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The Courage of Bystanders Who Press "Record"
HughPickens.com writes Robinson Meyer writes in The Atlantic that in the past year, after the killings of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, many police departments and police reformists have agreed on the necessity of police-worn body cameras. But the most powerful cameras aren't those on officer's bodies but those wielded by bystanders. We don't yet know who shot videos of officer Michael T. Slager shooting Walter Scott eight times as he runs away but "unknown cameramen and women lived out high democratic ideals: They watched a cop kill someone, shoot recklessly at someone running away, and they kept the camera trained on the cop," writes Robinson. "They were there, on an ordinary, hazy Saturday morning, and they chose to be courageous. They bore witness, at unknown risk to themselves."
"We have been talking about police brutality for years. And now, because of videos, we are seeing just how systemic and widespread it is," tweeted Deray McKesson, an activist in Ferguson, after the videos emerged Tuesday night. "The videos over the past seven months have empowered us to ask deeper questions, to push more forcefully in confronting the system." The process of ascertaining the truth of the world has to start somewhere. A video is one more assertion made about what is real concludes Robinson. "Today, through some unknown hero's stubborn internal choice to witness instead of flee, to press record and to watch something terrible unfold, we have one more such assertion of reality."
"We have been talking about police brutality for years. And now, because of videos, we are seeing just how systemic and widespread it is," tweeted Deray McKesson, an activist in Ferguson, after the videos emerged Tuesday night. "The videos over the past seven months have empowered us to ask deeper questions, to push more forcefully in confronting the system." The process of ascertaining the truth of the world has to start somewhere. A video is one more assertion made about what is real concludes Robinson. "Today, through some unknown hero's stubborn internal choice to witness instead of flee, to press record and to watch something terrible unfold, we have one more such assertion of reality."
I follow Photography Is Not A Crime on G+, and boy is it ever chilling. If you feel like you need more of that cold feeling in your belly, just follow those guys.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
IMHO in this case it is. The person with the gun probably does not agree with you filming them.
These people appear to have only little better moral code than your average bank robber. Thus when you film them you are kinda heroic.
I don't consider them to be cops by the way. The badge does not make the cop. A good cop makes the badge worth more than it's scrap metal price.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
The police do often act as if it is, though. Not under a specific "illegal to record the police" statute, but making bullshit use of other laws, e.g. "interfering with a crime scene". At the very least they can often stop the filming and arrest someone, even if the charges don't stick.
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Holding a camera and recording video while in no direct danger does not make someone a hero.
If the video you are recording is a murder, and your video will have a direct impact upon the murder's ability to get away with the crime, it most certainly does make you a hero. If the cop had noticed, he could easily have made it two killings, "accidentally" smashed the phone, and got away with both. Afterwards, the videographer's got a murderer and an unknown amount of his buddies pissed off at him. And these are people skilled in investigation with the full power and resources of the state behind them. They WILL find out who he is and where he lives.
I had a relative who reported a cop for assault once. For her troubles, she got to suffer months of pointless traffic stops, parking tickets, and car vandalism. If a murder was involved...I don't know that I'd want to expose my family to what could happen.
This person was either amazingly brave or amazingly stupid.
Hmm, a few minutes of google-fu shows the number of "civilians" killed by police in 2013 (to pick a year as close as possible to today, and far enough back to be sure the statistics have all been gathered together) to be 320.
Total number of police killed by "enemy action" in LOD (not accidents) was 29 that year.
A bit more shows that there are about 900,000 police officers in the USA.
So, in any given year, maybe one police officer in 3000 shoots a "civilian", maybe 1 in 30,000 is shot by a civilian.
Is this a problem? You betcha!
Is it evidence of "systematic and widespread" abuse? Not hardly....
PS. With any luck, this butthead will hang (figuratively or literally, depending on how SC handles that sort of thing), pour encourager les autres....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
To stand up for what's right does make that person a "Hero".
So the deaths of cops should be equal to the number of deaths caused by cops? That's a load of crap. Not every police shooting is justified, but the idea you put forth is absurd.
I agree with much of what you say, but really you're doing as most Americans have been conditioned to do and that's avoid the real fucking problem here because it's been turned into such a touchy vitriol filled subject making it a no go area - America's gun culture.
I say this because you said:
> The War on Drugs provides such a profit motive that criminals are encouraged to arm themselves and resist violently
This is where I disagree. Other countries also see the exact same profit motive but it doesn't result in an arms race, the only thing that does that is America's love of and easy access to guns. America is exceptional for a first world country in the level of threat it's cops face and you can't pretend it's because of something that other countries suffer but don't see the same effect from.
You're right it's not corruption, you're right it's probably not even about racism most the time, but what it's about is what you've almost hit upon but just about glossed past. It's about the fact that in America the gun has become the default option when it should be the last resort. I'm not surprised in the confusion of the moment that this cop pulled his gun and fired, he's been conditioned by your society to do that, to think it's acceptable, to think it's right. It's a hard ask, because some cops are going to die in the interim, but in most neighbourhoods American cops should really be leaving their guns locked up in their cars and taking a taser at most out on patrol. When they don't have a gun on them it can't become the default response, and it would never have been used in a situation like that videoed here.
