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Robinson Meyer writes in The Atlantic that in the past year, after the killings of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, many police departments and police reformists have agreed on the necessity of police-worn body cameras. But the most powerful cameras aren’t those on officer’s bodies but those wielded by bystanders. We don’t yet know who shot videos of officer officer, Michael T. Slager, shooting Walter Scott eight times as he runs away but "unknown cameramen and women lived out high democratic ideals: They watched a cop kill someone, shoot recklessly at someone running away, and they kept the camera trained on the cop," writes Robinson. "They were there, on an ordinary, hazy Saturday morning, and they chose to be courageous. They bore witness, at unknown risk to themselves."
“We have been talking about police brutality for years. And now, because of videos, we are seeing just how systemic and widespread it is,” tweeted Deray McKesson, an activist in Ferguson, after the videos emerged Tuesday night. “The videos over the past seven months have empowered us to ask deeper questions, to push more forcefully in confronting the system.” The process of ascertaining the truth of the world has to start somewhere. A video is one more assertion made about what is real concludes Robinson. "Today, through some unknown hero’s stubborn internal choice to witness instead of flee, to press record and to watch something terrible unfold, we have one more such assertion of reality."
Update: NBC News has identified the cameraman as Feidin Santana.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:25PM
When errors means that people gets killed or injured for life. The scrutiny is going to be way higher.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:36PM
Meanwhile, NYC went 12 days without a murder recently (hopefully more, please).
The problem is the cops.
They should shoot the murderers, not the ones running away.
Lower both the type I errors and the type II errors,
a perfectly square ROC curve is the only acceptable solution.
(perfectly impossible).
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”
― Philip K. Dick
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.”
― Abraham Lincoln
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snow on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:42PM
How can we afford to be paying all those police officers a Judge's salary?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @11:52PM
Civil forfeiture - convenient, existing, and now that they only shoot murderers, fair.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:01AM
Clearly we need to make all police officers judges [wikipedia.org] too.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.