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Neighborhood Bad Guy Cards

Wanted people and suspicious activities in your area
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This idea consists of cards with known criminals that have been seen or suspicious activities that have been going on close to your neighborhood. Basically law enforcement would put the information on cards the size of regular playing cards or maybe even smaller. This would then be distributed to the specific neighborhoods and areas. For instance local grocery stores or libraries may be good distribution points and the cards would be free of course. This would be easy enough to carry around with you and pull out any time and review. Law enforcement would have many more eyes to help do their job and it also would be an effective way to keep neighborhoods informed and alert. Whenever they are caught the kids can collect and trade them.
bkornele, Feb 28 2004

(?) Most Wanted Playing Cards http://www.ananova....tory/sm_770935.html
Big neighborhood. [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

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       Brings new meaning to the saying, "I've got your card." + for ingenuity though.
Apologetic_Cynic, Feb 28 2004
  

       i don't know about trading them. do we really want kids to look up to criminals?
cardeguy, Feb 28 2004
  

       I agree, [cardeguy] (if that *is* your real username). There's a certain cachet to making it onto a playing card.
phundug, Feb 28 2004
  

       You are correct the collect and trade idea was a last minute thought that is just bad. Thanks for pointing that out.
bkornele, Feb 28 2004
  

       Amusing concept. I would be horrified to find my elf on one of these, but a lot of serious hard cases would be proud, so it would probably not deter much thuggery in itself.
normzone, Feb 28 2004
  

       Children already do look up to criminals. I mean look at your average rap or rock song. Most of it has to do with illegal drugs, illicit sex/rape, and othr crime settings. But at least this is more wholesome because it's in a neighborhood setting!   

       The idea of placing pictures of "Bad Guys" onto playing cards isn't remotely original. It's well known that the US Armed Forces have used this same method with at least nominal success to aid in the apprehension of high-ranking enemy officials and personnel in Iraq, so it becomes a question of defining the "Neighborhood".   

       On a local level, I think the potential physical dangers inherent in asking ordinary citizens to aid in the apprehension of fugitive criminals and suspected perpetrators largely outweigh the benefits.   

       Even so, if someone who has been tried and convicted of criminal activity (whether it's Bank Robbery, or Breaking and Entry, or Pederasty) moves into your neighborhood, I think you should have the right to be informed of that individual's background and the obligation to keep an eye out for subsequent criminal activity. Pictorial "Bad Guy / Bad Gal Cards" seem like an effective means of getting accurate information into the hands of local residents, employees, and business operators.   

       As an example, I would want my child to be aware of the identity of any individual living nearby (e.g., between home and school grounds, or a 1/4 mile radius) who had been convicted of either child abuse or pederasty, and to be able to consciously and conspicuously avoid contact with that person. This was addressed to some degree with the passage of "Megan's Law" in California, however limitations in favor of the felon's civil rights have made it largely ineffective.   

       I would tend to discount the assertion that children "do look up to criminals". They look up to people who appear to be succeeding: emotionally, socially, athletically or financially (and sometimes that includes success in criminal activity, but only if you don't get caught). It's hard to look "successful" if your picture is on a playing card that identifies you as a "Bad Guy" due to a record of conviction.
jurist, Feb 28 2004
  

       [jurist] You are correct that if I offered this idea to use in the military it would not be original but it is not the idea that is original it is the application of that method. It is the application that needs to be focused on with using a similar technique in local law enforcement as the military use in the Iraq situation. The military used this technique quite successfully and I am just suggesting that applying it in a different environment might be a solution.   

       I have not been sleeping under a rock for the last couple years and I am well aware of "The Most Wanted Playing Cards". This is where this very idea stemmed from.
bkornele, Mar 01 2004
  

       You'd only end up paying a tax increase to pay police officers to protect the people on the cards from vigilante mobs. Which is probably not the reason behind this idea.   

       What exactly is the point of these? Are you imagining that "suspicious" people will stand around and let you check their faces against 50 or so photos in your deck of cards? Are there really that many notorious criminals on the run in your neighbourhood? And if they're not on the cards, you'll be "ok, go right ahead and steal that car"?   

       (And I think distributing pictures of wanted criminals doesn't count as a new idea.)
kropotkin, Mar 01 2004
  

       Yeah. I like to put everything on cards from shopping list to spelling words for my little ones. It may never catch on but who knows.
bkornele, Mar 01 2004
  

       First of all, how many middle-schoolers do you think will try to get their face on a card? Second of all, I don't know about your neighborhood, but I don't have 54 people in the neighborhood that I believe are 'bad guys'. I fear this will result in blacklisting of 'potential' criminals -- people who are simply disliked by the community and therefore watched like hawks.
imagine002, Mar 05 2004
  

       What [imagine002] said is important. Also, criminals are fluid in their living arrangements and don't stay in one place for too long generally.
jackottabox, Mar 05 2004
  

       In Canada the criminals could probably sue the card manufacturer for defaming their character.
python, Mar 05 2004
  

       I like this as a fact that it would make an awesome cereal box toy. But why do you have to trade them after they are caught?
croissantz, Apr 28 2006
  

       Baked! Communities predisposed to "pre-judgementalities" have been using this idea with CD album covers for years! Now, all of their children's mentors and idols are R&B artists.
Macdaddyx1, Feb 10 2008
  

       //I would tend to discount the assertion that children "do look up to criminals"//   

       Around here, ASBO's (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) are worn as a badge of honour.
wagster, Feb 10 2008
  


 

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