English Assignment – Fear Must Not Blind Us to Fact

English Assignment – Fear must not blind us to fact.

Simon Nguyen 10D

Fear must not blind us to the fact, written by Cameron Bright, is a response opinion piece that explains that CCTV cameras don’t stop crime and to raise awareness that crime rates haven’t dropped. The piece shows how adding more cameras don’t help.

The author begins with an example of how a Melbourne woman whose assailant was caught on CCTV was shown. When reading this speech, readers are shown that many people were affected by this by showing that there is an ‘overwhelming’ amount of people wanting to fund more cameras. The author then goes on to say that the government has to ‘weight the facts’ before they waste money to fund a ‘venture that evidence suggests actually makes no appreciable difference to public safety’. The use of inclusive language shows that the reader is a part of the situation, making us question how safe we are.

The author then goes on to show an example of how CCTV doesn’t reduce random attacks. In his argument, it is shown how Cameron explains to us that even though in the UK, ‘which has the highest concentration of CCTV cameras around the world’, the crime rates have remained ‘higher than the rest of Europe’. The use of anecdotes reinforces his point, expressing that cameras don’t have an impact on crime. This makes us feel that cameras don’t help with stopping crime. He then goes on to say that ‘numerous studies’ shows that it has only a ‘marginal impact on crime’ and that CCTV doesn’t ‘reduce random violent attacks’. The author uses ethical appeal to impose on the reader that CCTV doesn’t make the streets safer. He then goes on to say that there is ‘no evidence’ to show that they will make Melbourne a safer place to live. He then uses emotional language make us feel unacceptable for the loss of a ‘young victim’ in the attack.

In arguing that CCTV doesn’t lower crime rates, Cameron Bright then goes on to say that it is an impractical