Good piece by Radley Balko in Reason on how to legally, economically, and effectively utilize technology to record the police.
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by John Cole| 13 Comments
This post is in: Science & Technology, Shitty Cops
Good piece by Radley Balko in Reason on how to legally, economically, and effectively utilize technology to record the police.
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Moses2317
The Senate is taking up debate today on repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and on passing the DREAM Act. Let’s call our Senators today and urge them to fight for equality and fairness.
Winning Progressive
JPL(formerly demo woman)
It’s to early in the morning to link to Reason.
Poopyman
Good! ‘Cause we’re going to need it here in MD.
Dave Fud
I like what Balko did here. Hopefully he will do more work like this – which seemed likely as I read his bio and it looked like a solid libertarian vitae, not a glibertarian one. How refreshing for a libertarian to be concerned about civil liberties.
Egypt Steve
What Dave Fud said.
Linda Featheringill
Interesting article. I am not a very technical person but I thought there was some good information there.
I liked it so much, and I placed a link for the articl on twitter.
Maybe we should all invest in some of this before the Repugs take over everything?
New Yorker
How long before Balko strikes out on his own? He really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the crew at Reason, as he seems genuinely concerned with civil liberties and issues other than overtaxing “producers” like Dick Fuld.
Joey Maloney
His key suggestion is finding an organizational/technical solution that will get the video streamed and saved in the cloud as it’s shot, so that it’s not vulnerable to having the camera confiscated and, oops, accidentally damaged.
daveNYC
I know there’s nothing that can be done about cops that arrest and confiscate people’s tech using the usual BS charges of ‘public disturbance’ or ‘obstruction of something or other’. If cops want to arrest you, they will. It’s messed up, but it’s the way it is. What I don’t understand is how the hell laws that prevent the videotaping or whatnot of cops on duty are even remotely constitutional. It’s not even nuanced, it’s just a blanket ‘thou shalt not film the police’.
Sputter.
Dr. Morpheus
So assuming that you could successfully upload a video of police malfeasance to the cloud as it was happening without the risk of getting it deleted my question is this.
Is it wise to let the offending officer(s) know that their actions are being recorded off-site in order to stop them from beating/tazing/shooting someone or yourself?
Or is it better to let them finish and then use the video in later prosecution?
I can see arguments for either.
Dr. Morpheus
@daveNYC:
Well here in Illinois it’s a supposed violation of the Illinois law against wiretapping.
My question is, o.k., if that’s true what about all those stores, like Walmart, that have every nook and cranny being video taped as well as their parking lots?
Do the owners/management get arrested or fined?
Somehow I think they can get away with it but private citizens will get slammed.
Brachiator
Interesting article, even if it is typical fairy tale level stuff from the Reason people. I particularly liked this:
Shit, not only were the Iranian video feeds largely ineffectual, but I also recall a sizeable contingent of Juicers turning their backs on even wanting to be informed about what was happening in Iran, and deriding the fools who believed it important to publicize what was happening there. But also, at one point it became so dangerous to be caught with a cellphone in Iran that demonstration organizers suggested the following:
It would also be interesting to see what would happen if an attorney attempted to use this kind of recorded feed at a trial. If past practice is any indicator, pro-cop juries tend to jump through all kinds of hoops to vindicate the police, and video evidence which “obviously” shows a civilian defendant doing dirty deeds is magically interpreted as “not telling the entire story” if the defendant is a cop.
I’m also curious to know what police forces are doing to deal with the fact that more people are carrying cell phones with cameras. Ah, here we go. Apparently, turnabout is fair play:
Nemo_N
Could you pimp this one too?
“Why is the city of Montgomery condemning the property of African-Americans along a civil rights trail?”
http://www.slate.com/id/2267743/