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Second body cam video of Baltimore cops manufacturing evidence discovered
- sogen 9y agoOddly enough that's where The Wire (2002) is set.
- tnecniv 9y agoI mean, that police department has had more than it's share of incidents and crime in general is still a major problem in that city. Not too surprising.
- Hasknewbie 9y agoThe Wire's creators were a local reporter and a former cop, and the series is praised for its realism, so there's nothing odd about that: their series was just about problems that existed in real-life Baltimore. If anything, they only made these issues better known through their work.
- sebleon 9y ago> The [video of manufacturing evidence] one is from Pueblo, Colorado, in which an officer staged a drug-find in a vehicle. Charges were dismissed against the suspect, but no public action was taken against Pueblo Police Department Officer Seth Jensen. Sigh.
- metaobject 9y agoI never understood how it was legal for these officers to carry drugs around (in their pockets? trunk?) for the purposes of planting evidence. Shouldn't they face possession charges? Unless they are transporting newly acquired evidence that is associated with a documented investigation to the police station for storage they shouldn't be allowed to carry drugs around.
- criddell 9y agoJust to be fair, the police car and all the property in the car should be seized under forfeiture laws. :)
- scott00 9y agoIt's not legal. Planting evidence is a much more serious crime than possession, so in cases where there's evidence of planting evidence, it doesn't make much sense to charge possession. In cases where there isn't planting going on, it never gets discovered. Police officers don't stop other police officers and search them.
- MrBlue 9y agoHow is arstechnica.com blocking me from clicking on the embeded video and having it open up on youtube.com?
- BoratObama 9y agoClick on the the link to the non-AMP version of the article just below the headline and then click on video to go to youtube.
- MrBlue 9y agoThanks! I didn't even realise this was an AMP version of the article.
- metafunctor 9y agoOne more reason to eschew AMP.
- verytrivial 9y agoI'd love to know how to do that without eschewing Chrome altogether.
- metafunctor 9y agoI don't use Chrome (on iOS or MacOS) much. I also use duckduckgo instead of Google as my default search engine. I almost never encounter AMP pages.
- syshum 9y agoOne more reason people need to stop posting/sharing mobile links.
- safeharbourio 9y agoSomeone with enough karma should adjust the like to the non amp?
- xbmcuser 9y agoI come from a developing country where we know the police are corrupt. And all our elders tell us that if the cops ask you to open your car boot you get out of the car and open it for them so that the police don't get a chance to plant evidence (mostly to blackmail and get bribes). The only difference I see is that American cops do it to pad up their arrest numbers and shows that performance based policing without concrete controls is useless.
- squarefoot 9y agoPrivate prisons also need constant influx of inmates to keep profits high, therefore the system has no incentives to lower the crime rate. If there are not enough new criminals, they must be created, and planting evidence is one way of achieving that goal.
- dmix 9y agoHow are private prisons incentivizing politicians to write new laws or stop other laws? Are you saying there are people who have invested in prisons who are lobbying for tough on crime policies in order to fill their prisons with people? Do you have examples of this? Can you even get wealthy enough running prisons to have much influence in congress? As far as I'm concerned this doesn't have to be the case for me to be critical of private prisons and I'm otherwise generally libertarian for most issues. One of the things government should be doing is handling criminal justice and running prisons should be a part of that IMO. I don't see much utility in letting private organizations run them, there's no real competition and 'success' seems merely a matter of a) political connections or b) offering the lowest price. Prisons should be focused on reforming criminals and treat them well, so a low budget hyper price-conscious system sounds like a negative incentive to me. The cost of criminals on society is high so giving appropriate resources for handling them should be a priority. If the US want's to reduce their massive prison bills they should reduce their massive number of criminals.
- brianpgordon 9y ago> Are you saying there are people who have invested in prisons who are lobbying for tough on crime policies in order to fill their prisons with people? Do you have examples of this? This is not exactly what you describe, but it shows that this kind of corruption is out there- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
- 1dundundun 9y agoAt some point in the (very) near future, we'll all be forced to realize that the deck is stacked against you if you're black in America. It's just one of those inconvenient truths.
- bjpbakker 9y agoNot just in America I'm afraid. I live in The Netherlands, and see this hppening at large scale against any non-white people. As a white male I feel that all I can do is to share this injustice all I can and hope others will become aware (which so far sadly seems not to really happen).
- the-dude 9y agoWhich city? As a white male myself I was apprehended this year for no particular reason at all ( Groningen ). Excuse for apprehension: I declinded to show my ID for no reason at all.
