Another case where the body camera is completely different than the police report.
Before video was almost everywhere it was very, very rare that an officer would be charged.
As a white man, I fear the police in a different way:
Civil Asset Forfeiture.
They don’t beat you. They just take your money. They are quite literally the modern highwaymen.
True. But, I think on balance, the bodycam footage has generally been a benefit to police more than it’s been incriminating. There are some high-profile exceptions to be sure. And, over the last 12-months, even when the bodycam footage largely validated the police action, there are some instances when it couldn’t overcome ‘the narrative.’
But, even though Chauvin was convicted, think how much worse it would have been for him absent any bodycam footage and instead, all we had from the incident was the cellphone footage from bystanders. That bodycam footage definitely added exculpatory context to the arrest....context that the jury ignored probably because they were afraid for their own lives.
Before video was almost everywhere it was very, very rare that an officer would be charged.
That's the reason that Police Unions fought so hard to keep dash cams and body cams out of departments. Even then, they fight to control release of the video.