Friday, July 13, 2007

Another home invasion, Van Fossen, and more cameras

Early this morning there was another home invasion robbery, this time near 13th and Carey. The victim stated that he was upstairs and he heard shots fired at the house and the front door kicked in. With a description like this, you can imagine the number of squad cars that started heading his way. Unfortunately, the victim gave 911 dispatchers the wrong address, so all the officers were surrounding a house 4 blocks away. By the time they made it to the right house, the suspects had escaped. It sounded like they had some leads, and some of the stolen property was recovered as well. Stuff like this makes me long for the heavy police crack down that we saw after the murder of Vincelina Howard.

Judge issues injunction against Van Fossen -QCTimes
This is the story that just won't die. It doesn't help that Webb's lawyer has had it in for city hall for years and years. Does anyone really think that Malin, city staff, and the Howard/Frink side of the council is working to protect Van Fossen? They're just as sick of his antics as the rest of us, and he nearly always votes against them anyway. What is in it for them to protect him? People who think the whole council is a secret society/good-ol' boys club are a bit too paranoid for my tastes. If anything people should be accusing them of running him out of office to take a vote away from the Lynn/Hamerlinck side of the council. Also, the guy is doing serious harm to the Van Fossen name by not resigning.

Davenport to set up more cameras in city -QCTimes
In some ways, I don't mind this, but in other ways I find it worse than the speed cameras. At least those only work when someone is definitely breaking the law. With all the politics that get tangled up with the DPD, I can imagine some admittedly unlikely scenarios where the cameras are misused.

Davenport alderman writes his novel in spare time -QCOnline
If any of you Davenporters don't usually read QCOnline because of its focus on Illinois news, check out this profile of Alderman Meyer. I learned several new things about my Alderman.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Home invasions happen every other day in Davenport. Not everyone of them gets reported. The last heavy rainfall, Nets officers caught some dude climbing out of a window at Ripley and Locust. That didn't make the news did it?

Anonymous said...

Like them or Not, it seems more and more public cameras are sooner than later to become more a part of our social landscape. They don't stop crime but they do make capture and punishment quicker and more exact. The quick response in the Scotland terror acts and the recent strings of kidnapping have shown they can help make a difference. I am old school and so I am not excited about the possible abuse of such equipment but I am afraid the age of the public camera is upon us.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a camera in the 300 block of West 3rd street could catch some of our aldermen stumbling out of Mac's Tap and driving impaired. Not that our aldermen would ever do that. :}

Snarky Chick said...

If these cameras are so great why are there still such problems in the 600 block of 3rd? I don't know many who would feel safe walking in that section and its been on camera for some time.

I'm not against camera use. These days you just can't expect privacy when you leave your home. Or inside if you don't have good curtains :)

Anonymous said...

No wonder the hookers have moved a couple blocks.

Snarky Chick said...

I'm sorry, I am not familiar with the current location of our area prostitutes? Where are they hanging out these days?