Okinawa drops plan to install cameras in entertainment district

Friday 12th December, 06:24 AM JST

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soldave at 09:01 AM JST - 12th December

It wasn't an "entertainment" district in the biblical sense of the word that Hadnott picked up the girl. He picked her up outside Koza Music Town in Okinawa City.

I do like how Kyodo News/JT continue to say he allegedly raped her, even though he was never indicted and allegations were dropped. Just think, if you didn't keepbringing it up, people might forget about it!
soldave at 09:47 AM JST - 12th December

Notginger - ain't that the truth. And yet the seem so eager to be on camera when it comes to showing any pictures of US base protests.
Badsey at 10:20 AM JST - 12th December

put the cameras up --> hold people responsible for their behavior.

Do it for Yoshie Sato.
FreeInJapan at 10:27 AM JST - 12th December

Just think, if the cameras were allowed and actually proved the evil gaijins DIDN'T do it, there would be mass chaos and confusion while they scrambled to look for someone else to point the finger at!! Honestly though, they need to decide what the hell they want... if you're so worried about what the military might do and get away with allow the cameras so they can be prosecuted with actual evidence. If you're so worried about a camera possibly seeing you walk down the street, then stop complaining about what the U.S. personnel may or may not be doing since you are unwilling to take steps to deter it.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the locals may be worried that the cameras can be used to catch Okinawans committing crimes as well?
nandakandamanda at 10:28 AM JST - 12th December

I'll bet you anything it was the Yxxxxx who control the place who were against the cameras. The foreigners are surely only a very minor sideshow.
VoXman at 10:43 AM JST - 12th December

We are all assuming that anything caught on camera that might embarass a J-Gov official or Yak would even surface? Magically there would be a malfunction in the CCTV that automatically occurs when locals are in range of the cameras.....
likeitis at 04:32 PM JST - 12th December

Krazy with a Kapital "K". Security cameras are not going to prevent very many rapes. They won't bring too many rapists to justice either. Take this case for example. Would a camera have shown him dragging her to the car by the hair? Is that what she alleged happened? If she got into the car willingly, then its going to take a camera aimed right at them with really good resolution to determine if it was rape or consensual sex, and mostly likely would even then come up inconclusive. The fact that the car is rocking on video just isn't going to do it. Its still going to boil down to her bruises and her word in 99.9 percent of all rape cases. Rape basically does not happen under a clearly lit street lamp by a random stranger except in the movies.

The plan is a bigger danger than a savior.
sharky1 at 05:25 PM JST - 12th December

Okay...Show me the statistics that show surveillance cameras are a crime deterrent...Oh...there are none because the fact is that surveillance do NOT deter crime, they only record crime. Besides, they might be recording too many officials in the act of hanky panky.
BBLeo at 05:57 PM JST - 12th December

I'm sorry, but to me this is a wrong move. Killers had been given 'card blanche' for more crimes. Whose idea is this again? This is not invasion of privacy but prevention of crime and identification of criminals. Cameras are the weapon to fight the crime day and night.
presto345 at 08:09 PM JST - 12th December

a lingering public concern that the plan could infringe on privacy

What a lot of bull.
tyedyed at 09:57 PM JST - 12th December

Cameras or No Cameras, people are still going to do what they do. The only thing cameras are going to do is allow you to say someone was in or was not in that spot at that time. I think more JN's will be worried about this. When they closed down the infamous Hooker box Red light district in Yokohama between Koganecho and Hinodecho stations, they put up cameras. Now the cameras are still there but they also have 3 police patroling the area on foot because the cameras didn't do anything to stop what was going on. I just smile and wave at the cameras and shake my head at the police when I'm walking from Koganecho to the buses next to Hinodecho station. Good exercise but very boring now. Was a very nice walk when all the pretty girls were there smiling from the litle boxes. Now it is a long stretch of vacant little 1 room apartment looking sliding doors. Some progress.
gonemad at 10:30 PM JST - 12th December

It is a common misbelief that security cameras would prevent any crime. Especially in the mentioned case, rape, security cameras are pure nonsense. Rape doesn't happen openly on a street (and even less so in a busy entertainment district).

There are places like e.g. London which are full of security cameras, yet London hasn't become any safer since they were installed. Obviously even deterrence through - supposedly - easier identification of criminals doesn't work. Just on the contrary, some heinous attacks have happened just because there were cameras to record it, as a "cool" way to make it into the evening news.

Sometimes it helps to think before you act and it's good to see even local governments are able to think.
bebert at 09:13 AM JST - 13th December

The Okinawa city government has decided against installing surveillance cameras ... due to a lingering public concern that the plan could infringe on privacy,

Well, good for Okinawa, you don't want to end up like Winston Smith's England. And last I heard, all of those cameras in London haven't deterred it's diversity in criminality.
mindovermatter at 11:20 AM JST - 13th December

Good for you...

Install all the damn cameras you want in your Entertainment district....

At least you'll be able to see the bouncer of some nightclub getting cracked over the head with a bottle by a group of marines, although it's probably not going deter them and you probably won't be able to identify any of the culprits, at the very least, you'll have the piece of mind knowing that the bouncer was telling the truth....
airrunwesker at 03:28 AM JST - 14th December

Look, there will be problems until there is a way for servicemen to live with their family members... The "family" is the 'group' in America.