April 21, 2012

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "ZG: Big Brother and, um, modern-historical art "

"Because ZG likes a good party, he was at Aspen Highlands’ closing fête on Sunday.

Taking a short break from tippling and glancing up-slope, he was a bit startled to see three local cops on the hillside above the party, one with a video camera.

Were they taping to find scallywags? Letting their presence be known to prevent a riot? Or was it a major step in the direction of Big Brother-esque surveillance?

None of the above, said Blair Weyer, the always-pleasant public information officer for the Aspen Police Department.

She said Chief Richard Pryor “requested that an officer record video footage from the Highlands closing party to help determine the scale of the event for future consideration in the [city’s] special events permitting process.”

Police were not looking to record any specific criminal activity (like freeloaders trying to muscle in on the Daily News’ tab, for instance).

“This is a practice that we have also used during other special events — X Games and the Pro Cycling Challenge, for example — so we can better understand the type of crowd that attends these events and how we can best maintain a safe environment for them,” Weyer said.

ZG approves, because if there’s something you need when you’ve rearranged your mental chemistry with John Barleycorn and god knows what else, it’s safety....." (Read more?  See what else ZG sees? Click title.)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

1 comment:

sumfu said...

Must be all that no gang activity that amounts to anything up in Basalt that makes boarding even necessary.