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Judge to decide by Friday if 100 Boston cops can be ordered to wear body cameras
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Comments
Yes
I don't understand why all cops are not wearing them without the option to turn them off. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
So they should wear it in the
So they should wear it in the bathroom? While they're eating dinner? Talking to their wife/husband on the phone? Walking into a private residence where the person does not consent to being recorded? While talking with a witness who does not want his or her statement recorded? None of those situations?
The BPD Brass did not invent Body Cameras
They have been tried, used, and put in service in many other US cities and in other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_worn_video
I'm sure with so many other places having used these for many years before they came out in Boston that they kind of have the whole potty thing worked out, as well as your entire list of OMG WHATIFS. These are all important policy issues, but they are policy issues that are not unique to Boston, and I'm sure you could do a bit of googling to get your answers about departmental policies covering them.
Well, yah
Not that we want to see such mundane footage, but who knows when an emergency might happen. A crime could happen or a weapon drawn in any of those circumstances, and an officer isn't going to waste time turning a camera back on....
when on duty yes.
when on duty yes.
To all of those.
yes.
Negotiaion 101
The city is asking the cops to do something they don't necessarily want to do. What token concession is the city making for them?
How about "okay, I'll wear the camera, but I want immunity from prosecution and to not be placed on paid leave if the videotape shows me discharging my service weapon as a direct response to a suspect reaching into his pants for any reason after being told to freeze?"
I'm not and never have been a cop, but I'd be all over cameras for that reason. It's gonna get videotaped anyway in 2016, why don't I control the narrative and the POV?
yeah
cops sure do suffer from a lack of controlling narrative
In courts?
No. In popular media? Yes.
The Freddie Gray cops all got acquitted. But folks still hate them and think they're guilty. Would you rather be innocent in both real court and public opinion court, or do you want to be George Zimmerman?
News for you
Being acquitted != not being guilty
In this case that is abundantly clear. They beat a man to death with a joyride. They got away with it.
Concession?
This whole attitude of "We need a concession" whenever a policy is changed is part of the problem. Wearing cameras should not be considered a major change in contract. They are not being asked to give up pay, hours, or safety. They have no right to privacy while on the clock and no one is asking them to wear cameras while off duty. The cameras do not change the job they are paid to do.
I know that
And I agree with it. I'm just trying to spitball for the cop side of this.
If these were any other public servants on the public payroll
You'd be crying and whining about how they are all unnecessary/overpaid and should just quit if they didn't like it.
I can say that here too
Cops who refuse to wear cameras and who otherwise suck should quit.
I decided to open with a rhetorical defense of cops today instead to advance the conversation. If you're ever unclear as to where I stand, AMA.
"Advance the conversation"
you are a worthless sack of shit. you got fired from your job for saying minorities shouldnt be allowed in clubs/bars until they become civilized.
i am arguably one of the biggest shitheels on uhub and even i find your stench to be god damned insufferable
no subject
Brass ones on you
Hiding behind a handle. What do you think you know about my life? Better yet, why don't you get one of your own?
And of course I said what I said. I have a friend who's currently out of work who works in a Boston bar because a black guy hit him in the head with a chair. I know my own reality. Sucks that the very worst black people ruin it for the majority of the good black people out there.
I told an uncomfortable truth about protecting a business and an industry from a city that wants to run it into the ground, which real people deal with in their line of work more often than they should. You know what that cost me? $425 a week before taxes at the end. Big (expletive) deal. That job was not a growth area anymore anyway. I know damn well what I'm doing.
The guy who replaced me makes literally half what I made to do the same job. Of course, an employer won't state that, they wait for a reason to get rid of somebody that they think will hold up in an unemployment hearing. Geeks Who Drink thought they found one. I won the hearing. And I still didn't take a nickel in benefits from the Commonwealth. If you think I believe for a second that I was fired solely for a comment I made on the Internet, you're truly delusional.
I am a beacon of honesty, morality, and intelligence who, for many years, had a great privilege in entertaining Bostonians, and I did it damn well and had a lot of fun doing it. What have you done with your life that's worth anything? You know, other than write anonymous letters to people whom you've never met?
well
not being an unabashed advocate for segregation would be one thing i've done
im sure i could come up with more
oh and lets both be honest. my 'ones' could be made out of silly putty and they'd still be enough to say whatever i want to say to you.
edit: oh, and, no, i'm sure you were fired for more than an internet comment. i have no doubt you're every bit insufferable outside of uhub as you are in uhub.
Great
I'll petition Liz Warren to rename the third Monday in January Scumquistador Day.
Also, we already have the attempted segregation. Who do you think dress code signs are for? What do you think country nights are for? Why do you think Heineken and Hennessy are priced so high? Boston bar managers are paid to be racist. Period. Protecting their licenses depends on it. If that offends you, tough (expletive). At no point have I ever claimed that any of this was pleasant.
All I did was suggest, tongue in cheek, that bars could just dispose of the pretense.
Sepearate note, Will you forgot about racist "last calls" too.
Good list though, I agree.
Anatole France
The bar, in its majestic equality, forbids the white as well as the black to enter with sagging trousers, backwards baseball hats, or work boots.
Cool
Once we find out who your new employer is, these comments will be forwarded to them too. And in the meantime, why don't you show how honest you are. Go up to the black guy who guards (or used to guard) your bar and read this and the other comments you said about black people to them. Too scared? And are you admitting that you committed many fireable offenses and the company found one bad enough to go to court over? Put that on your resume, Honest Abe.
More brass ones
At least Scum signed up.
As for "fireable offense," that's entirely up to the employer. And I still won.
Rationalization != reason
Sucks that bigots keep spouting this rationalization, as if it ever had a grain of truth to it.
If you haven't done anything wrong...
...what are you afraid of?
This is the rationale behind the invasion of the privacy of every other American. Cops are not nearly as special as they think.