Ubiquitous video and cell phones that tracked our every movement used to scare the snot out of me because of the potential for government abuse. On balance, it seems I should have not been so concerned. These technologies have completely turned the tables on the NYPD in their confrontations with the Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York.
(And I am not all that aligned with the sensibilities of the protestors, many of whom are just kids and very young adults who have little experience and less sense. That is not the point. The point is is that I am, and we must all get to be, a strict constructionist when it comes to the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. That OWS will be used by Obama supporters to deflect blame on the economy is of course true - and completely beside the point.)
Watch this video, particularly the footage from 1:40 to 1:55.
It would appear that a brawny police supervisor is punching a young woman in the face/head. Such blows can render a person unconscious and unable to protect their head/brain as they fall to the pavement. This incident is under "investigation". No reasonable person can conclude this was an honorable decision by this officer under any circumstance. This is not to say the police are not in an impossible situation - they are. There is a fine line between maintaining order and brutality.
The days of privilege for government officials, to be able to get away with such behavior, has come to a close (in public). What they do in the "back room" is still an issue, but I think the tables have been turned on Big Brother.
Yes, the ability to record interactions is a truly wonderful thing, especially as ubiquitous as it is. Evil works best in the dark, and the standard cell phone shines a bright light on these cockroaches. However...
ReplyDeleteWe must be even more vigilant for laws that would make this behavior itself illegal. What if recording a government employee was made illegal, like Maryland has been trying to do? The citizen would be arrested, and their evidence would be confiscated. I expect this to be attempted, at the very least. Given the erratic performance of the Supreme Court, would such a law be annulled, or upheld?
Maryland's law is likely on the ropes as every court where this issue has been brought was ruled unconstitutional.
ReplyDeleteNot so fast there, pardner. Most of them, yes. However, the last page of this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20111011/ZNYT02/110113009/-1/NEWS?p=4&tc=pg
"The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, arguing that Illinois’s statute violates the First Amendment and would keep the organization’s members from monitoring citizen-police interactions, filed a lawsuit in 2010 challenging the law. A district court dismissed the case. The civil liberties group is now appealing the judgment."
Yeah, that's Illinois. Where's our president from again?
The video maybe damning but these officers never seem to actually get what they got coming for incidents like these either.
ReplyDeleteThere will be set backs but I highly doubt SCOTUS will allow camera bans in the end. Weirder rulings have happened however.
And then there's the other side - entrapment. With some editing, video can lie as well as anything else (Michael Moore would be a good example of this).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/10/setting-the-stage-ows-leaders-caught-on-tape-orchestrating-mob-activity-and-arrests-videos/