The Great Police Work Thread

Cowboysrock55 said:

Either way that's an embarassing propaganda of a statement if I ever heard one. He is making up outlandish bullshit for an agenda. A president should be above that.

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I agree, and to do it there was especially disrespectful. Sadly I wasn't surprised at all

jsmith6919 said:

Don't think he said the vegetable part today, he did repeat the gun is easier to buy than a book though. Guess he decided to make that line a permanent part of his never let a tragedy go to waste policy

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He said that it was easier for a kid to get his hands on a glock than a computer or even a book.

He also went on to remind everyone that racism still exists even in the police department.

If I'm not mistaken, he also eulogized the two guys who were shot and killed last week by police.

Why is GWB acting like he's at a Fleetwood Mac concert?

Police Camera Footage Will No Longer Be Made Public In North Carolina

The Huffington Post
Julia Craven

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a bill into law on Monday that makes police dashboard camera and body camera footage exempt from the public record.

House Bill 972 does make such video accessible to people who can be seen or heard in it, along with their personal representatives ― but they must file a request to obtain the footage. If the request is denied, the petitioners must go before the state’s superior court. Requests can be denied to protect a person’s safety or reputation, or if the recording is part of an active investigation.

Current state law establishes that dashcam footage is in the public record, and it doesn’t address body camera footage. But police departments usually consider body camera footage to be part of an officer’s personnel file and thus private. The new law will make body camera footage accessible under the same stringent new conditions that dashcam footage will be.

“If you hold a piece of film for a long period of time, you completely lose the trust of individuals,” McCrory said .

He added, however, that officials have learned that “if you immediately release a video, sometimes it distorts the entire picture, which is extremely unfair to our law enforcement officials.”

Protests calling for justice in the police shootings of two black men and the massacre of five police officers last week may have further motivated McCrory to sign the bill.

Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last Tuesday . Philando Castile, 32, was shot and killed by police in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, the following day . On Thursday, five Dallas police officers were shot by a sniper following a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest.

Graphic cell phone video footage of Sterling and Castile’s deaths have also made national headlines.

“It was news that shook this nation. It was news that shook communities. It was news that shook law enforcement communities throughout the United States and right here in North Carolina,” McCrory said . “Sadly, our country and state have been through these types of situations before. We’ve learned from them, we’ve recovered from them and we’ve united after them. I’ve seen it firsthand as a mayor.”

McCrory also instituted the Blue Alert System on Monday, which will help catch anyone who plans to attack or harm public safety officials.


North Carolina isn’t the only state to extend extra ― and sometimes redundant ― protections to police officers recently. In May, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed a bill making all attacks on law enforcement officers, firefighters and EMTs a hate crime, though state law had already established harsher punishment for the murder or assault of police officers. B y adding an extra level of protection for police, the bill’s proponents argued, the state was showing much it values law enforcement officers.

For McCrory, the goal appears to be simpler.

“My goal is to protect those who protect us,” McCrory said at the bill’s signing. He added that the law is fair for everyone, and that “it’s better to have rules and guidelines with all this technology than no rules and guidelines whatsoever.”

Bills like HB 972 may appear to send a strong message after the massacre in Dallas, but police officers’ risk of being killed in the line of duty actually fell last year. In 2013, the FBI estimated that 27 officers were killed ― a 50-year low. That number rose to 51 in 2014 and dropped to 41 in 2015.

“Body cameras should be a tool to make law enforcement more transparent and accountable to the communities they serve, but this shameful law will make it nearly impossible to achieve those goals,” said Susanna Birdsong, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.

“People who are filmed by police body cameras should not have to spend time and money to go to court in order to see that footage,” she said. “These barriers are significant and we expect them to drastically reduce any potential this technology had to make law enforcement more accountable to community members.”

People who are filmed by police body cameras should not have to spend time and money to go to court in order to see that footage.

Susanna Birdsong, ACLU of North Carolina

“We are equally concerned about the loss of dashcam [footage],” Mike Meno, communications director for the ACLU of North Carolina, told The Huffington Post.

Meno said the organization is asking anyone who has an issue obtaining footage from any law enforcement agency in the state to contact them. The ACLU will also be reminding North Carolina citizens that they have a right to film their encounters with the police.

