User-Created Justice (Frosty's Revenge)

Matt Williquette from Colerain Township and his inflatable Frosty have gone quickly from a local story to a national item via Chris Jansing on MSNBC, who was playing the video clip. (Because the media, this week, discovered user-created content.)

Why are they in the news? Well, after two acts of vandalism in which the lovable snowman was slashed and deflated - along with the Christmas spirit of the local children - Mr. Williquette decided to install a WiFi camera to catch the criminals in the act.

It takes a special kind of stupid to repeat the same crime three times in the same location, but these young men rose to the occasion, and now they are on national TV, knifing the snowman in a fit of idiotic maliciousness. They can be seen clearly - and when they are caught I'm expecting we will discover yet another pair of daddy-free teens with little concept of a future.

Now what's the problem with video cameras again? They seem like the only folks they inconvenience are people who rely on the fact that nobody is watching when they break the law. Politically liberal cities as wide-flung as London and Chicago have deployed municipal cameras to good effect. Civil libertarians will always raise the same familiar complaints, but I'm not seeing any downside to watching our public spaces. In fact, I suspect the complaint has more to do with who is making the suggestion. If the surveillance proponent looks like John Ashcroft, well we're on a slippery slope to a police state! But if he or she is a compassion-drunk Democrat who talks about the children's safety it's a different story. Bring on the cameras.

This blogger doesn't live on a cul-de-sac in the exurbs. In my neighborhood if you leave a $20 bill on the front seat of your car while parked on the street month after month sooner or later some passer-by will try the door. And I've got a webcam - it takes great pictures. Why not have some fun? Maybe it'll be on YouTube.

UPDATE: Nabbed, thanks to the video.