American cops desperately need to learn how to police without resorting to the gun, and American society needs to change to allow and support that.
Otherwise please, just stop telling the rest of us how you've had a horrific shooting, we know what you have to do, we've told you what you have to do, you just need to do it, and if you wont, why the fuck would you expect us to keep giving a shit each time one of you gets shot? If you wont do the necessary then it's effectively what you've asked for, it's the society you've chosen, so just live in it and put up and shut up until you're ready to grow up and get past your immense paranoia that makes you believe having a gun somehow makes you safer. Just about every relevant metric going shows that that is most definitely not the case. You cannot on one hand support the continuation of business as usual on your gun front, and on the other keep feigning shock and horror at the fact that someone got shot. Of course they fucking did, that's the society you've built. You can't have it both ways, you can't demand continuation of guns everywhere for everyone, all the time, and also expect that to somehow not end in people getting shot.
You can't compare the two because the average person is exposed to a different proportion of criminals than the average police officer, so the increased rate for police may be explained by the police being more likely to run into criminals.
Also, the rate for the general population is driven down because it includes babies, children, old people, and the handicapped who would have a hard time killing someone and would not be eligible to become police.
Blacks are more likely to be pulled over, more likely to be searched, more likely to be harassed, etc. Something's not right.
Blacks commit crimes at rates higher than whites. Any public policy that ignores this fundamental fact is doomed to failure. If you want to address this problem I suggest you start by tackling the socioeconomic factors that are responsible for this disparity in crime rates. That means you have to address poverty, broken families, the war on drugs, and the disparity in the quality of public schools.
Of course, doing those things is a lot harder than screaming "RACISM!"
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
This isn't police corruption, it's police brutality, which is a separate issue. I have friends and family members who are police officers, the lion's share of them are decent people, but knowing them and the small handful of their colleagues who aren't decent people I can proffer a few opinions on what drives behaviors such as these:
I too have friends and family in LE ( and have my entire life ) so I offer some counterpoints for you to consider.
The problem is actually both brutality and corruption. When you beat the sh*t out of someone, it's brutality. When you do it wearing a badge, it's corruption since you're abusing not only your authority and trust, but that of the LE community as a whole. No one views incidents like this as Officer so and so did X. Rather it is remembered as " Did you see what the Police did ? "
1. There's a siege mentality in modern law enforcement, manifested as "I'm going home to my family, no matter what it takes." Do you have to worry about getting shot at your job? Probably not. LEOs have to worry about that every single time they pull someone over. Is it a soccer mom, a businessman, or a three strikes felon who doesn't want to go back inside? They don't know.
The " seige mentality " as you put it, is a mental construct of their own design that, in their mind, justifies their attitude and behavior to anyone not wearing a badge.
Let's use an animal analogy. Animals aren't typically looking to harm anything. ( Unless they're hungry, or protecting their young, different issue ) Typically, if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. However, if you threaten one or scare it, they can become VERY dangerous. Over time, assuming you continue threatening or scaring them, the animal will fear you. From that point forward, every encounter with the animal becomes a dangerous one. The funny thing is, it's not the fault of the animal, rather the one who continues to threaten or scare it. The police are in the same boat. Folks are scared of police now. Many no longer look to them as protectors or someone they turn to when they need help. The police are to be avoided at all costs. When cornered by one, many will act irrationally based on personal or learned knowledge ( truthful or otherwise ) of what they are likely to expect from the encounter.
Here's the fun part: The actions of a few idiots with badges jeoprodize the lives of ALL Law Enforcement because once the trust is lost, it's very, very difficult to regain. Of course, that pendulum swings both ways. While the vast majority of folks are decent, the thugs are what the officers see every day. After a while, officers simply view everyone without a badge as a thug. Which starts the cycle of mistrust.
2. Modern media reinforces #1, by making line of duty deaths/injuries more accessible than ever before. Follow the "Officer Down Memorial Page" on Facebook; there's a line of duty death in the United States nearly every day of the week. Statistically speaking law enforcement is safer today than it has been in a long time, but in a large country statistically rare occurrences happen with distressing frequency and modern media ensures that we know all about them.
I think it would be rather eye opening to post similar numbers of folks unjustifiably beaten and / or killed by police. ( assuming we can every get accurate numbers on that ) Want to place bets on which list is larger ? :D
3. The War on Drugs provides such a profit motive that criminals are encouraged to arm themselves and resist violently, which in turn drives the militarization of law enforcement while reinforcing the siege mentality. The War on Drugs also alienates the police from our poorest and most vulnerable communities. The same thing happened during prohibition, this is not a new societal phenomenon. Nor can you blame the police, they enforce the law, legislators write it.
Pfff. The War on Drugs is merely the excuse the police use to arm themselves better
"Two-party consent" in Illinois
Decision in People v. Clark (PDF)