Loss of Privacy

United States Marine Corps. Sgt. Shamar Thomas from Roosevelt, NY went toe to toe with the New York Police Department. An activist in the Occupy Wall Street movement, Thomas voiced his opinions of the NYPD police brutality that had and has been plaguing the #OWS movement.

Thomas is a 24-year-old Marine Veteran (2 tours in Iraq), he currently plays amateur football and is in college.

Thomas comes from a long line of people who sacrifice for their country: Mother, Army Veteran (Iraq), Step father, Army, active duty (Afghanistan), Grand father, Air Force veteran (Vietnam), Great Grand Father Navy veteran (World War II).

With advances in technology, police are increasingly turning to gadgets they can use in the field to perform their duties. One of the latest devices is a wearable camera that clips onto a shirt pocket and can record everything an officer says and does. Still, some officers are hesitant to use them

Levenson said some Alabama police departments have refrained from installing dashboard cameras because officers feared the video footage would get them in trouble, but roughly 80 percent of the time an officer’s behavior is questioned and the incident is caught on tape, “it exonerates the officer from wrongdoing. Officers have found it to be their friend. If nobody is doing anything wrong, nobody should be worried.”

If officers are worried about dashboard cameras getting them into trouble, then maybe they should rethink their behavior while on duty. Police departments should also consider the fact that they still have 20% of cases where an officer is found guilty of some type of wrong doing.

Baldwin County criminal defense attorney John Beck said video evidence helps him decide how to proceed with a client.

“In every case where there is a possibility that a dash cam or any other camera can shed light on the facts, I’m asking for it,” Beck said. “This is all a search for the truth. And I don’t think either law enforcement or defense attorneys should be afraid to seek preservation of the truth, and having a video and audio record is absolutely the best method to preserve the truth.”

A video and/or audio recording only helps to clarify what occurred during incidents and altercations. Still, there are some concerns that remain.

But Ken Nixon, a Mobile attorney whose clients’ driving under the influence cases comprise about half his criminal defense, said the small size of the clip-on camera also creates the potential for abuse and possibly illegal recordings.

In Alabama, the law requires knowledge of a recording by at least one person in a conversation, unless a warrant is issued. That means an officer would not have to tell a suspect he’s being recorded.

But Nixon said the shirt-pocket cameras are so small they could be left inside a patrol car while an officer stepped outside.

If two suspects inside the car started talking, without knowing a camera was on, any recording of the conversation would be illegal.

While these concerns are legitimate in homes, there are arguments about the expectations of privacy when out in public. The main goal, however, should be that, if the public can be filmed by the police, then the police should be filmed by the public. This notion, however, is still very controversial and many legal questions still need to be resolved before proceeding further.

“They’re good when they’re used properly,” Nixon said. “But I think they’re invasive, if not illegal, when used improperly.”

This is one of the biggest problems that have arisen from wearable cameras. Police have been caught tampering with dash cameras whenever they are shown to have been wrong. This has ranged from cameras malfunctioning or being shut off completely during altercations and confrontations with citizens.

In order to provide the integrity of video and audio evidence, all data needs to be store off-site, with an independent third party. Anything less will leave accusations of unfairness. If the police could abide by this, then an equitable solution may be possible.

If you can read Spanish, the story about this is in El Pais.

Found via reddit.

I love Judge Dredd. I’ve been reading the comic since 1991. The scary thing now is that real life police now resemble Dredd far too much for my comfort.

From Bleeding Cool:

In Swipe File we present two or more images that resemble each other to some degree. They may be homages, parodies, ironic appropriations, coincidences or works of the lightbox. We trust you, the reader, to make that judgment yourself.  If you are unable to do so, please return your eyes to their maker before any further damage is done. The Swipe File doesn’t judge, it’s interested more in the process of creation, how work influences other work, how new work comes from old, and sometimes how the same ideas emerge simultaneously, as if their time has just come. The Swipe File was named after the advertising industry habit where writers and artist collect images and lines they admire to inspire them in their work. It was swiped from the Comic Journal who originally ran this column, as well as the now defunct Swipe Of The Week website.

Admittedly, there are no police in the Judge Dredd universe, only judges. You also do not like judges, you are meant to fear them.  The weapons Judge Dredd has at his disposal are also becoming eerily similar to what’s being developed in the real world.

I love the comic, but when it becomes real life, it’s not fun at all. I think, eventually, we’re going to end up as a cross between Judge Dredd and Blade Runner.

Anonymous cartoonist, Mr. Fiddlesticks, has been making cartoons that mock the local police. Now, the city prosecutor wants to send him to jail for his parodies.

The series of web-based short cartoons feature a mustachioed street cop and a short-haired female bureaucrat. The dry, at times, witty banter between the two touches on some embarrassing insider secrets, some of which seem to match up with internal affairs investigations on file within Renton PD.

The “South-Park”-style animations parody everything from officers having sex on duty to certain personnel getting promoted without necessary qualifications. While the city wants to criminalize the cartoons, First Amendment rights advocates say the move is an “extreme abuse of power.”

Only KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne holds a key document that really lays bare the city’s intent. The document was quietly filed in King County Superior Court last week. It’s a search warrant accusing an anonymous cartoon creator, going by the name of Mr. Fiddlesticks, of cyberstalking (RCW 9.61.260). The Renton Police Department and the local prosecutor got a judge to sign off as a way to uncover the name of whoever is behind the parodies. Halsne talked with three nationally respected legal experts who believe the use of the cyberstalking statute is likely stomping on the constitution.

Part of the protections of the constitution is that we have the right to question those in authority. This can range from simple questions to parodies. It’s legal and there is nothing wrong with making a parody as a way to criticize something.

The problem is that the Renton police and prosecutor’s office are interpreting the law far too broadly. This is simply a witch hunt to find out who Mr. Fiddlesticks is. Once that happens, I’m sure “the law” will be on the side of the police who end up harassing Mr. Fiddlesticks.

You can view all the parodies at the KIRO TV website.