Baltimore Police are assholes. An old friend got arrested for DUI sitting in his parked car with the engine off and the keys in his pocket, and I got busted for remembering to come back to lock his car door and call his mother. Sometimes they need to arrest a token white person, any nearby white person for anything they can come up with, just so they can swear they're not being racist.

For my testimony I damn near got contempt of court for showing how annoying it is to have to keep repeating myself. "The engine was off. I saw him put the keys in his pocket as soon as we both got in. I had a good view from the passenger seat and the key was never in the ignition. You cannot drive a parked car with the engine turned off, especially when the keys are in your pocket. Not even when you're drunk. Don't you understand that? Does your mommy drive you to work?"

He beat the bullshiat charge though: the judge had to agree with me. And the pigs from Northern District kept pointedly noticing me for months after that.

By the way, the occasion was Memorial Day night just after the bars closed. There was a black-based nightclub across the street from the white hipster bar we'd been in; after hours the black club's black patrons were in no hurry to go home and stood around socializing and enjoying the warm night. In that crowd were a few guys my buddy knew from school and work so since we both knew we were too drunk to drive we just hung out a while.

Keep in mind that in Baltimore City a large group of young blacks, especially men, "milling around" on the sidewalks in a trendy district is a "situation" for that requires five squad cars and a paddy wagon, not counting the two cruisers across each end of the block. Ever seen somebody busted at gunpoint for spitting on the sidewalk? Or rather for saying "Look now. Do you see any spit?" I wish in 1988 we'd have had an easy way to record that shiat and a Youtube to post it to.

Unfortunately, this means that because the police can't use the chilling effect of arrest for felony wiretapping to prevent citizens from recording their abuses, we're going to start hearing a lot more "I was recording them beating this guy, when one of them came over to me and took my phone. I don't have any evidence, because he apparently destroyed it."
That will work until more people have apps that upload to network storage every few seconds while recording.

R.A.Danny: Oddly enough Obama's home state is fighting to keep the laws against filming officers on the job on the books harder than just about anyone.

Why is that odd? There's a lot of corruption in Kenya.

Theaetetus: Unfortunately, this means that because the police can't use the chilling effect of arrest for felony wiretapping to prevent citizens from recording their abuses, we're going to start hearing a lot more "I was recording them beating this guy, when one of them came over to me and took my phone. I don't have any evidence, because he apparently destroyed it."
That will work until more people have apps that upload to network storage every few seconds while recording.

Ustream has an app for that.

Theaetetus:

apps that upload to network storage every few seconds while recording.

Yes. That's a must-have.

This About That:

So there are cops who really shouldn't be cops.

Where are the cops who should be cops?

Oh that's right, they're Fark mods instead.

/blatant ass-kissing can be fun when it's my idea

Weaver95:

cops can slam a suspect up against a wall and use excessive force and as long as it's not on camera, it's the cops word against the suspects. But you start recording those situations and suddenly the cop has to play it by the rules. the cops become accountable for their actions...which is something that some of them never want to have happen.

Very very very this.

Except for the "some" part.

namatad:


/it is amazing that the same technology which empowers a police state (ubiquitous video surveillance) can also be used to control the police state.

Until they take down Youtube and start treating the Web like China does.

Next year at the latest.

Good.

Some 'Splainin' To Do:
Shorter: Cops are a good thing that can easy become a bad thing unless you keep an eye on them.
Some 'Splainin' To Do:
Again and again we've learned that the police can not be trusted to police themselves.

Both of these.