4 ms·

It seems only reasonable that in such cases not only are the police guilty by default of whatever they're accused of, they're also guilty of destroying evidence

by zik 8y ago

It seems only reasonable that in such cases not only are the police guilty by default of whatever they're accused of, they're also guilty of destroying evidence and should be charged accordingly.

jonnycoder 8y ago
Only if you can prove the malfeasance.
- zik 8y ago
  When all five body cameras "happened" to fail at the same time I don't think anyone can really doubt the malfeasance.
  - manquer 8y ago
    While likely that is the case, unless there are ways to detect tampering built into the camera, it can't be proved in a court
  - aptwebapps 8y ago
    Yeah, but who did it? All five of them, one of them, another cop not at the scene but with access to the system? Contractors with system access? It's not enough to be sure that a crime happened. Which isn't to say there shouldn't be an investigation or measures taken to make it harder to happen. And to be more careful, what's the failure rate on those cameras and how many incidents happen a year where it would look suspicious if all cameras fail? If the numbers are high enough we might just have selection bias.
    - r00fus 8y ago
      The officers should be on the hook for their video feed.
  - untog 8y ago
    "can really doubt" doesn't work in court, though. Innocent until proven guilty and all that - if there's no actual evidence of tampering you'd struggle to win a conviction.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    And when that black guy that was just gunned down "happened" to have a knife in his pocket when searched there's no doubt that he was only seconds away from using it to attack the police?
mulmen 8y ago
While I agree there was probably not malfunction of five cameras simultaneously the presumption of innocence is too important to our society to undermine it in any situation, even this one. We must find the evidence that the cameras were sabotaged or otherwise lost their data. No issue is worth undermining our basic principles.

by zik 8y ago

It seems only reasonable that in such cases not only are the police guilty by default of whatever they're accused of, they're also guilty of destroying evidence and should be charged accordingly.

jonnycoder 8y ago

Only if you can prove the malfeasance.

zik 8y ago
When all five body cameras "happened" to fail at the same time I don't think anyone can really doubt the malfeasance.
- manquer 8y ago
  While likely that is the case, unless there are ways to detect tampering built into the camera, it can't be proved in a court
- aptwebapps 8y ago
  Yeah, but who did it? All five of them, one of them, another cop not at the scene but with access to the system? Contractors with system access? It's not enough to be sure that a crime happened. Which isn't to say there shouldn't be an investigation or measures taken to make it harder to happen. And to be more careful, what's the failure rate on those cameras and how many incidents happen a year where it would look suspicious if all cameras fail? If the numbers are high enough we might just have selection bias.
  - r00fus 8y ago
    The officers should be on the hook for their video feed.
- untog 8y ago
  "can really doubt" doesn't work in court, though. Innocent until proven guilty and all that - if there's no actual evidence of tampering you'd struggle to win a conviction.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  And when that black guy that was just gunned down "happened" to have a knife in his pocket when searched there's no doubt that he was only seconds away from using it to attack the police?

mulmen 8y ago

While I agree there was probably not malfunction of five cameras simultaneously the presumption of innocence is too important to our society to undermine it in any situation, even this one. We must find the evidence that the cameras were sabotaged or otherwise lost their data. No issue is worth undermining our basic principles.