Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackadar
Regardless of the outcome here, I think it's high time that cops just start wearing body cameras all the time with legal muscle to back it up so that tapes can not be destroyed. It would resolve much of the confusion in some cases. If Brown was shot from 20 feet away with his hands up, there's zero justification for that shooting regardless of what happened 5 minutes or 5 seconds before. If he was shot 5 feet away in an aggressive pose, then there would be good reason for that. We'd know with a camera.
The city of Rialto did this a couple of years ago. Officers' use of force went down by 60% while public complaints dropped over 80%. Those statistics are staggering.
http://www.policefoundation.org/site...e-of-Force.pdf
I'm not generally big on cameras and "big brother", but I think it's gotten to the point that the only way out is to hold both sides accountable for their actions - criminals and cops - and to do so impartially. The camera doesn't lie. |
Exactly. Cameras make everyone behave better, generally.
Per a CNN article I linked to in another thread, Ferguson police don't have dash cams because the budget isn't there.
It seems as though a lot of the issues here are also rooted in money:
- crumbling tax base for a variety of reasons
- revenue not there to adequately support services, police, etc
- revenue not there to be competitive in hiring the best police candidates (and the best ones leave for higher paying jobs in the more affluent suburbs)
On that last note, as an aside, it seemed to me that the stereotypical Police Officer's career path in metro NYC was to start out in the NYPD, survive until the pension kicks in, and then move on to a cushy police gig in a Long Island suburb. I could be off-base, though.