I was reading a story about Cory Maye.I like it. Of course, the mandate would need to be done at the state level, since there's no delegated Constitutional authority for the fedgov to involve themselves in this. But it's an interesting speculation, if for no other reason than to throw the police statist's arguments back in their faces.
You might remember it. A young black man in Mississippi with no criminal record and an 18 month old daughter has cops invade his home during the middle of the night. It hasn't been determined whether or not they identified themselves, but Corey thought them to be intruders and fired at them. He ended up killing the Sheriff's son. Turns out they'd raided the wrong duplex. They were looking for marijuana, they didn't find any in his duplex. In any case, I had an epiphany. Let me explain.
Cops have nothing to hide, right? The government and political pundits tells us we shouldn't worry about surveillance if we have nothing to hide.
So, therefore, I propose making law enforcement officers wear cameras that can record audio and video while on duty. This would cut down on them screwing around, possible corruption, excessive force, etc. There'd be penalties if they deliberately tampered with it. At the end of each day they have to turn in the cameras. If there's any complaints against them, the video is reviewed by a civilian panel on that particular day on the incident that a complaint was received about.
I mean, cops are supposed to be the most upstanding and law-abiding of us all, right? Therefore, they shouldn't have anything to hide. Cameras are so small these days they could fit one on 'em just fine without any problems. It would avoid these type of situations and create accountability. They don't have anything to hide...do they?
Here's a nice fantasy: Perhaps some day, We the People will reassert authority over our servants and force this to happen...
Tags: gun control, Cory Maye
3 comments:
It is amazing how quickly cops get mean when you challenge them on that. I have had two confrontations with cops over that very thing. Neither would submit to my examination of them, I am sure they had something to hide, else they would not, could not object according to their own mantra. I left them both severely angry with me.
One was a Mormon who happened to be a Utah state trooper. After he demanded I take a "random" alcohol screen, although he agreed he had no reason to suspect I had been drinking, "It's just random, I don't understand why you are so upset if you have nothing to hide." Yeah, the dumb S.O.B. really said that.
I told him ok, but first he needed to remove his pants and his underwear. He was incredulous and getting angry. When I told him it was so we could check his penis for blood and fecal matter to make sure he wasn't molesting small boys he exploded. I said "I don't see why you are so upset if you don't have anything to hide." He wanted to shoot me, but was afraid to do so.
We did not part friends.
I hope he reads this. He is probably still a JBT jerk.
I like it, I like it.
Which department will be the first to take you up on your suggestion?
I love the idea of the surveillance on those who surveil. But I wonder of course how many more inches of everyone's life we need recorded. A great solution if there wasn't already a list of excuses and the inevitable equipment failure whenever something in question came about.
For those who are still following and interested, we've got a petition up for Cory Maye. We'll be sending this to the Governor of Mississippi either in the spring or whenever we reach 10,000 signatures, whichever comes first. We're already 4% of the way there. Perhaps we coulde write in a request at the bottom of our letter for the new surveillance policy.
We tried to keep the wording simple to be more agreeable as the interest the case drew the attention of was so varied. We hope you feel the law was as basic a place to start, particularly given Mississippi's recent extension of the self-defense law to one's vehicle.
Sign the petition.
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