That worked really well for police misconduct this Summer. It's all on film, because they know they'll get away with it.

I've pondered on this and wonder if religion could be the answer. I say this as an atheist. But churches, typically already established well in these areas, could have the community structure combines with good social values and zeal/commitment, even fanaticism to see through what would likely be tough time initially to cleaning up areas.

Something along the lines of a Knights Templar where segment of a community devote themselves to the protection of people in the area. It might even give youth an alternative to avoid gangs as while jobs are scarce they can join a 'higher order' so have an alternative that provides purpose and a raise in self-status.

Note: I know nothing about these areas or problems really so approach this mental exercise from a position of ignorance and Hollywood.

To quote a speech I heard in college: "It frustrates me to no end that, as a species, the religious are more fit. Their communities are more structured, and have less crime and violence. Their families larger, more nuclear and more supportive of each other. Their members are more relaxed, and have more purpose to their lives.

Evolution would state that, eventually, only the religious will survive. If there is a God, He is laughing."

Nonetheless, I don't think that would help here - the society has passed critical mass of crime, the incentives are for everyone to be criminal, and religion itself would be subverted for its use.

Religious communities may not be more fit. It depends on what measure you look at: http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.pdf

Fit from an evolutionary standpoint, i.e. (especially now) only the religious are having replacement levels of children.

I like idealistic people. Please, never change.

Me, on the other hand, as a citizen of a very corrupt corrupt country in which the specter of communism still linger heavily, I wonder how many officials would either "malfunction" cameras when cartel members would be caught on video OR would actively help cartel members organize their kidnappings.

Happens in countries perceived to be less corrupt as well. Consider the 'missing' video of Jeffrey Epstein's suicide.

Jails and prisons are where American society throws people away. There aren't working video cameras, competent guards, effective suicide watches. That's not where Americans choose to place their attention

The argument that Jeffery Epstein was murdered hinges on jails and prisons to be something they are not

This is conspiracy theory nonsense. Consider what percentage of video cameras in public spaces function at all.

It’s 2020. Cheap, long lasting cameras are ubiquitous and easily available. A 40 year old CCTV camera in a subway station might be likely to not work, but I don’t see why that’s comparable to a camera for one of the highest profile prisoners in recent years. For $100, they could have even had 2 cameras for redundancy and no excuse.

Prisons are not much of a target for tech upgrades. Here’s a 2018 study from california on “what happens if we put surveillance cameras in the prison?” to give you an idea of the baseline. https://ucicorrections.seweb.uci.edu/files/2018/05/High-Dese...

Then someone needs to be held responsible for this. Somebody is in charge of all of that and should face the consequences of their failure to fulfill their duties.

So are you and the other person in agreement that it's conspiracy theory nonsense then?

It reads to me like they're saying the conspiracy theory is valid, unless someone is held accountable for the CCTV failure.

Sure, it's a conspiracy of taxpayers to avoid the massive investment that would be required to bring all that technology back into working order - across public infrastructure everywhere throughout the country.

What percentage of BART cameras do you think work? Based on the number of high-profile incidents without footage, I'd guess <25%. I would not be surprised to learn the answer is 0%.

Consider yourself held responsible and allocate yourself the consequences you see fit.

No, you misunderstand. Somebody is in charge of that prison/jail. A person died under their watch. The equipment supposed to record how it happened malfunctioned right at that time. This should be unacceptable. The person directly responsible for the facility should bear at least some consequences for failure to do their duty. If they don't have enough funding to make sure that things like this don't happen then there should be an extensive paper trail of them asking for more funding for this. If not, then it sounds like it's not a problem they care about.

For me it's not a question of whether it's a conspiracy or not. For me it's a question about society. Not only can we not protect a very high profile individual from harm in a cell (self-inflicted or not), we can't even make sure that the cameras in the cell work. What chance do we have that prisons in general can protect prisoners from harm? And if we can't protect prisoners from harm then they'll do it themselves. That's how you get a gang culture. You also make sure that many criminals never even get a real chance at reforming, because they'll have to protect themselves in prison with the limited means at their disposal instead of learning to become a better person.

Yes, American prisons are as bad as this makes them look. Possibly worse. The UK refused to extradite one guy because they said there was too high a risk that he'd kill himself in prison here. Prison rape and assault are common - at least 20% of male prisoners report being assaulted, often by staff. And it's been like this for decades, all over the country, because a significant percentage of people really believe that prison is meant to be some kind of dystopic hellhole.

I think the issue is structural. It's an economic situation primarily.