“Citizens having smartphones in their pockets empowers them to hold police accountable,” Meno said.

While body camera footage does help the public hold police officers accountable, it rarely leads to indictments or convictions. In 2015, only 15 officers were indicted on murder or manslaughter charges for on-duty killings of civilians ― and 10 of the cases involved video.

That’s a sharp increase from the prior average of less than five indictments per year over 10 years. But still, no police officers were actually convicted on murder or manslaughter charges in 2015.

North Carolina’s new law will go into effect on Oct. 1.

I would have no problems with this if the footages/videos were immediately turned over to an independent agency group to retain and review. They would be the fiduciary for them and could only release any viewing of them to preauthorized recipients.

Jiggyfly said:

Police Camera Footage Will No Longer Be Made Public In North Carolina

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It's basically total horseshit. It's no wonder why people don't trust the government or any of it's entities. When you act like your hiding something, odds are you are probably hiding something. It's pathetic really.

Luckily it would never fly under Missouri sunshine law.

L.T. Fan said:

I would have no problems with this if the footages/videos were immediately turned over to an independent agency group to retain and review. They would be the fiduciary for them and could only release any viewing of them to preauthorized recipients.

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This is exactly how I feel about it. The whole internal review thing is part of the problem. All cases involving a fired weapon needs to be investigated by an independent non-biased entity.

Cowboysrock55 said:

It's basically total horseshit. It's no wonder why people don't trust the government or any of it's entities. When you act like your hiding something, odds are you are probably hiding something. It's pathetic really.

Luckily it would never fly under Missouri sunshine law.

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Exactly.

What you want in situations like these is more transparency, not less.

Jiggyfly said:

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a bill into law on Monday that makes police dashboard camera and body camera footage exempt from the public record.

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McCrory is a total douchebag. This doesn't surprise me.

Nothing worse than a Governor who is trying to get noticed. He's that guy.

https://www.facebook.com/TheComicalConservative/videos/891711804295332/

How anyone can defend this race baiting piece of crap is beyond me.

kidd said:

https://www.facebook.com/TheComicalConservative/videos/891711804295332/

How anyone can defend this race baiting piece of crap is beyond me.

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Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. How this fuckstick can use this horrific moment in our history to beat this one-sided drum is beyond me. How people like Jiggy could even begin to defend this speech, in this situation blows my mind. And Jiggy might not defend it. Maybe I assumed too much. I'll just leave it at that. Just an incomprehensible and terribly timed arena to push your agenda.

pdom said:

. That's the whole point of it and it's been shrouded in this whole BLM thing. Going back to Rodney King and before, If a black person's action are the same as a white persons, police will treat white person will more patience and less physical aggression. Police supposedly enter encounters with black people more amped up, causing police to escalate reaction quicker.

police interaction just a small piece of it and less significant piece of it. However, it's one that dominates social attention because it's so tangible. The bigger piece of it is general perception, education and gentrification. In the workplace, the black person (or woman, for that matter) has to be awesome to compete with a so-so white male. For Asians, it's become accepted to be a doctor or computer engineer, but it's 'who are you kidding' if Asian wants to be something else. In a hoity toity restaurant, don't put black couples by the window cuz its bad for business.

Then em you get into dark-skinned black people vs lighter-skinned black people. Kerry Washington, Halle Berry considered more readily acceptable beautiful while darker actresses (can't think of one right now) don't get the makeup and shampoo ads. Will smith and Denzel Washington get the big paycheck, etc etc.

Not saying I agree with any of it, all of it, but what's public discourse now has completely bastardized the original intent and more fundamental discussion.

