Seattle Sues Attorney For Requesting Police Dash-Cam Footage

Reason.com ^ | 1-5-12 | Lucy Stiegerwald

[apoliticalone]

Seattle has a brilliant solution to their many police problems — refuse to release police dash-cam footage, then sue the person requesting said footage.

[apoliticalone]

“The spin that “Reason” (Think Paultards, Libertines, Tin Foil Hatters) is putting on the story is nothing short of ridiculous. They are hoping that stupid people will buy the spin.”

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Yeah I know some prefer jackboots, more laws, more rules, and more government, but I still prefer freedom and liberty over all of the above.

[bamahead]

"What the police department is saying is if you make a request for public documents, ultimately you will be sued."



Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[TPOOH]

How would you define “police state”?

[leapfrog0202]

[apoliticalone]

How would you define “police state”?

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The term “Police state” is a matter of public perception.

If the public at large feels wary of, angry at, or intimidated by the police, then we have a “police state”......as opposed to a public that offers and gets positive support from a police force that defends and works for the citizenry.

The direction of public perception in this matter is not clear. Unlike many countries, we Americans don’t put up with BS or attempts at intimidation from “public servants” for very long.

[AnTiw1]

" The jackboots in that liberal rat commie loving ‘diverse’ cesspool/sewer known as Seattle are the most corrupt and out of control PD in the good old USA."

If that's so, the JSO in Jacksonville Florida are a photo finish second.

[muir_redwoods]

Yes they do need to make those changes. The courts have ruled that they cannot be sued for failing to protect citizens since they have no legal obligation to protect individual citizens, merely to preserve civil order.

[Aevery_Freeman]

Are you one of those Occupy Wall Street types who believe that all corporations are conspirators?

Utmost Certainty is correct, virtually all governmental functions that do not involve elected office should by contracted from and provided by private businesses.

The Free market system provides far more honesty and integrity than political union cronyism.

[bamahead]

Utmost Certainty is correct, virtually all governmental functions that do not involve elected office should by contracted from and provided by private businesses.

Personally I don't disagree with in the least when it comes to privatizing public services that have traditionally been provided by local & state gov'ts - like trash collection, water/sewer service, public transit, etc. Private corporations have an incentive to provide those services - for which there is rather static demand -at lower cost to the taxpayer and lower their operational costs to make a profit doing it.

But serious corruption and constitutional concerns can and do occur with Big Business and Big Gov't form alliances that can profit by denying Americans' freedom. The Private Prison lobby is one such example right now, that is just starting to get out of control. Private jail lobbies fill the campaign coffers of state elected officials, who in some limited instances have gone on to build jails that aren't needed, and then pass laws which increase mandatory sentencing minimums for what most people would consider rather petty crimes. The Private prison system, of course, benefits with more taxpayer dollars per inmate, per year. So it's in their financial interest that more people go to jail. Some info in this article from AZ:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/09/04/20110904arizona-prison-business-politics.html

Also, a story from a couple of years ago, where two judges were indicted in a kickback scandal in PA. They were sending juviniles who really had no prior records and committed very 'young and stupid' like offenses away to privatized juvinile detention centers - run by a company which it turned out later, they had some business ties to:

Pennsylvania rocked by 'jailing kids for cash' scandal

This is why privatizing police is NOT a good idea, IMO. Not that these companies are evil, but there is the massive potential for corruption at the POLITICAL level when there's incentive to deny due process and skirt constitutional protections in our justice system to enhance the bottom line (and increase one's re-election campaign contributions). Slippery, slippery slope.

[Aevery_Freeman]

Far be it from public unions to provide kickbacks to their employers.

Oh, wait - those are called political contributions.

To paraphrase a common gun argument; companies are not evil, people are.

Enterprises run by man will always be subject to corruption - the free market system limits the damage.

[bamahead]

Far be it from public unions to provide kickbacks to their employers.

No doubt. If you read that whole AZ Central article - one of the most vocal critics of the entire privatization thing is...you guessed it, public-unions.

Personally I think we stand to limit the damage more by writing more politician, private-contractor and/or union accountability into the laws themselves. Make those in the public trust pay for their foul-ups and come to justice for their shady dealings at every level. THAT is what's really at the core of most of these problems! There is zilcho accountability for any public official or any beneficiary of public trust, anywhere.

