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Cameras and More Cameras
Townhall.com ^ | August 19, 2014 | Mona Charen

Posted on 08/19/2014 8:33:16 AM PDT by Kaslin

The Ferguson, Missouri police department released convenience store surveillance tape that showed Michael Brown allegedly stealing some cigars minutes before he was shot by a police officer. Aware that the release of this footage might look like posthumous character assassination of the shooting victim, Captain Ronald Johnson of the Ferguson police explained that the tape was released pursuant to freedom of information requests.

Maybe, though the behavior of the police in other respects doesn't exactly scream respect for the Fourth Estate. Journalists from the Washington Post and Huffington Post were arrested, and a team from Al-Jazeera was tear-gassed.

There should have been video of what happened outside that patrol car.

Conservatives incline to support law enforcement. We dread disorder and respect the rule of law (a big subject, and relevant to the critique of the Obama White House, but that's for another day). But we are also, or should be, aware of the temptations of power, and wary of its abuse.

There's a video of Brown aggressively shoving a store clerk, but no record of what transpired a few minutes later when a police officer encountered him and a friend walking down the middle of the street. The police account is that Brown struggled with Officer Darren Wilson over the policeman's gun and that the first shot was fired in the cruiser. Brown's friend alleges that Brown was shot when he had his hands in the air. There is no dispute that Brown was unarmed when he was killed.

The Ferguson tragedy has provoked discussion of the excessive militarization of our police (a topic I mentioned a month or so ago in a column about our law-barnacled country). Actors often say that they can't get into character until they don the costume -- attach the fake nose or moustache. It's easy to believe that something of the same effect happens when police gear up in opaque helmets, gas masks, body armor and heavy weaponry. If you're dressed and equipped like a special ops combat soldier, you're more inclined to behave like one. But against whom?

Still, the initial fatal violence in Ferguson happened in the absence of military gear. It was an ordinary encounter between an officer and a civilian that escalated in a matter of minutes into a shooting. This is where the conservative insight about abuse of power is relevant. As Lord Acton warned, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Police have tremendous power. Most don't abuse it. But some do.

Let's begin the overdue process of demilitarizing our police. The armored personnel carriers and heavy weaponry have no place on city streets unless we are suffering prolonged rioting -- in which case the National Guard can be called upon.

Beyond that, a technical solution is readily available: cameras, cameras and more cameras. I wrote last year that cameras should be ubiquitous in prisons because the temptation for brutality by prison guards who are unobserved is tremendous. The same is true of police.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in Rialto, California, the number of citizen complaints against police declined from 24 to 3 in the first year officers began wearing cameras on their chests. Use of force incidents dropped from 61 to 25. Wearable cameras are being tested in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. As Rialto's police chief explained: "When you talk about putting a camera on somebody, human nature is going to dictate that you're going to mind your p's and q's and you're going to be on the best behavior. At the same time, I think it's had an impact on citizens. If they know you're wearing a camera, they too will be on their best behavior."

Violence and brutality arise from the complex stew of human weaknesses. Cameras cannot repeal aggression, bias, rage or stupidity -- but they can certainly diminish them. And with cameras, justice for the guilty -- cop or civilian -- is more attainable


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: ferguson; michaelbrown; police
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1 posted on 08/19/2014 8:33:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

That young couple in Bali may face the death penalty due to the overwhelming evidence of the hotel video cameras.

Check out the UK Daily News.


2 posted on 08/19/2014 8:36:03 AM PDT by ArtDodger
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To: Kaslin
Isn't it “Character Assassination to suggest that the Police Officer killed an unarmed African American just because he was “Walking While Black”?
3 posted on 08/19/2014 8:36:28 AM PDT by Falcon4.0
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To: Kaslin

4 posted on 08/19/2014 8:42:15 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: Falcon4.0

“Walking While Black”? is permitted. Breathing while white is not!