I think this 1984 Eddie Murphy SNL skit is more effective than anything BLM. "What a silly negro" LOL

http://www.hulu.com/watch/10356

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I would agree with you if we were talking about even as recently as twenty years ago or later. But I have to be honest with you. Police in large departments have been barraged with so many classes in things like cultural diversity that the fear isn't being amped up to deal with a black person, in many cases it's I don't want to say or do anything to cause this black person to complain. Just as with many stereo types, the one that says cops are out to do what ever they can to hurt, or jail black people is gone in most because the civil and criminal responsibility is too great. That's why alot of this makes so little sense. BLM claim that blacks are being singled out and the media and politicians back them when evidence and statistics and studies do not.
And the same goes to the workplace. There are many black officers in our department that are fine officers, but there are also black officers that have developed into lazy, do as little as possible complainers that previous supervisors have never dealt with properly for fear of being labeled racist, that are still on departments, ours included. Maybe that is just the civil service environment and I can't honestly answer to the private sector, but I've seen it far to often where a black person is pushed through the ranks because of their skin color vs ability to do the job. Still happens today. While I understand the need for diversity in leadership and rank, you need to make sure the right minorities are being given the chances, because they are good officers, not who they know. That even pisses off the minority folk in the departments.

BTW, I spent 4 hours in Sundance Square with groups that are in support of the BLM folk. the whole event was open conversation and hugging and taking pictures with kids and folks of all color just visiting and talking on Tuesday night. And then a few of my officers, a deputy chief and myself spent 5 hours answering questions at a predominantly black church last night with the same result afterward. People hugging and praising one another for sincere open conversation and appreciation. These are the types of things I've been doing for the more than 2 years I've been a captain here. I've told you guys before how different Fort Worth is and how truly blessed I am to work in this city and for these citizens.

fortsbest said:

BTW, I spent 4 hours in Sundance Square with groups that are in support of the BLM folk. the whole event was open conversation and hugging and taking pictures with kids and folks of all color just visiting and talking on Tuesday night. And then a few of my officers, a deputy chief and myself spent 5 hours answering questions at a predominantly black church last night with the same result afterward. People hugging and praising one another for sincere open conversation and appreciation. These are the types of things I've been doing for the more than 2 years I've been a captain here. I've told you guys before how different Fort Worth is and how truly blessed I am to work in this city and for these citizens.

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I've been living in Fort Worth go a year now, and really really love it. It feels more like West Texas to me (where I grew up), so much more laid back than Dallas proper.

townsend said:

I've been living in Fort Worth go a year now, and really really love it. It feels more like West Texas to me (where I grew up), so much more laid back than Dallas proper.

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I may have asked this before, but where in West Texas did you grow up?

Iamtdg said:

I may have asked this before, but where in West Texas did you grow up?

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Has he grown up? Sorry couldn't resist. Just kidding.

fortsbest said:

I would agree with you if we were talking about even as recently as twenty years ago or later. But I have to be honest with you. Police in large departments have been barraged with so many classes in things like cultural diversity that the fear isn't being amped up to deal with a black person, in many cases it's I don't want to say or do anything to cause this black person to complain. Just as with many stereo types, the one that says cops are out to do what ever they can to hurt, or jail black people is gone in most because the civil and criminal responsibility is too great. That's why alot of this makes so little sense. BLM claim that blacks are being singled out and the media and politicians back them when evidence and statistics and studies do not.
And the same goes to the workplace. There are many black officers in our department that are fine officers, but there are also black officers that have developed into lazy, do as little as possible complainers that previous supervisors have never dealt with properly for fear of being labeled racist, that are still on departments, ours included. Maybe that is just the civil service environment and I can't honestly answer to the private sector, but I've seen it far to often where a black person is pushed through the ranks because of their skin color vs ability to do the job. Still happens today. While I understand the need for diversity in leadership and rank, you need to make sure the right minorities are being given the chances, because they are good officers, not who they know. That even pisses off the minority folk in the departments.

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I would like to see these statistics so we can compare.

And don't people of all colors get pushed through because of things other than there ability to do the job, why are you single out black cops are they more lazy than white cops?

Iamtdg said:

I may have asked this before, but where in West Texas did you grow up?

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Abilene mostly, with a little time in Lubbock.

townsend said:

Abilene mostly, with a little time in Lubbock.

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Cool. I had the opposite background. I was born in west Texas, raised in east Texas, and now live in west Texas. Would love to retire in east or central Texas.

Iamtdg said:

Cool. I had the opposite background. I was born in west Texas, raised in east Texas, and now live in west Texas. Would love to retire in east or central Texas.

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The fucking cedar in Central TX murders me, but the scenery is beautiful. Kerville is just one of the prettiest places on earth.