Name me one law or policy that's written such as where the entities executing it can stand accountable for their malfeasance? Hard pressed.

[apoliticalone]

I agree.

Privatizing government functions and requiring taxpayers to pay for it via taxes is something I do not generally support because it leads to costly corruption. The real goal is to keep government small enough that we can pay for it, and so it doesn’t take our rights, not to give politicians and their partners in crime opportunities to steal.

Any time public private partnerships exist where tax dollars directly feed corporate interests, there is always a strong tendency between the involved parties, politicians and bureaucrats to create collusion and corruption that in the end becomes much more costly to taxpayers than having government do the function itself.

Our politicians are very astute (not necessarily honest) handing out lucrative contracts paid for directly by other people’s money (taxpayers) to well heeled corporations. When it comes to selling or leasing a public asset they will make deals and under-price it for their cronies costing us once again. The bureaucrats that are entrusted to manage the private aspect soon find lucrative revolving door benefits and they will be managing it for their benefit, not ours.

So in the end some functions like trash collection that can be mandated out totally and then directly paid by the users are more amenable to privatizing than those functions where it behooves citizens to have direct control and not have their taxes taken and given to corporations.

[Aevery_Freeman]

We could provide the same accountability in the contracts with private companies and require bonding of the employees.

As a public school teacher, I see firsthand how a union monopoly harms everyone involved and how the free market would help. We are so inculcated with the concept that police, fire and education departments must be staffed by public employees that it is sometimes hard to visualize the alternative.

[Gene Eric]

>> “What the police department is saying is if you make a request for public documents, ultimately you will be sued.”

Wow!

[apoliticalone]

Are you one of those Occupy Wall Street types who believe that all corporations are conspirators?

I'm one of those Americans who continues to see USA small business and corporations as a strong and important part of our country and economy. I once agreed that when GE was doing well the USA was doing well. That changed when US corporations became global (Chinese, India, Japan, Mexico, USA) corporations. I'm no longer nearly as enamored or trusting. They no longer show or have any loyalty or patriotism towards America unlike many Americans in the military who have died for the USA. The only thing many of these global corporations will die for is another big bonus to send more jobs offshore. Their strategic view sees our USA sovereignty as a problem. I find it even more problematic that they (as globalist non-USA citizens) can use their vast sums of money to control who gets elected in our government. Does that answer your question?

Utmost Certainty is correct, virtually all governmental functions that do not involve elected office should by contracted from and provided by private businesses.

I touched on that below. Some things in government I would support privatization. But I generally don't enthusiastically support my tax dollars going to the private sector via politicians most of which are crooked and experienced at taking shovelfuls of our money in the process, thus costing us even more. Make the actual financial exchange directly between the end user taxpayer and the business. I'd feel much more confident in reducing the corruption potential if only we'd once see a real prosecution and punishment (execution would be best, but 20 yrs at hard labor would suffice) of the political elite and those on the take when they get caught. Until then they will view scamming the system as a low risk high reward venture.

The Free market system provides far more honesty and integrity than political union cronyism.

Your idealism is commendable. Mine is jaded and tainted. Crony capitalism runs rampant in the USA between the politicians and the big "private" players like the TBTF banks and they all use our tax money and they get rich as we get poorer.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Unlike many countries, we Americans don’t put up with BS or attempts at intimidation from “public servants” for very long.

What century did you write this in? You certainly haven't been to an airport recently.

[apoliticalone]

Agreed, hopefully not too optimistic for our once freedom loving culture that has been coerced into accepting what they throw at us.

[Forgotten Amendments]

I'm afraid we've gone to freedom loathing in the past couple of generations.

Years ago, I thought those polls that said Russians were nostalgic for the days of Stalin were a bunch of commie propaganda. But no, people are sheep. They want a dictator and what's left of America is no different. :(

[Altariel]

The problem is that the State is selecting to enforce the law that currently is in the best interest of *the State and its agents*, and *ignore* the other law.

That doesn’t bode well for constitutional liberties.

[willamedwardwallace]

No, the City is asking the Court to tell it what it should do since there is an ambiguity in the law.