- bjpbakker 9y ago> Which city Many times I've seen "public" ID checks in Amsterdam (especially those in subways) targeting just non-white people. > Excuse for apprehension: I declinded to show my ID for no reason at all Yep it becomes more and more a "comply or your guilty" culture. Not going well IMO. If it's sometimes bad for white people, I only try to imagine how horrible it must be for people who are discriminated against (by public authorities) on a daily basis.
- ensignavenger 9y agoDoes Amsterdam require citizens to carry ID with them all the time? When I am out around my home town but not driving myself (using public transit, walking, or rding with friends/family) I often don't carry my ID with me. (I am in the US). If asked to show my ID, I couldn't comply even if I wanted to. It seems strange to me to expect people to have their ID with them at all times.
- honestoHeminway 9y agoBodycam should activate at random and not tell that to wearers.
- w458cmau 9y agoIs it not always actively recording and it's just that it overwrites once it is about to run out of space unless footage is marked for read-only?
- sgk284 9y agoThe batteries only last a handful of hours so officers turn them on as necessary (also most police unions lobby for this ability). It's unfortunate but it's the current reality.
- syshum 9y agoMost police body cam models have batteries that last for 12 hours of recording, enough to record an entire shift
- dghf 9y agoSo how do they, as the article says, "retain footage 30 seconds before an officer presses the record button"?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- honestoHeminway 9y agoThe permanently record, but do not permanently store. So if a button is pressed, they store 30 seconds of pre-recorded footage.
- kikimaru 9y agoAlso, the cops now know that they just have to press Record 31 seconds after committing their crime.
- DomreiRoam 9y agoPolice have a monopoly on legal violence and Society act like their words are more trustworthy in a courtroom. It is not acceptable that it is not counterbalance by a high level standard and scrutiny. Police work is difficult and I admire people that have commitment to protect and serve but we can't give a blank check or a get out of jail free card for criminal or unethical conduct. I think we see in a lot of communities that the police and other public worker are no more trusted and I think we will see the raise of alternative actors to fulfill the gap. Such actor could be criminal groups like mafia and terrorist group that then can use this to build up their base. So I think it is immoral to allow this and I think it's stupid in Machiavellian or realpolitik way.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago> I think we will see the raise of alternative actors to fulfill the gap. Such actor could be criminal groups like mafia Isn't this one of the reasons for the huge proliferation of gangs? Certain communities know that the police won't help them, so they establish their own organization.
- ErikVandeWater 9y agoI've heard of this happening in Mexico, but not in the USA. Do you have a link about communities establishing gangs as a substitute for police/roided up version of neighborhood watch in the USA?
- QuotedForTruth 9y agoThere is an interesting documentary called "Check it" about a gang formed in Washington DC to protect its gay members from violence. They aren't exactly neighborhood watch though in that they only really look after their own members and are involved in plenty of other illegal activity. Although it is obviously not the only motivation of gang members and gangs, protection from violence is part of why people seek these groups out.
- wahern 9y agohttp://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Bums:_Making_a_Mess_All_Over_the_City http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Bums:_Making_a_Mess_All... More seriously, the episode draws inspiration from the Guardian Angels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Angels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Angels
- po 9y agoA lot of progressives were pro-body-cam in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests but from my view, unless they are accompanied by very strict protocol rules (probably at the state or federal level) they simply increase officer optionality. If the officer can decide what to record, what to to submit in a report, if the lens is dirty or covered, etc... it really is very tempting. They certainly have helped cops put away very bad people and they certainly have put pressure on cops to follow official protocol but they're not a panacea if not regulated tightly. For example look at the protocol proposals of Campaign Zero here: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/film-the-police https://www.joincampaignzero.org/film-the-police
- moomin 9y agoIIRC the Campaign Zero people were talking about this right at the start. Letting possible perps view the footage to get their story straight is particularly egregious.
- afandian 9y agoDoes "possible perps" include police officers?
- moomin 9y agoAlways. I see no reason that suspects of crimes should be treated differently on the basis of their occupation.
