The problem of abuses of power by police have been widespread and deadly and they have enraged more than one of die Kaninchen in terms of why isn't anything done about it.
We have seen how Roman Catholic priests and teachers are hounded without mercy for abuses of power and authority in terms of sexual relationships with children. When cops do it to the general citizenry with guns, more often than not it doesn't even get any attention and it's only the rare cases, typically involving citizen-recorded video, that we even hear about them.
Researchers in UK did a large-scale study of the use of body cameras by police in England and the effect on relations with the public. The research revealed complaints against police for abuses dropped to near zero when the police were wearing body cameras (as opposed to cars equipped with cameras since those are easy to defeat by raising the hood of the car). (Science Daily: Use of body-worn cameras sees complaints against police 'virtually vanish,' study finds)
Note: we have seen photographs of cops involved in a traffic stop who have raised the hoods on their cars and this likely surprises in no way at all it was in a Southern state. Whether the hoods were raised for the specific purpose of thwarting the car cameras is yet to be confirmed.
Don't be jumping me too quickly on getting unrealistically academic about the problem since we're clear at the Rockhouse England is like kindergarten relative to America when it comes to the number of guns in circulation. However, the principle should be constant. American cops don't usually wear body cameras so it seems an inexpensive change which should be made soon to provide at least that base level of protection against inappropriate violence from cops.
As to the actual level of violence, I see the body count going up because The Guardian keeps a running annual total. They have chalked up seven or eight more kills since the ones which got so much attention a few days ago. The latest kills, like most of them, got no attention at all and what do you bet there was no video of what happened. There's not much academic in speculation but we see radically different behaviors so we need to ask why.
As an American cop, I need protection too because some of the people in those cars are deep-fried crazy so I believe any time I'm to approach a vehicle I would need my Taser drawn and ready to use. I do not believe it's appropriate to approach with a drawn pistol because we have seen too many 'mistakes' from that thinking already.
It seemed there's general agreement with die Kaninchen that cop training is poor insofar as it has become a reflex with them to unload the whole clip if they will fire a single shot. There's an overt policy of intimidation to try to break you down to discover whether you 'crack' for any reason since they've destroyed the Fourth Amendment and almost nothing but an armed squad of Marines will stop them from searching you with or without cause. Cameras can't fix a problem when cops think what they do is legal and justified.
Cadillac Man mentioned how he was recently pulled over and he 'put his hands on the steering wheel as you should' but why the hell should you. CM looks like a retired traveling salesman who worked his gig on the road and I don't want to demean his job since it was much more than that but what I want is to give an idea how much of a threat he presents anyone (i.e. zero). If you threaten his grandkid then he's still going to charge but that won't be what it was in earlier days.
We have been conditioned to 'assume the position' and it's fair to a point since deliberately toying with a cop's valid fear of whatever crazy shit you may do is a stupid and unnecessary thing. However, it's also a wild extreme that we should be in fear that even the slightest wrong move means the cop is going to open fire. There are multiple examples of that happening and the body count keeps going up.
Body cameras on cops are a good prophylactic measure but they won't alone solve the problem. There's no easy salve which will remedy a problem which has been building for decades. It was under Reagan that Miranda protection was gutted and that was over thirty years ago.
We have seen how Roman Catholic priests and teachers are hounded without mercy for abuses of power and authority in terms of sexual relationships with children. When cops do it to the general citizenry with guns, more often than not it doesn't even get any attention and it's only the rare cases, typically involving citizen-recorded video, that we even hear about them.
Researchers in UK did a large-scale study of the use of body cameras by police in England and the effect on relations with the public. The research revealed complaints against police for abuses dropped to near zero when the police were wearing body cameras (as opposed to cars equipped with cameras since those are easy to defeat by raising the hood of the car). (Science Daily: Use of body-worn cameras sees complaints against police 'virtually vanish,' study finds)
Note: we have seen photographs of cops involved in a traffic stop who have raised the hoods on their cars and this likely surprises in no way at all it was in a Southern state. Whether the hoods were raised for the specific purpose of thwarting the car cameras is yet to be confirmed.
Don't be jumping me too quickly on getting unrealistically academic about the problem since we're clear at the Rockhouse England is like kindergarten relative to America when it comes to the number of guns in circulation. However, the principle should be constant. American cops don't usually wear body cameras so it seems an inexpensive change which should be made soon to provide at least that base level of protection against inappropriate violence from cops.
As to the actual level of violence, I see the body count going up because The Guardian keeps a running annual total. They have chalked up seven or eight more kills since the ones which got so much attention a few days ago. The latest kills, like most of them, got no attention at all and what do you bet there was no video of what happened. There's not much academic in speculation but we see radically different behaviors so we need to ask why.
As an American cop, I need protection too because some of the people in those cars are deep-fried crazy so I believe any time I'm to approach a vehicle I would need my Taser drawn and ready to use. I do not believe it's appropriate to approach with a drawn pistol because we have seen too many 'mistakes' from that thinking already.
It seemed there's general agreement with die Kaninchen that cop training is poor insofar as it has become a reflex with them to unload the whole clip if they will fire a single shot. There's an overt policy of intimidation to try to break you down to discover whether you 'crack' for any reason since they've destroyed the Fourth Amendment and almost nothing but an armed squad of Marines will stop them from searching you with or without cause. Cameras can't fix a problem when cops think what they do is legal and justified.
Cadillac Man mentioned how he was recently pulled over and he 'put his hands on the steering wheel as you should' but why the hell should you. CM looks like a retired traveling salesman who worked his gig on the road and I don't want to demean his job since it was much more than that but what I want is to give an idea how much of a threat he presents anyone (i.e. zero). If you threaten his grandkid then he's still going to charge but that won't be what it was in earlier days.
We have been conditioned to 'assume the position' and it's fair to a point since deliberately toying with a cop's valid fear of whatever crazy shit you may do is a stupid and unnecessary thing. However, it's also a wild extreme that we should be in fear that even the slightest wrong move means the cop is going to open fire. There are multiple examples of that happening and the body count keeps going up.
Body cameras on cops are a good prophylactic measure but they won't alone solve the problem. There's no easy salve which will remedy a problem which has been building for decades. It was under Reagan that Miranda protection was gutted and that was over thirty years ago.
