The Place Where Ludington Talks
Waterfront Loo Cameras Meet Their Waterloo
Ludington Officials Finally Remove Video Cameras from Waterfront Bathrooms After Being Threatened by Their Forced Removal by a Citizen
Our founding fathers of this country realized the potential within each and every one of the citizens when they become motivated by an oppressive government performing wrong actions. When they address the government for redress against such intolerabilities and get summarily ignored despite the facts of the controversy showing malfeasance, then they have the civic duty to correct the wrong, to assert that the common good shall uproot the public evil thus created.
Such was the case in Ludington as regards our local officials installing hidden cameras inside our public restroom with the stated cause of cutting down on vandalism. When it was learned and publicly announced in local news outlets after being addressed at a council meeting on August 26, 2013, the City Manager and Police Chief of Ludington went in full damage control mode for the cameras installed even prior to when they first arrived, strangling the truth in the process.
And yet, other than some signs being hung on the outside of restrooms telling people that their bathroom experience may be videotaped, nothing really was done after the news outlets and Michigan State Police took the officials at their word. This whole year, the offensive cameras still peered out of their vents, their lenses plainly visible from inside the bathroom stalls.
Meanwhile, folks from all over Michigan, even including here in Ludington, and here in Ada, were getting hard jail and prison time for doing the exact same thing that officials were doing here for no good reason. According to Police Chief Mark Barnett talking to the MSP, there has never been any property damage or any other crime occurring within the Waterfront Park bathrooms for the 14 years they've been there. So why are they there and why the effort to hide them in the vent where they look down into the stalls?
Despite the official response, I was still getting a universal thumbs down on bathroom cameras from those not serving as Ludington officials. In scary fashion, officials ignored the problem other than Wallace Cain who gave a thumbs up for having his bowel movements captured on tape at that same August 26 meeting, who was roundly thanked by Councilor Holman afterwards.
Any hope for getting these invasive cameras out from our the Waterfront restroom vents was not going to be initiated by these guys, even though Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett said he would remove these cameras, that he alleged were not inoperable, out of the restroom vents last August to his friend in the MSP, Lt. Kevin Leavitt from the Hart MSP, who is now retired. City Manager John Shay apparently never got the memo that they were inoperable as he was wanting to sell the video of July 13 and 14, 2013 for about $150 as per a FOIA response. Public extortion is not a new charge for City Manager Shay, nor is lying about records on FOIA responses in a sworn affidavit.
But on this year's August 25, I gave these two officials and their comrades in the city council my intentions on correcting the problem: "...barring any responsible, uncorrupted official in the area coming forth and demanding the law being enforced or removing the offensive cameras, I will donate my time over this next weekend to remove the hidden cameras from the vents inside the Waterfront Park bathrooms, and will deliver those two cameras to the LPD next Tuesday."
Every one of them decided to ignore the ultimatum at the meeting, and I thought I would have the same result from an E-mail sent to the chief and manager later that night saying:
"As stated, I will remove the two bathroom cameras hidden in the vents at the Waterfront Restrooms this weekend, unless they are removed before then. I will have the operation well documented, and will return the cameras on Tuesday, after Labor Day.
Notice he says the vent cameras are 'non-working' even though he attempted to sell their video a year ago. I took a lady with me to the Waterfront Park late on Friday afternoon to check this out, and believe-it-or-not, the clearly visible 'dummy cameras' were removed from both bathrooms (only the outlet box remains)... but the vent cameras were still peering down their usual sight line. Once again, John Shay had not told the truth, but at least the one camera was down.
Resignedly, I accepted the fact that I would need to bring a ladder, a screwdriver, pliers, and a film crew down to the bathrooms on either Sunday or Labor Day. Early Sunday, I went down to check out what exactly I would need to finish the job.
However, something amazing happened. An official or their agent had apparently finished the job since Friday afternoon. The camera that used to be clearly visible when you zoomed into it...
...was nowhere to be seen inside the vent on either the women's or men's side. The women's side vents were even entirely out, with just a gaping hole in the wall remaining.
All that was left for us to do was to remain vigilant in the future, so that the same people who let these cameras sit in those vents for 14 years and tried to sell footage that supposedly didn't exist for an exorbitant fee do not invade our privacy ever again in this fashion.
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