http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YFKm9gnKo
When you are on duty, just assume that everything you do
will be on video tape. I have been
telling officers this since at least the Rodney King video more than twenty
years ago. Now cameras are just about
everywhere and with the Internet something that happens in a rural county in
international news within a few minutes, even carried live as the event
unfolds.
Many officers are on video because their patrol cars have
video feeds, some wear cameras and some have cameras mounded on their headgear
or on special glasses. Cameras are an
excellent tool, but the camera only records what the lens sees and the
microphone picks up. The officer has a
brain that will filter what he sees from a different angle and will interpret
the image differently than the camera will record. The camera may show a young man, the officer
may see a gangster. The camera may show
a knife but the officer may not see it at all.
The act of people filming police activity can be disruptive
as people try and get good camera angles. I am uncomfortable with citizens filming police actions when they are
close enough to be a part of the action. I would like legislation that prohibits people from filming the police
if they are within 20 or 30 feet of the officers. I like distance between myself the suspect
and bystanders. The guy filming me now
may become the guy jumping on me as I try and take the suspect into custody. I don’t mind being filmed; I don’t like being
interfered with while I do my job; that’s what the SGT Says.
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2 comments:
I watched that video and I didn't see any force much less excesive force. What I did see was a bunch of unemployed hippies protesting the very Police that protect their right to protest.
Pretty much.
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