A Passionate Voice Against Surveillance Cameras (Who Has Been Spilling LOADS Of Info!)

Photo By John Hoff

Nate Hansen, attorney at law, and I go way back. He was a class or two ahead of me at the University of North Dakota, and...

...represented the law school on the Student Senate. I was the guy who replaced Nathan on the Student Senate, but not because I beat Nathan in an election. The last thing on earth Nathan wanted was to run again. I was nominated to run by popular acclamation, as it were, some of it whipped up by Nathan himself. My campaign slogan was actually a plea for everybody to vote for another law student named Mike...Mike...something. I can't remember Mike's last name. I remember he owed me three bucks for MONTHS until he paid it back.

But my fellow law students voted for me over Mike, saying the Student Senate richly "deserved" John Hoff after the way they'd treated Nathan Hansen. I was compared to, among other things, a harsh laxative. But I actually had a pretty good time serving on the Student Senate. (Though I could see why Nathan got fed up)

Now that I'm on Facebook, I am trying to catch up with good ol' Nathan Hansen. It turns out we don't agree on everything, naturally. Nathan was a delegate at RNC 2008, I was out in the streets getting teargassed. (Click here)

Twice. (Click here)

Despite the privileged comfort and security he enjoyed inside XCel Energy Center while a Republican delegate (whose Libertarian leanings were spilling out all over the place) Nathan doesn't like the fact too much overbearing "security culture" has entered the lives of United States citizens, and Nathan actually obtained documents about the locations of all Minneapolis security cameras and posted all that info on his blog. Click here. It's amazing.

The link above will take you to a PDF document showing all the locations for the 4th Precinct, but Nathan's blog (click here) has other Minneapolis camera locations, too.

On the one hand, my blogging about this information actually helps Nathan's cause to "expose" the security cameras, which he opposes. But on the other hand, Nathan is doing well enough on his own trying to make this information very public. He actually got on Mayor Rybak's Facebook profile and tried to start a discussion about the security cameras, referring folks to his blog.

Since I actually SUPPORT the security cameras, and many (possibly most) of my faithful blog readers do, too, I'm forced to engage in somewhat paradoxical behavior: by telling everybody what Nathan Hansen is up to, I'm promulgating Nathan's info (admittedly) but I'm also providing information about Nathan's effort to the very folks who SUPPORT the cameras instead of the info being in the hands of just Nathan's preferred audience of individuals who DO NOT support the cameras and read Nathan's blog.

It's kind of like the time I emailed Diane Hofestede's office to tell her to vote in favor of the loitering ordinance...after I saw lots of posters on campus telling passersby to contact Hofestede and tell her to vote AGAINST the loitering ordinance. If Nathan is going to all the trouble of publicizing the camera locations to potential opponents, I'm going to publicize the locations (via a link to Nathan's blog) to surveillance camera SUPPORTERS. So there.

Paradox? Only slightly.

Personally, I'd like to see mobile cameras set up at trouble spots, like the crack dealing at 3020 6th St. N. or the ongoing problems with 2207 6th St. N. I see the cameras as a necessary evil. I'd argue for MORE cameras. But I also want Nathan Hansen to keep doing his thing. There needs to be counter-argument, points made against everybody stampeding in one direction with a mob mentality.

I hardly expect to agree with Nathan on everything. I've never agreed with Nathan on everything, but we've always been cool with each other and we've slogged through the same rancid parlimentary swamps of UND Student Government during back-to-back eras. And we both share a passion for public disclosure law, the area of law which made me seek my degree in the first place.

I am hoping to meet up with Nathan in the near future, have a beverage, and discuss (among other things) security cameras in the 4th Precinct.