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Recording the Police
Bruce Schneier says "I've written a lot on the 'War on Photography,' where normal people are harassed as potential terrorists for taking pictures of things in public. This article is different; it's about recording the police: Allison's predicament is an extreme example of a growing and disturbing trend. As citizens increase their scrutiny of law enforcement officials through technologies such as cell phones..."
Start here.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/21/how-to-record-the-cops
46 & 2
The Chicago artist Chris Drew was charged with a felony and faces 15 years imprisonment for making an audio recording of his own arrest:
http://www.c-drew.com/blog
http://www.wellesparkbulldog.com/news/chris-drew-granted-a-continuance-in-free-speech-trial
http://chilaborarts.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/why-is-it-a-felony-to-record-your-own-arrest-c-drew/
I just heard on the radio today that cops arrested some Maryland Libertarians who were trying to collect signatures to appear on the state ballot. The LP members were asked to stop, and then when one of them whipped out a camera to document the unconstitutional limitation (the MD SC already ruled in favor of ACORN that petitioning is legal), the cops arrested them for assault.
This is the second time. About two weeks ago a motorcyclist with a helmet cam was arrested when he posted a traffic stop on youtube. The cop had pulled a gun on the citizen w/o identifying himself AS a cop (he was plain clothes), and then the Police Bureau arrested the man after the Chief saw the video online. It seems Maryland is turning into a tyranny.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
It stops being the rule of law and becomes the rule of man when you cannot punish the prosecutor for abusing his power.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Most citizen review boards are rubber stamps for the police leadership, exonerating police brutality and OKing police shootings.
There is a related opinion piece on Salon.com right now:
The government's one-way mirror
You're not old until regret takes the place of your dreams.
Last city I lived in with alot of police shootings of civilian non suspects was Portland Oregon.
Where we have things like the police shooting unarmed people in the back.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/11/family_of_aaron_campbell_files.html
"Campbell, 25, was shot in an apartment parking lot in North Portland. Police had been called to the scene on a report of a suicidal man who was armed. Campbell came out of the apartment with his hands behind his head, walking backward toward police, witnesses said. Police, who said he ignored commands to put his hands up, hit him with six beanbag rounds. Frashour then hit him in the back, firing the fatal shot with his AR-15 rifle. The officer said he saw Campbell reaching with both hands toward the back waistband of his pants and thought he might be reaching for a gun."
But I'm sure to you everyone is a "perp".
So if it's OK to use cameras to prevent store clerks from committing crimes (or document them), why is it not OK to use cameras to prevent police officers from committing crimes (or document them)?
Because the USA has become a police state.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
I would estimate the actual number at much higher than 9 out of 10. In my business (restaurant chain) I'm in charge of a approx 100 cameras at a couple dozen locations.
Company wide-
We fire at least 100-200 employees per year for theft.
We generally get burglarized a few times a year.
We've been robbed at gunpoint twice in the past decade.
Of the burglaries and robberies that I know of, at least half were inside jobs, with former or current employees to blame. So well over 99% of theft is internal, in my company. Camera positioning definitely reflects that.
Undercover police are allowed to say they aren't cops. That's kind of the whole point.
Entrapment laws are to protect people from going to jail for something they wouldn't have done if they weren't asked to; not for something they wouldn't have done if they didn't think they could get away with it.
9 out of 10? Wow, is that a real statistic?
That's a statistic that I made up. At the particular 7-Eleven store I mention, the real figure was actually 10 out of 10. And if I want to rely strictly on my own experience, I'm not sure I'm aware of any cases in all my history of working retail where money was taken from a store where the culprit wasn't an employee. That includes cases where an employee and his friends staged a fake robbery for the cameras.
I'm talking cash money now. Merchandise? Sure. People steal merchandise all the time. But cameras don't usually catch people stealing merchandise. Cameras catch employees taking money from the till.
Maybe there's something to this thing about treating employees decently?
Quit jerking yourself off. My boss at this particular 7-Eleven was a great guy. I'm really sad that he's dead of cancer now. He was suffering from cancer the entire time I worked there, and I pulled many a double shift when some asshole failed to show up for work, because I sure as hell wasn't calling this poor guy up in the middle of the night to close the shop because my relief hadn't shown up. If he had any fault, I reckon it was hiring the wrong people -- because the clowns he put his faith in stole from him left and right. I tried to warn him, others tried to warn him, but if you're of a certain generation, I guess, you tend to trust people you shouldn't.
Breakfast served all day!