5 posted on 08/19/2014 8:42:45 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Kaslin

It is interesting that the first so-called reporter on the scene was identified as a ‘Mustafa’ (sorry I don’t recall the full name or which media outlet he was filming for. Now isn’t that just coincidental? Or is it? We should expect that Muslim radicals would have great interest in this. Also that possibly there were ‘plants’ out there that intentionally stirred things up to the point that there was a riot. The rioters seemed more intent on using the opportunity to steal and destroy property than to mourn Michael Brown. Now with the call to use ‘Martial Law’ by one Liberal congressman it appears likely that this sets the scene for the next ‘crisis’ which occurs. Remember the rule, “Never let a crisis go by without using it!”


6 posted on 08/19/2014 8:43:14 AM PDT by dvan (Send Them Home!Napolatono)
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To: KeyLargo

I thought that had been debunked already...


7 posted on 08/19/2014 8:45:38 AM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: SZonian

Another freeper corrected me on the ID of the person in the photo.

“The reason the media isn’t going to show that pic is because that’s not Michael Brown. It is a pic of Jodah Cain a guy who murdered his great-grandmother in Portland, Oregon last year.”


8 posted on 08/19/2014 8:55:53 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: Kaslin

Washington Post and Al-Jazeera? Cry me a river! What they would enthusiastically support if done to the Tea Party has been done to them!


9 posted on 08/19/2014 9:01:48 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: KeyLargo

Underage for alcohol as well. Cry me a river.


10 posted on 08/19/2014 9:02:58 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: JimRed

Another freeper corrected me on the ID of the person in the photo.

“The reason the media isn’t going to show that pic is because that’s not Michael Brown. It is a pic of Jodah Cain a guy who murdered his great-grandmother in Portland, Oregon last year.”


11 posted on 08/19/2014 9:03:47 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo; GeronL
GENTLE GIANT WOULDN'T HURT A FLY.


12 posted on 08/19/2014 9:08:53 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (ISIS has started up a slave trade in Iraq. Mission accomplshed, Barack, Mission accomplished.)
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To: KeyLargo

Thanks for the correction.


13 posted on 08/19/2014 9:10:22 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (ISIS has started up a slave trade in Iraq. Mission accomplshed, Barack, Mission accomplished.)
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To: a fool in paradise

Another freeper corrected me on the ID of the person in the photo.

“The reason the media isn’t going to show that pic is because that’s not Michael Brown. It is a pic of Jodah Cain a guy who murdered his great-grandmother in Portland, Oregon last year.”


14 posted on 08/19/2014 9:11:11 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: Kaslin

I have news for the author. The prison I work in has so many cameras you can’t sneeze without it being caught by at least 2 angles. And we’re testing personal cameras. Our tasers roll video the second they’re activated, so we get every second of that. Cell rushes are filmed, and we have several isolation cells equipped with cameras as well. The only place we Don’t have cameras are in the restrooms and sometimes I wonder about That. In other words, He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

CC


15 posted on 08/19/2014 9:11:44 AM PDT by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
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To: Kaslin

I have news for the author. The prison I work in has so many cameras you can’t sneeze without it being caught by at least 2 angles. And we’re testing personal cameras. Our tasers roll video the second they’re activated, so we get every second of that. Cell rushes are filmed, and we have several isolation cells equipped with cameras as well. The only place we Don’t have cameras are in the restrooms and sometimes I wonder about That. In other words, He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

CC


16 posted on 08/19/2014 9:11:47 AM PDT by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
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To: KeyLargo

Thanks, that’s what I recall seeing a day or two ago.

Just trying to keep things square in my own mind as to what are and are not the facts surrounding this event.

RE the notation: A savage who murders his own Great-Grandmother...something to really be “proud” of.

The “thug culture” sure is a “benefit” to society...not!


17 posted on 08/19/2014 9:12:58 AM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: SZonian

Black Man Goes on EPIC Rant Against Ferguson Rioters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f0mVn0HH6U


18 posted on 08/19/2014 9:14:16 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: Kaslin

Cameras, cameras, cameras? NO! That is too much like 1984! I do NOT want “Big Brother” watching my every move! The cameras are already out of control.


19 posted on 08/19/2014 9:31:40 AM PDT by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (Why does every totalitarian political hack think that he knows how to run my life better than I do?)
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To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise

But is there anything wrong with cameras watching Big Brother? That is what he is talking about. Not cameras in our homes and churches, but in their offices and squad cars.


20 posted on 08/19/2014 10:06:53 AM PDT by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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