Police Body Cameras: Will Officers Use Them? And When?
Video by Arnaud and Naja Girard…
Is it just us or does it look like the officer throws the woman in front of the dashcam as soon as he sees his partner pummeling the man on the ground?
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Arnaud & Naja,
It’s an honor and privilege for me to be in some small way a part of your Extraordinary Publication.
It has been my experience that on far too many occasions, particularly when the type of evidence generated by these devices could literally be the difference between someone’s life or death; law-enforcement Videos, Audios & Cameras have been absolutely worthless.
There is no shame in the manner of alibis and excuses given by policing agencies, as to why their equipment was malfunctioning, turned off, not activated, not worn, not issued on that day, destroyed, missing, inaudible, distorted beyond recognition, damaged, lost or stolen; when called upon to produce such evidence.
Credible law-enforcement candidates, psychologically sound, physically fit, well-trained and disciplined; with a sense of integrity and ethics, under competent and tight supervision; who are held accountable by their departments, will better serve and protect our citizens.
Blessings & Respect…
john i can truly agree and especially with your last paragraph.
as long as the ‘officer’ has control of the on/off switch of the camera and his ‘buds in blue’ control of any finished product that squeeks past the on/off switch and the head of the dept has a ‘wink n nod’ chief as kw has obviously shown then this body camera exercise in futility is just that….a warm n fuzzy feel good kinda thing! zero purpose served.
envision the ‘puppet theater’ relating to the eimers case from the badge wearing knuckle draggers on the beach right on thru the chief the fdle the med examiner the state lawyer and her grand jury…… and then……look deeply at the thick sand caked face of the then suffocated and dead mr eimers in the second video that surfaced many months later…..
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—On the heels of an initiative to provide police departments with body cameras, there is growing support for a plan to supply grand-jury members with eyes, advocates for the plan said on Wednesday.
“Body cameras are an important part of the solution,” said Harland Dorrinson, who is lobbying Washington to equip grand juries with the sense of sight. “But I strongly believe that if you take video evidence and add eyes, the combination would be unstoppable.”
Some critics of Dorrinson’s proposal say that it does not go far enough, and that in order to process information sent from their eyes grand juries would also need to be fitted with working brains.
“Yes, in a perfect world, all grand juries would have brains,” Dorrinson said. “But progress is an incremental thing. Let’s start with eyes and eventually work our way up to brains.”
100 body cameras, how many KWPD officers are on beats? More or less than 100? If less, who/what kind of officers will not have body cameras?
It would seem simple to enforce officers turning on their body cameras, and leaving them on, during every incident, and turning in the video of each incident. If there is no video for an incident report, or if the video is incomplete, fire the police officer, unless it is proven the camera was defective. Proven by independent expert, not by KWPD.
I saw a futurist artificial police intelligence movie last night at Tropic Cinema, “Chappy”. Set in Johannesburg, South Africa. The baddest of all the bad guys is a cop. To say more, would spoil this very interesting movie’s plot, other than Key West would do well to have a police force of Chappys, perhaps some smart person can invent that kind of police officer, who thinks, feels, and is like and more than human.
They should be on at all times. Am sure they would not like that because they could not be selective about what is recorded. This is like having an alarm protecting your home but is not turned on. Why have it and not use it. This would be in the best interest of the officer and public. Do nothing wrong and is no problem. What would he have seen in the Eimers murder ?
There was enough evidence seen in the innocent bystander public recordings of Charles Eimers arrest to prosecute and convict the officers involved. Would it be more believable, more true, more punishable, if it was seen on an officers body/dash cam??? They are just hoping we will blindly trust the KWTD and turn off our phones.
Please understand why the police attacked the man involved with the domestic violence complaint. The police probably just learned that the male sitting on the curb committed no crime. The police receive Violence Against Womens Act incentive money for every boy and man they arrest pertaining to domestic violence and sexual assault complaints.
They needed to arrest a male in order to apply for VAWA incentive money.http://www.fcadv.org/events/vawa-stop-invest-grantee-meeting
The following comment is based upon the truth as I know it to be.
We already have plenty of body cams and audio that have recorded violent and questionable conduct emitted by KW police offices, as they patrol our communities.
Two detailed videos of Charles Eimers’ in custody death, resulted in an exoneration of the KWPD. The officers involved in his killing have all been cleared.
The detailed ‘body cavity search video’ of a young black man (legs kicked apart–fingers and hand of police officer thrust into his rectum) in broad daylight, in a public place, with family members looking on. My understanding is that nothing was done to punish or terminate the cops responsible for this rape.
All caught in clear and living color, on video.
Video and Audio recordings of KWPD officers perjuring themselves, concerning the death of Mr. Eimers. What action has been taken against the perpetrators of this cover-up? It’s all documented right there, for anyone interested to view.
Mr. Murphy tasering, which left him in a severely critical state was recorded. Reenactments, graphs and a recording of the shooting, along with a police officer’s changing story; have led to no charges nor investigation into this tragedy.
An 11 year old black girl interrogated at police gunpoint in her home.
This child’s meticulous and precise description of events were publicly recorded during an interview. She provided specific evidence. She and her family were prepared to make sworn statements identifying every aspect of their violation. No investigation nor action against the police officers responsible for the conduct established by this young girl, along with a multitude of other witnesses, has ever been taken. Crystal clear video and audio.
What about Lequenton Cade’s publicly recorded statements; questioning his arrest and the injuries sustained during said arrest. Based upon the evidence and a witness statement, it appears that this man is innocent of everything that he was charged with. This video recording, along with subsequent evidence, apparently was not enough to trigger an interest or investigation into the alleged police misconduct that may have damaged his life.
Let’s get some more video and audio, that will do the trick. Let’s get gamed and played some more, at least it will make us feel good. We care. We are accomplished and concerned citizens who only want the best.
Purchasing these devices will waste money, squander resources and enable a corrupt regime; while reinforcing brutality and the excessive use of force. It is a Trojan Horse…
An advanced society will not deflect and divert their attention away from where the answers and solutions to these problems actually reside.
If you would indulge me, please focus and concentrate for a moment upon the authentic causes; which are behind our inability to proceed with legitimate investigations and prosecutions of those public servants who harm, injure and kill us?
If you’d be so kind, I would like to hear from our regular contributors and all of our guest commentators addressing this question. Thank you.
Blessings & Respect…
It is obvious to me that the KW police are being feed something that is making them aggressive, arrogant, deceptive and down right mean. I suggest you check the water, the food and the air for this poison. Human beings do not treat others with such violence simply for the sack of violence. I think the entire KW police force should be disbanded and let the sheriff’s department police Key West. The unnecessary police brutality still continues and no one is ever held accountable. The insurance pays for their deliberate mistakes which eventually falls back on the locals. The local businesses will raise their prices but the tourist will not come. Key West will become a hell hole in paradise.
bozewell, Great question !! My cousins are police officers in the NYC area.I will tellyou
some things that is kept from public knowledge .
Every police department in the USA sends officers to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia for training.I call it brainwashing because most of the training is just that.
The officers come back to home base and teach the other officers what they have learned..They use statistics such as most attacks on officers happen when they approach a vehicle that they have stopped.Also domestic violence calls there are greater incidents of officers being injured.
One of the most sinister things that they are indoctrinated with is that the officer who is a friend of the community,who uses niceness and reason to defuse a situation , are more likely to be killed by people . They use hundreds of videotapes that show police being murdered who were the so called good cops.
There are also dash cam videos of police being savagely attacked by dogs that they use in training. This is why there have been thousands of incidents of police killing peoples dogs ,often for no reason.
The Key West police do have a difficult beat to work. Dealing with drunk tourist ,often unable to speak english, hand cuffed perps puking in the squad car , fellow officers that you may have to depend on to back you up jealous of you for some reason, ect. I wouldn’t want to do it.
It sounds to me the FBI and there tactisc for training are based on bogus science and a lack of understanding human nature. Teaching them that those who are nice and use reason are more likely to be killed by people is absolutely ridiculous. Sure, they must be on guard but respect with common sense solves problems, not cause problems. Just like with any company, a happy employee produces more and better products. It seems those in power want to make every citizen unhappy and nervous to live. It sounds like the FBI training is to escalate conflict to it’s ultimate conclusion, shoot and ask questions later; and why not?. Most are not only punished but are promoted. It seems the FBI training is to treat everyone as a terrorists. Maybe that is a why their numbers increase. I am very worried that the masses are going to rise and all hell will break loose. I am not worried about that happening where I live but in many cities it is a concern. I wish someone with power will stand up and explain what could happen down the road. I wish someone like Rush Limbaugh would address this issue. I don’t necessarily like him but he does have the power.
If it does not stop Key West will find that tourist will stop coming. One thing that will get attention is lawsuits. If they keep going to court it will break them in time and money. If I had so much as seen that cavity search I would file a lawsuit over seeing it. That 11 year old girls family needs to sue. She might have problems for the rest of her life over this. 1 million sounds find to me. That the cops are corrupt is without question and they can’t investigate them self. This is the fox guarding the hen house. The people of Key West can vote and clean up the mess.
If it continues then count on property values going down. Without tourist you will not need as many cops or have the money to hire them. Maybe disbanning KWPD is the only solution. Seems like they send every cop on duty to every piss ass arrest.
Really just how many cops did you need to arrest Mr Eimers ? Yes he deserved to be arrested but 1 cop with a backup would been plenty. He was not running, old, unarmed. He only got a few feet away from his car and tried to surrender. I am disapointed that they settled for so little. It would done the city a world of good to pay about 10 million out of pocket. That would have cost every property owner money. Will a riot ever happen ? I hope not because at the point that Key West is not safe then we will say goodbye.
