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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
As Tim Cushing wrote a few months back, recording the police is a complex and contentious issue in the US. But what about in China? Given the increasing clampdown on the Internet world, it's pretty easy to guess that the Chinese authorities wouldn't take too kindly to members of the public trying to hold the police to account in this way. Easy to guess -- and yet wrong, according to this story in the South China Morning Post (SCMP):
Chinese residents can now record the actions of police officers as long as it does not stop them from doing their job.
The article provides a little background to this rather surprising news:
The move is expected to help keep police in check but there were no details on how it will be enforced.
And this is why some of them clearly need to be controlled better:
Environmental scientist Lei, 29, died in police custody in May just 50 minutes after he was approached by plainclothes officers for an identification check in his neighbourhood.
At first, police said he died of a heart attack, but an autopsy report this month said he died of suffocation from gastric fluid.
The public blamed his death on police handling, with two case officers arrested on suspicion of dereliction of duty.
Source: TechDirt
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @08:32PM
https://www.yahoo.com/news/video/alibaba-buys-chinas-youtube-201730583.html?ref=gs [yahoo.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @08:36PM
you are all being watched, even the enforcers are being watched, and the watchers are being watched. everyone watches everyone else.
except the Party leadership. they are only watched by other Party leaders, like sharks, waiting for a moment of weakness...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @08:43PM
Where is the coast guard [youtube.com] in all of this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:26PM
Protecting those new islands in the South China Sea?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday August 04 2016, @08:43PM
it's pretty easy to guess that the Chinese authorities wouldn't take too kindly to members of the public trying to hold the police to account in this way. Easy to guess -- and yet wrong
Does anyone really believe that the Chinese government says has any relation to what it does?
Film the police while they issue a parking ticket or catch a petty criminal? No problem. Now try when they arrest a human rights lawyer on charges of "subversion" and see what happens.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:10PM
I was going to say something similar. This will help them identify potential "troublemakers".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @11:19PM
This will help them identify potential organ donors.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:35PM
On the other hand, China has fewer people in prison than the US does. It's not like the US is really able to claim the moral high ground on their policing practices.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 04 2016, @10:06PM
Mmmmm, citation please?
China prefers prison work camps [google.com] (reeducation centers) and never publishes any figures about those.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @06:32PM
China tends to execute a lot more people too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_offences_in_China [wikipedia.org]
Then again the US cops execute a fair number of people, without even a kangaroo court involved. While blacks tend to be their main victims, even the lighter coloured ones aren't safe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6JzzJ1OLQ#t=7m30s [youtube.com]
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Bexar-County-grand-jury-finds-no-cause-to-6687138.php [mysanantonio.com]
By the way, you know your country is pretty crap when such comparisons with China become meaningful.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:37PM
> Does anyone really believe that the Chinese government says has any relation to what it does?
I do.
The Chinese people keep taking to the streets to protest local corruption. The central government is happy to put a few bullets in low-level corrupt people to prove that it's fighting corruption and bad management. The Party even regularly purges high-level guys who are getting in someone's way, or have been caught doing really outrageous stuff. One guy doesn't matter, if he's not part of the boss's family.
You can film the cops in the street as much as you want. The local cops will want you dead, but the Party will thank you for being a good citizen.
Taping uniformed cops on the street does not threaten the People Who Matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @03:02PM
Just like in the US, no? Try arresting a member of the Bush cartel... or the Clinton cartel...
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday August 05 2016, @09:15PM
They might not even do that. They said you can film, they didn't say they'd do anything about it.
Much like the US -- the courts say we have a right to film. The police disagree and arrest people for it quite regularly. It's exceedingly rare for officers to be disciplined for that.
And even when a police officer is caught on video blatantly violating the law, usually nothing is done. An internal investigation will find no evidence of wrongdoing. At best they'll get a show trial and be found not guilty -- unless it's a convenient excuse to get rid of an officer for other reasons, or they decide to allow the occasional conviction just to keep the peace.
Now, perhaps this isn't how it'll go in China, perhaps they're actually less corrupt than the US...but this policy doesn't really demonstrate that yet...
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Friday August 05 2016, @05:29AM
Does anyone really believe that the Chinese government says has any relation to what it does?
No, it's no different to the US, British or Australian governments. Or any large multinational company. Or almost any company, come to that.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:12PM
Outside of the bathroom there is no legally accepted expectation of privacy in the workplace. Your employer can and likely does read your email, monitors your surfing, maybe even your smoke breaks and bathroom trips. This is all legal. So why should the employees of We The People expect better rights than we ourselves have?
Then again we don't have pensions or 37.5 hour workweeks, so something has to give at some point.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @03:04PM
Not true in the UK - sysadmin has to ask permission before accessing user data.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:20PM
At least this is a step in the right direction. I think the US needs to publicly declare the same thing. I have a suspicion that quite a few police beatings / killings are mercenary hit jobs. Company doesn't like the public attention the environmental scientists is bringing? Pay off some cops to arrest and brutally beat him.
This same shit goes down in the US, we are known for being one of the more corrupt countries. Maybe its just that such police "services" are very expensive so we don't get as many blatant examples of it. Or we just don't hear about them for some reason...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:31PM
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=first+amendment+audit [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday August 04 2016, @09:34PM
Supposedly Israeli orchestrates car accidents against nuclear and weapons scientists in Arab countries as well as Iran. I haven't even heard your theory on overnight AM radio.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Friday August 05 2016, @02:55AM
That's a bit paranoid.
COPS in the US brutalize people for the lulz...