- afandian 9y agoGood! It's not a given. Lots of people seem to trust police implicitly. I don't know what various regulatory environments exist for body cameras, but in an ideal world body-camera footage would be operated and held by some neutral external part and only made available as evidence in court. For example, in the UK we have the Independent Police Complaints Commission which is, in theory, independent from the police force. From what I can tell this isn't the case in the UK, and police forces operate the infrastructure themselves. > When a police officer returns to a station, the cameras are placed in a docking station, where the footage is automatically uploaded to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. > Officers also decide how to categorise the footage, and whether it will be useful as further evidence. If the officer concludes it is not useful, the footage will be automatically deleted after 31 days – but if it is considered useful as evidence, it can be stored indefinitely, Hutchinson said. > In practice, the cameras are not always rolling, and it is up to the individual officer when to turn them on or off. http://www.techworld.com/security/met-police-picks-microsoft-cloud-store-body-camera-video-evidence-indefinitely-3651105/ http://www.techworld.com/security/met-police-picks-microsoft... That seems like a recipe for unaccountability and a real missed opportunity, especially for the Metropolitan Police who have a bit of a track record for abusing technology... https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/18/police-dna-database-supreme-court https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/18/police-dna-...
- mschuster91 9y agoThe solution for officers not wearing/messing around with their cams is simple: require full-on bodycams, and if there is even the slightest allegation of police misconduct - either the officer has his bodycam enabled, or guilt is automatically assumed.
- pc86 9y agoI like how your response to some police officers assuming the guilt of everyone they interact with is codifying the assumption of officer misconduct. The presumption of one's innocence doesn't end because of their occupation.
- mschuster91 9y ago> I like how your response to some police officers assuming the guilt of everyone they interact with is codifying the assumption of officer misconduct. Police, in my experience, are rarely better than your next random street thug. US cops routinely shoot people (especially PoCs are walking targets), German cops love racial profiling (Hamburg, Hafenstraße - look on Twitter), beating up left-wing people (last seen at the police riots in Hamburg, G20) or cooperating with neo-Nazis (e.g. Freital terror group, but also the NSU terrorists had their "helpers"). Yes there are good cops, but they are rare. Most eventually succumb to the authoritarian system and what's called "Korpsgeist".
- Mithaldu 9y agoThe last video i saw of german police "attacking" left wingers was literally police officers gently lifting them up and away from a slowly moving car. I'm a socialist myself, but if you want to do anything good for the left, make sure you get your stories very straight.
- mschuster91 9y ago> The last video i saw of german police "attacking" left wingers was literally police officers gently lifting them up and away from a slowly moving car. Certainly, some events at G20 were exaggerated. I agree with you that this is bad - the problem is that there's so much material about cop misbehaviors that it cannot all be faked/exaggerated. I have seen police attacking clearly visible, free standing journalists with a water cannon. Police attempting to shoot a cameraman down a roof with a watercannon. Police attacking a medic convoy transporting an injured person with watercannons. Police illegally using rubber ammo (it's not allowed by Hamburg police law). And this is "just" what I have seen at G20. What I have seen and personally experienced at other demonstrations, especially in Berlin and Munich, I could literally write a book about. German police don't carry name tags, only some carry number tags (in NRW, the requirement got dropped just short after G20, actually!), and next to no carry body cams. Bavarian and Federal police at least carry the number of their group on the backpatch but numerous other countries don't carry any "individual" mark. They are not investigated by independents, but by other cops - and even if they are investigated, only the really high media profile cases actually end up in front of a court. They are above the law and act like so.
- kelvin0 9y ago“I think you play in the dirt, you get dirty.” - McNulty
- sageabilly 9y agoYeah, I've seen this happen with a good friend of mine I went to high school with. Super good guy, nerdy, smart, always wanted to be a police officer- hated the corruption, wanted to make a difference right? In the 10 years he's been on the force he's gone from beat cop to detective to State FBI Special Agent, and his thinking (illustrated on Facebook) has gone from blasting NWA's "F&$K The Police" to posting pictures of himself all suited up in his FBI gear complete with skull and crossbones patch running around in the woods "Looking for perps". He's got gold skull and crossbones grips on his service weapon. In his mind it's all "Ninjas and Pirates" but that, coupled with his descent into the thinking that "If you weren't guilty, you wouldn't run, and if you aren't guilty, you have nothing to fear from the police" is scary.
- iamtew 9y ago“You can’t change the system from within, it will only corrupt you.”
- fundabulousrIII 9y agoWhen you look into the abyss the abyss looks into you. Right? You have to have the self belief and fundamental aim to make things better or leave it to beaver.
- tryitnow 9y agoNot much is going to change. The police can do this because they are represented by a union. And those unions are allied with other unions and together they dominate the Democratic Party. So the Democrats won't do anything about police abuse of power. Of course, Republicans won't because they like to be seen as 'tough on crime.' Since neither political party is capable of challenging the police unions nothing it likely to change.