Posted on 11/27/2014 6:58:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Body-worn cameras are poised to become standard for police around the U.S. after the tragedy in Ferguson
In the fevered moments after the grand jury’s decision not to charge Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, the family of the slain 18-year-old released a statement pleading for peace — and urging people to join their campaign to get police around the nation to wear cameras.
“We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen,” the statement read. “Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera.”
The crusade is understandable. No video recordings of the Aug. 9 confrontation between Wilson and Brown exist, and eyewitness accounts of the incident were often in conflict. Some said Brown had his hands up when he was shot. Others said Brown was charging toward Wilson when he officer fired. To many, a camera on Wilson’s uniform would have ended the uncertainty and potentially avoided the subsequent tumult that engulfed the St. Louis suburb.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
The trial lawyers lobby will be paying off big city politicians to make sure cameras are not adopted.
That's very similar to what GZ said a minute or two after the cops arrived.A cop lied to him (SCOTUS has ruled that cops are allowed to lie to suspects in certain situations),saying that the entire incident had been caught on video.When told this GZ expressed relief and approval that that had occurred.
Both GZ's reaction and Wilson's comment scream *not guilty* to me.
IMHO, there is a deeper problem.
Our judicial system was formed from a Judeo-Christian heritage. It holds that the law is formed to control the unrighteous, not the righteous man. Our perspectives on liberty are based upon this premise. Our rules of evidence are also formed to ensure the righteous man is not impeded, while the unrighteous or criminal guilty of violating the law, may be properly identified in that judgment.
This is different than the perspective of the moral relativist. Given the rules of evidence, assumed not guilty until proven guilty, and entitled to liberty until proven guilty, those who are not Judeo-Christian will be tempted to reinterpret ‘rights’, freedom, liberty, and justice from their perspective.
While the common Judeo-Christian/western perspective of a camera providing evidence to exonerate those respecting the law and legitimate authority, those who oppose, reject, and attack Judeo-Christian beliefs will be tempted to use such information to undermine the established legal system.
Instead of exonerating the lawful, it will be used to form post-event consensus of guilt independent of existing laws.
Just like Ferguson, where the masses ignore legitimate authority, and focus upon a person’s loss of liberty and life, regardless his actions, the cameras will merely be used to fuel the same perspective to attack legitimate authority.
In the case of MB, now that he is dead, he won’t be charged with violating the law, nor will he be declared a criminal by the judicial system. Since he will be considered innocent until proven guilty, and he will never be charged, moral relativists will instead focus on vengeance for his death.
If ever there were a “non-partisan” issue, this is it.
I don’t think anyone objects on the face of it.
That appears to be what’s been going on up north. Southern police department have almost universally been installing/issuing cameras for years and years now, but for *some* reason (-rolleyes-) northern departments have not.
I believe some few might be rethinking that now. Or will be when the increased insurance bills start rolling in.
Some police unions, chiefs, and cities seem to. Strangely, the list of where this happens read like a list of “the top most corrupt departments/cities/etc in the US.” Or perhaps not so strangely.
Committing strong arm robberies and attempting to take a law officers gun at age 18 means that the odds of reaching 19 are not good.
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The sad fact is that had Wilson not killed MB in self defense..another policeman at another time probably would have for some transgression. The obituary was written long ago..by his “parents”.
Had Michael Brown killed Darren Wilson, they'd be high-fiving each other and smoking a celebratory doobie. This is tribalism, pure and simple.
What we really need is for all elected officials from POTUS on down to wear body-cams 24/7 wired to the Interwebs so we can be sure that they are not betraying us.
A body camera isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s one that has my wholehearted support, as long as procedures are in-place to prevent unauthorized editing/tampering with video. In other words, I think there should be a chain of custody when the storage medium is removed from the camera or downloaded.
On the other side of the coin I would like to see would be a blanket declaration from a high court that photographing police publicly performing their duty is absolutely Constitutional in all instances. This should be a citizen’s absolute right.
My suspicions rise when I hear about municipalities with regulations against recording police action.
“If ever there were a “non-partisan” issue, this is it.
I don’t think anyone objects on the face of it.”
right now they do, but when the democrats discover that incidences of police misconduct are rare, and youtube becomes full of videos of black perps, they will start to fight it tooth and nail.
+1.
I suspect you're right.
Let's do it before they catch on.
Just look at the camera shots from inside the convenience store in this particular case.
Put cameras all over the place, and a lot of the things you never wanted to know about the quasi-humanoid mutant subculture in places like Ferguson, MO will be out there for everyone to see.
How about all Government Workers wearing them as well.
That way the people that pay their Salaries, that would be us Taxpayers, can see what we’re getting for our “investment”.
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