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from the eye-think-we-are-being-watched dept.
A pilot program was scheduled to start last week. But after no officers volunteered, Commissioner William Evans ordered 100 officers to wear the cameras. That prompted the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association to ask a judge to issue an injunction to halt the program until a new agreement can be negotiated.
Union President Patrick Rose testified Tuesday that the city violated its agreement with the union when Evans assigned officers to what was supposed to be an all-volunteer program. Rose acknowledged that he told members not to volunteer for the program before the union had reached an agreement with the city.
[...] Evans said he wants the program to begin next week and believes it's within his authority as police commissioner to order officers to wear the cameras.
No word on whether or not the Commissioner volunteered to wear a camera.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:52PM
I haven't noticed that the police are particularly more corrupt than the auto industry or any other business
Police are public servants that have the power to enforce the law. They should be held to a higher standard than businesses.
But the percentage of cops doing an excellent job compared to any abuses is at least 1000 to 1
Do you have a reference for that?
I mean if we are going to point the finger blame, there is enough to go around. To you too I suspect.
So ... because there are people doing bad things, then we should not try to hold police accountable to the public they serve?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @07:17PM
Police are public servants that have the power to enforce the law. They should be held to a higher standard than businesses.
True, but that shouldn't be open license for the perpetually outraged to make any demands with justification. As already pointed out, even when officers are cleared of any wrongdoing, there are still demands for blood. And while they should be held to a higher standard, they are still citizens, afforded all the protections as such. Too many seem to forget that.
Do you have a reference for that?
Yes:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394249/dojs-policing-statistics-dont-lie-ian-tuttle [nationalreview.com]
Now do you?
So ... because there are people doing bad things, then we should not try to hold police accountable to the public they serve?
Nice way to miss the point.
The issue was concerning police cameras where it was stated Not saying that cameras shouldn't be used
Did you get that?
But with the very selective outrage against police actions (did you have the same contempt during Ruby Ridge), I'd rather walk than be subjected to the idiocy currently on display.
And apparently several feel the same way:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96570&page=1 [go.com]
But I'm certain you'd be more than happy to join to at least get some good people in there.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Zinho on Thursday September 08 2016, @10:03PM
...the percentage of cops doing an excellent job compared to any abuses is at least 1000 to 1, which doesn't exactly support this meme of widespread corruption.
Do you have a reference for that?
Yes:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394249/dojs-policing-statistics-dont-lie-ian-tuttle [nationalreview.com]
Now do you?
That source doesn't support you on that:
In raw numbers, of 1.45 million pedestrians stopped, only about 9,900 filed a complaint.
By my math, that's 6.8/1000, or 146:1 excellent job:abuses as a best case. That number only accounts for the people angry/brave/foolish enough to file an official complaint. Elsewhere in the paragraph it says that 24.5% of the pedestrians stopped believed the police had acted improperly; that's 3:1 excellent job:improper action.
Your source isn't exactly giving me warm fuzzies about the high quality of police-civilian interaction.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @01:30AM
Street stops present more disparate data: Seventy-seven percent of whites stopped said police behaved properly, while only 38 percent of blacks did. However, the BJS notes that the number of responses to the question in its sample was so small that those figures must be “interpret[ed] with caution,” so clearly additional information is needed. More reliable are figures about street-stop rates.
If you are going to quote, quote the whole source otherwise you look like an idiot.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday September 09 2016, @02:46AM
That line was 5 paragraphs away; I'm not in the habit of quoting half an article to correct poor presentation on the part of the author.
Furthermore, the author seems confident in the rest of the street stop data (as indicated by the last line you quoted). I see no indication that the author was questioning the validity of the his previous numbers. The large separation between the two indicates that he intended to divorce the conclusions of one paragraph from the uncertainties of the other. This is either a legitimate analysis and I was right to not quote the second paragraph, or the author was intentionally lying with statistics in an article titled "statistics don't lie".
Oh, the irony!
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin