Frankly, I think we all should be rough on the police. Arguments that run along the lines of "they're just people" simply don't hold water for me. These are people whom we've decided are able to perform actions that would be considered federal crimes for normal people: They can detain you against your will, they can transport you against the will and most significantly, they are permitted to use deadly force.
This is not to say in any way, that police are not a necessary evil. However, it's important to recognize that while as a society we accept that people should be empowered to handle our rougher elements, in no way does it accept the idea that police can be "just folks". We grant them profound powers denied to other citizens. We also insist that they receive formal and extensive training in the proper use of those powers. We clearly expect a degree of professionalism, one that can and should be verified.
And astonishingly, there are states where it's illegal to film the police in the performance of their duties. It is literally against the law to gather evidence of wrong doing, provided it's being done on the clock. In other states, filming police is legal but police don't seem aware of settled law on the matter. And in some cases, police tragically don't seem to give a damn one way or the other.
Via Radley Balko:
Last May, the crew of the Motorhome Diaries libertarian road tour were arrested in Jones County, Mississippi after a traffic stop. One of the crew, Adam Mueller, was charged with disorderly conduct, though Jones County officials then wavered about what exactly Mueller did wrong. They first said he was arrested for not putting down his video camera when ordered to do so. But it isn’t illegal to record police officers in Mississippi. They then said he was arrested for moving from the spot where police officers instructed him to stay.
Mueller recorded most of the encounter, but when his camera was returned to him after he was released from jail the video had been deleted. He has since been able to recover the video, which he walks you through in the video below. The video is choppy and fragmented, a result both of Mueller’s holding it during a traffic stop and the fact that it has since been deleted and recovered. Mueller says the recovered video shows the deputies lied about a number of aspects of the stop and subsequent arrests. You can watch and see whether or not you agree with him.
But here’s what now is indisputable: Mueller took video of the traffic stop, and that video—evidence in both the county’s case against Mueller and Pete Eyre and in their lawsuit against the county—was deleted while Mueller’s camera was in the possession of the Jones County Sheriff’s Department. I’m no lawyer, but I’m fairly sure that’s destruction of evidence
But hey! Here's a fun, new gadget! The Economist reports on the Eye-Fi: A device that, provided the camera is within range of a wi-fi network, will automatically send any photos on your cameras directly to a destination of your choice. As Babbage notes...
Most intriguingly, perhaps, the Eye-Fi may provide an invaluable public service in documenting abuses by the state or individuals. So long as an active and reachable Wi-Fi network existed (or a photographer was carrying a portable Wi-Fi/mobile router like the MiFi), photos of alleged misdeeds would be immediately uploaded into the cloud, beyond the reach of law enforcement or criminals. Wresting the physical device from a pesky photographer and theatrically ripping out the incriminating roll of film, or nowadays more likely a memory card, would finally become futile.
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