‘It’s such a dumb argument’: Curley urges Mayor Wilson to activate security cameras for FIFA World Cup

As the FIFA World Cup in Seattle is right around the bend, the ongoing conversation over whether security cameras around the stadium should be turned on or off grows larger, while Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has been on the fence in her decision.

As it stands, the current plan for the security cameras is to have them set up and ready to go, but would only be turned on in anticipation of an immediate threat.

John Curley, host of “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, urged Wilson to be proactive and “just turn them on” for good and avoid any impending backlash in case something tragic were to happen while they were inactive.

“The ongoing battle that the mayor has been having with the fact that, well, we’re going to put cameras up, but we’re going to put them up when there’s an imminent threat,” Curley said. “That’s silly. The weird part is we don’t want to turn them on because we don’t want people that are in this city, in this state, in this country illegally that have snuck into the country, we don’t want them to feel unsafe.

“So, we don’t want people that have broken the law and come into the country to feel that they can’t just walk around the city and not get taken,” he continued. “Therefore, we’ll have people that are walking around the stadium who are in this country legally, and possibly be assaulted by somebody, and the ability to be able to catch the person that assaulted you is greatly decreased because we didn’t have a camera to get images of the person. It’s such a dumb argument, but the mayor is kind of stuck.”

A potential worst-case scenario looms if the security cameras stay off

Curley outlined Wilson’s shifting stance on the cameras, noting that while her supporters have held firm, any act of violent crime would quickly tip public opinion in favor of turning them on.

“She’s caught between a rock and a hard place. She should just make the decision. She kind of moved back and forth, no, and then yes, and then maybe,” Curley said. “Just turn it on. Take the hit on this one, Katie, because this is common sense. The activists who want to continue to fight for people who are in the sanctuary city who have broken the law and entered the country illegally. They are going to have to take one in the shorts on this.

“You’re going to have to turn the cameras on, because just for a moment, imagine the worst-case scenario,” he continued. “It’s after a Mariners game, 70,000 people, you don’t have [the cameras on], and somebody gets stabbed. If something happens, and you don’t have them on, it’s going to be far worse because you will hear it from everyone. You do not want to be out there with the liability of knowing that you have all the cameras and the stuff in place. A little bit of preparation on this side will make it a lot easier on the other side.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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