the money.

When I was a Cop, it was common to stop a car and find out if there was a bench warrant for "failure to appear". This means paying your fine. One day I had 5 in a row and one fellow wanted to fight.  I asked my Lieutenant why they did not give us a list of these folks and have someone pick them up.

He replied "it is not worth it". It seems people tend to do the same thing over and over, they will be caught again and when they are stopped again, they get locked up.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Just for my understanding : who normally is in charge to  collect the tickets if you don't pay them?

On some parking reality show filmed in Philly the computer would scan plates as they rolled and would alert people with a minimum amount of outstanding tickets. They would then get DAS BOOT until they pay. Homer Simpson wouldn't have put up with that mierde.

[Sgt.Pinback]

Just for my understanding : who normally is in charge to  collect the tickets if you don't pay them?

On some parking reality show filmed in Philly the computer would scan plates as they rolled and would alert people with a minimum amount of outstanding tickets. They would then get DAS BOOT until they pay. Homer Simpson wouldn't have put up with that mierde.

Better than the other way around.

Cheers from Stuggi-Duggi- Stuttgart

[70CB750]

Unfortunately we are not capable of simple solutions anymore, like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iUoOpDaS4Q

A Lawyer sued to get the records. He found out his plate was captured 1200 times with a date, location, and a time stamp on each capture. That is the real issue.

I've had this conversation any number of times, whether about LPR's, cameras in public places and facial recognition programs, tracking your movements through your cell phone, little black boxes on our cars, and on and on. And usually someone will come up with "if you are not doing anything wrong, what are you worried about?"  I will then point out that over the long history of totalitarianism, not long after somebody in the government says that, people start dying.

[chewbacca5000]

I am with Terry on this one and am going to live my life as happily as I can.  This could go either way at this point with people getting loaded up in trains headed off to the work camp, or a new tech enhanced world that is better than ever.

Just because you can do something with technology does not mean you should.  It is kinda funny that tech intrusion is ok, but if your staring into someone's window that is not ok.  20 years from these might be the good ole' days so enjoy them.

Live the best life you can, and ride on!

[Duke McDukiedook]

I like the quote from Ghost in the Shell about humans and technology.

If a technological feat is possible, man will do it. Almost as if it's wired into the core of our being.

With every leap in technology at every step on top of asking ourselves if it can be done is SHOULD this be done?
What are the ramifications of this action? I am not sure enough people are asking those questions unfortunately.

[chewbacca5000]

Nothing is really a surprise anymore.  Should needs to be the question we are asking.  We know it can be done.

I view technology like a gun, hammer, or a saw it can be used to help or destroy.  It is amazing that there are no limits on technology.  With a few mouse clicks you can ruin someone's life and get away with it.  Try to do the same thing  the old fashioned way and you end up in jail.

High frequency trading is a good example of technology that needs to go.  Entire civilizations held captive to computers.  The crazy part is we have an 18 trillion dollar debt half of which was given to wall street to gamble with.

If they crash the machine this time it will get ugly.  I don't see a second bilout for these clowns.  Instead of spending all that money on stock buy backs to pump up the stock bubble.  It should go to small businesses that create jobs.