Police, Deadly Force, Body Cameras and The Public’s Right To Know

Los Angeles, CA—We’ve become the video nation.  Whether we like it or not our images are captured hundreds of times per day.  Privacy died long ago any apparently we’ve grown accustomed to the camera invasion.  The city of Los Angeles has recently taken steps to place body cameras on every patrol officer. 

Cops have become a natural target for cell phone and camera-armed citizens.  Cops are always prone to getting into confrontations primarily with dysfunctional people who are just being themselves.  That kind of interaction always makes for interesting video.

The best and earliest examples of captured video of a infamous police interaction was the Rodney King case in Los Angeles two decades ago.  The video was ugly to say the least.  Cops were using batons to restrain King after a vehicle chase.  King was injured and sent to the hospital. 

That unblinking and legendary video recording shot by witness George Holliday was soon delivered to the KTLA-TV newsroom.   That video proved to be the prime evidence in the case. 

The video was broadcast relentlessly worldwide and evoked strong emotions from both the police haters and their supporters.  Was the action justifiable?  The cops were tried twice.  Once in state court where a jury deadlocked favoring acquittal.  They were tried again in federal court where two officers were convicted.

The video became a flashpoint that only ended after 53 lives were lost in the destructive riot following the first jury’s failure to convict the accused cops.

Videos of cops doing their jobs bring out voyeurism in the human species.  The popularity of the TV reality show, Cops seems endless.

Because of technology the media has showcased news stories with videos involving cops. Without video these stories would never see the light of day in news broadcasting or publishing effort. 

NOW WE HAVE THE POLICE BODYCAM

The idea of cops wearing bodycams is ostensibly to promote accountability and to preserve the best evidence. 

I know that most cops behave well and will almost always be exonerated by video.  Only a total fool would misbehave under the watchful eye of the camera.  The result here has to be an unqualified success because most people will behave accordingly.

The bodycams should deescalate police confrontations and conflicts and will result in fewer arrests and instances of violence.

People that are in physical conflict with police have no more right to privacy than cops performing their duties.  Raising privacy issues when violence erupts is pure baloney.

For the bodycam recordings to have any meaning whatsoever as evidence, any instance of force or violence should become an absolute public record.  Hiding the videos while claiming privacy issues is beyond problematic.

Congress and the various Sate Legislatures should make it absolutely clear that every instance of force or violence captured by any law enforcement operated camera is a public record. 

We can count on the media to blur images of overly graphic violence electing to describe rather than display it.  However credibility and accountability dictates the public’s right to know about violent events involving official police actions.

The public should never have to guess what happened when there is taxpayer provided video equipment documenting any violent act.

There will always be those public officials that will want to control what's released to the public or not. They must be over-ruled. 

Technology and the American Summer Insurrection of 2013

Sanford, FL—Okay I said it.  I just don’t see this any other way.  I really hope I’m somehow wrong.  Unfortunately, history supports all of my fears.  What’s past is prologue, always.  

Our nation has never been so racially divided or hypersensitive.  The George Zimmerman prosecution has not been able to deliver to the jury the venom and hype the media and the Whitehouse promised.  The allegations of a race based stalking style murder of an innocent lad have been exposed in court as pure baloney.

That Martin/Zimmerman case was a simple instance of justifiable homicide resulting from the use of very necessary deadly force to stop an attack by an athletic young thug. 

It is now more than clear that Trayvon Martin used a sidewalk as a deadly weapon in his effort to murder George Zimmerman by bashing out his brains.    Zimmerman will be finally cleared shortly.  The ignorant masses are not watching the trial, just the verdict.

That case is really as much or more incendiary than even the Rodney King case.  The big difference is today’s Information Age.  Barack Obama convinced and inflamed millions of African-Americans that Zimmerman was guilty.  The Internet has spread this vile poison far and wide.

Accordingly Florida brought a seriously flawed criminal case forward that they knew would never survive in court.  It happened because of raw and malicious political pressure.  That has put millions of African-Americans on edge.   If the many thousands of tweets and other Social Media threats are any indication, America’s big cities are going to see a major bloodbath.

The police will quickly lose any hope of control because they have lost their edge.  It past riots and insurrections police has always had exclusive use of portable communications devices.  They could easily coordinate tactical peacekeeping efforts via two-way radios. 

The police have virtually no experience dealing with rioters with absolute communications parity.  The thought of this is really frightening.  I know that police academies have not really found a way to teach cops how to tactically or otherwise effectively  deal with hostile groups armed with relatively new communications empowerment. 

The game has been changed by millions of cheap, smart phones and the Internet.  Those taking part in violence will quickly outnumber police and coordinate ambushes with gasoline and paint thinner bombs that will defeat even the best police body armor.  Even young children will be texting the positions of police, their numbers and their vehicles.

Police will have little choice but to quickly retreat and it will be civilians fighting for their lives and property without significant law-enforcement resources.  

If you live in or near a large city it would be best to make plans to vacation or otherwise stay away from home as the Zimmerman trial winds down in the coming week or ten days.  At least try and remove your children to safer areas if you can.

If you must stay in the city you will need plenty water, food, fuel, batteries, fire suppression equipment along with firearms and ammunition.  A set of cheap family services radios, will come in handy for when the cell phones are cut off.   You can expect to see the utilities shut down almost immediately. 

I know there will be those people that suggest my advice is crazy and that this will never happen.   I say that recurring insurrections and wars come with the human territory.  We eternally have periods of peace and that of war. 

We cannot forget the massive holocausts that have plagued this earth as long as humans have.   Don’t think for a second that we have evolved. 

It is abundantly obvious we are heading directly into the perfect storm of a despotic police state that will be popular with promises of security at the expense of freedom.

I gave you some guidance but you and your, families, neighbors and friends better quickly have some kind of emergency plans in place.  God help us all.