Daley Caught in New Orleans

Let's see who picks this up in the local media (anyone want to bet zero?):

• Mayor Ray Nagin this week brushed off criticism of the high cost of his administration's controversial crime camera program, arguing that problems are inevitable when you're blazing technological trails.

  "I want to remind the public that this is something that we pioneered," the mayor said when asked about reports of rampant overpayments to the contractors who supplied the cameras, which have been plagued by malfunctions. "When you do research and development and you pioneer things, you know, you're going to have some issues."

And the BIG local angle?

• During an appearance on WVUE-TV, Nagin also said that at a recent meeting of U.S. mayors, he chatted about crime cameras with Chicago's Richard Daley: "I was just in Washington and Mayor Daley came up to me and he said, 'Look, I like these crime cameras you guys are doing in New Orleans. They're cheaper than hiring more police officers and we're going to do them in a big way in Chicago.' "

Welcome to the new Chicago Police model. More cameras. Less officers. Boots on the ground be damned. And the incident touted as justification for the millions spent on cameras?

• ...The New York Times last month published a story about how Chicago's 911 system recently was linked with cameras across the city, allowing dispatchers to track criminal suspects based on information provided by callers.

  The new system helped authorities in December catch a thief who had filched the contents of a Salvation Army kettle, according to the story.

But where are all the murderers caught? Where are all the shootings prevented? What about all the open air drug markets shut down so the children of Englewood, Lawndale, Pilsen and Pullman can run barefoot in the park, flying kites and playing marbles?

Well, those children don't mean shit to Daley as long as his connected friends, aldercreatures and relatives make their buck off the taxpayers. The cameras have solved ZERO murders, prevented NOT ONE shooting and shut down NOT A SINGLE open air drug market. And we're still short almost 1,000 officers from the totals of 12 years ago and getting shorter every day.

A big thanks to Larry from NYPD Rant and John Northen for bringing this to our attention.