South Florida cops claimed they were “forced to fire” at a 32-year-old Black man named Donald Taylor in August because he was armed and would not follow commands.
But newly surfaced video contradicts those claims, showing the Black man walking away from cops with his hands raised to his sides showing no gun in his hand when a Hollywood police officer fired a single shot as Taylor had his back turned to the cops, killing him.
When they’re justified they release the body cam footage without needing to be asked. It’s become my go to litmus test. Footage is missing? Camera was off? Camera was blocked? Yeah that’s murder and they know the footage would show it.
Footage should be held by some independent 3rd party who will follow the rules on releasing it. It shouldn’t be up to the cops.
We tried that when Biden was in office and all these new body cam laws were passed. So many cops threatened to quit, politicians backed down and let police unions retain control of the cameras and recordings.
Damn, I had no idea that happened. So fucked.
Edit: Also, I kinda feel like the ones who threatened the quit, were the ones we wanted to quit …
Right there with you on that one. If I had it my way, I’d let them all quit, then divert funding from police to social workers and incorporate them into the first-responders network.
Of course, if I had it my way, police would also (at a minimum) have similar training requirements as EMTs, would belong to a union who answered to voters, not other cops, and a whole bunch of other changes to limit their power and militarization.
They wouldn’t have quit. That would have impacted their pensions.
I’ve just been thinking on this more, that really would have been fascinating to see it play out.
I think you’re right for any old timers. New people it’s not a big an issue. I feel like there may have been a big lawsuit though over if that would be reasonable grounds to quit and keep the pension? It could be entirely baseless, I don’t know know anything about that, but that feels like what would happen for those that did quit or wanted to quit?
The ensuing aftermath though would have been a very interesting watch.
Edit: the ensuing aftermath also including all the changes in police misconduct stats.
I say let most of the cops quit and put that funding into training social workers to be first responders to pretty much everything except armed robberies and up.
I think you’d need police for more than just that. Situations can change pretty quickly in a lot of circumstances, but definitely a lot of scenarios where you could send a social worker instead.
There could also be unarmed police like in the UK which would add some level of general deescalation from the start.
Yeah, I could see that working, IF training requirements matched the authorized use of force.
The big problem in the US is that most local PDs look more like SWAT teams, but lack the appropriate training to make responsible choices with the power they’ve been given. My vision involves both de-militarizing the police, along with increasing training requirements for the ones remaining.
It’s absolutely absurd that we give gear and equipment to military soldiers with years of training, send them to an active war zone on the other side of the world, and tell them they have to follow rules when they use that gear and equipment in an act of force against an enemy combatants.
Then, we take that same gear and equipment, give it to police officers with 6 weeks of training, and tell them they’re immune from any prosecution resulting from an act of force against a US citizen.
Literally, enemy combatants fighting a war against our military have more rights and protections than tax-paying, law-abiding citizens on US soil simply interacting with police.
The cynic in me doesn’t believe there exists any such party.
Public library systems, give them money from the police budget to get the job done.
I could do it. Problem solved.
I admire your gumption if not your efficacy
Thats also fair.
Screw that. It should be held by a 3rd party openly hostile to police.
Exactly. The footage is there to keep the police from abusing their power, it’s not supposed to be neutral in the first place.
“Neutral third parties” that who would rely on police departments contracts.
If the cops want it released then it’s released. If they want it buried then it’s buried. Because the customer is always right.
Cop body cams should just be open to live streaming by anyone at anytime the same way unprotected security cameras are.
I think that would be a potential privacy problem for the people interacting with the cops, given that the majority of their interactions with people don’t end up in a shooting. I once got pulled over when I was driving home from late night board games a few days after Christmas. I hadn’t been driving erratically, they were just doing routine breathalyser checks because there had been a lot of drunk driving in the area.
I think when the policy is well-made, it would fit with security camera workings. When you go shopping at the mall, pay for your stuff and leave, you’re recorded, but the running footage is erased every 48 hours or so. It’s only when the mall has a major shoplifting incident, or a mass shooting, would someone tag the period of the crime and save it all for review. Similarly, police would only need body camera review if there’s a report they discharged their weapon, made an arrest, etc.
— Vitalik Buterin
That’s a great quote, and fits the context well