DEMAND chief Lee to resign and take his thugs with him.
Last year at a city commission meeting, I told Mayor Cates and the six city commissioners they should all resign because they had not apologized to Charles Eimers family. As far as I know, I’m the only person who has told them to resign. They run the city. The city manager works for them. The chief of police works for the city manager.
The seven are where the buck stops. They could tell the city manager, Jim Scholl, to fire Donie Lee, if he wants to keep being the city manager. I don’t recall the blue paper calling for the mayor and city commissioners to do that, or to resign. I suppose it’s tough, though, to do something like that, if you voted for any one or two of the seven.
Whatever, looking at this from John Donnelly’s comments and question, I agree, John, with your Trojan horse assessment and reasons therefore.
As for your “authentic causes” question, my immediate unspoken answer yesterday, I wanted to sleep on it, was mass demonic possession is still my answer. That’s the only thing that can explain it. That’s why it cannot be stamped out by secular methods, symptomatic treatment, such as putting video recorders on each cop. That’s why lawsuits will not stamp it out. That’s why the mayor and city commissioners are doing nothing, have done nothing, have sided with the police.
It’s very familiar, mass demonic possession. It takes many forms, which have nothing to do with police forces. Either a person sees it, or a person doesn’t see it. Yes, it’s horrible to consider; it’s horrible to think it’s happening. It’s happening, right here in Key West; right here in America. No need to look at any other country to find it. Just look at America. At its foreign wars. At its major political parties and their leaders and their worker bees. At its corporations. At the many troubles in America, which are not being resolved, but are worsening, and will continue to worsen, because Evil cannot be defeated by human methods, ever.
Stop one of Evil’s activities, a new one springs up to take its place, or the others increase in mass, force and intensity.
Evil feeds on human conflict, because it is cut off form God, the Source, the All, whatever it is called, that does not matter. It is the ultimate Food. So, Evil has to create its own food, which on this planet it does by stirring humans to do Evil, which doing takes many forms. So that Evil can survive on this planet. Religions have failed to address this, and will continue to fail. Ditto politics. Ditto crusades. History proved that repeatedly.
That said, the loudest human statement in Key West would be for the mayor and city commissioners to voluntarily resign. The next loudest statement would be for them to lose when they run for reelection. The blue paper has the reader base to call for both to happen. I have been calling for both since last year, at city commission meetings and on my website, goodmorningkeywest.com.
However, I am but one voice, whom the Key West Citizen enjoys calling a gadfly, in the pejorative sense. I bet the Citizen would not call Arnaud and Naja Girard gadflies, in the pejorative sense, if they called for the seven to resign, failing which, be voted out of office. And, I bet the seven would ignore it. And, I bet the voters would ignore it. And then would be seen what really is in play, by those with eyes that see and ears that hear: mass demonic possession.
John Donnelly, off all people who contribute reader comments to blue paper articles, you have been on the front lines confronting mass demonic possession in various law enforcement venues. You have seen Evil’s resilience and maneuvering and shape changing in that arena. It was the same in Vietnam, where you experienced terrible combat. It’s the same in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope you see it, Evil, for what it really is.
Evil designed the Trojan horse you described so well. Accept what is in plain view for what it really is. That’s the first step. The second step is dealing with it differently, Jumping its system altogether. Calling for the resignation of the seven city elected officials voluntarily, or at the polls, is the next step. Calling for the blue paper to lead that charge is the next step. The Citizen and the other mullet wrappers will never do it. Will the blue paper do it?
This is not a political ploy on my part. I think Naja should run for mayor. She is the only person in Key West who has the clout to pose a serious threat to the hold Evil has on this city’s government. What a challenge that would be for Naja, though. And for Arnaud. And for their family. An entirely new level of “contact sport”.
We all all created members of one human family would be exposed in spades for the capitalistic propaganda it truly is. It would be full-blown spiritual warfare, just as the run-up to the “channel-widening” referendum was full-blown spiritual warfare. Just as the run-up to the referendum to stop the city from annexing Wisteria Island, for the Bernstein family’s development plan, was full-blown spiritual warfare. Just as the run up to the Citizens Police Review Board referendum was full-blown spiritual warfare.
Welcome to what I see and engage ever day and night of my life, John. Welcome to hell. On earth. It’s everywhere. And the best place to engage it is where we live, in plain view. That’s all any of us can do, even though we know we never will win the war, but we might win a few skirmishes, as we put everything dear to us at risk. Otherwise, we don’t really show up, do we? We might as well stay home, right?
Martin Luther King understood this. He put everything dear to him at risk. He won a few skirmishes. He will be remembered a long time, even though he did not win that war. Actually, two wars. Racial discrimination and Vietnam, both of which he opposed, because he knew Vietnam was a continuation of slavery, black men fighting rich white men’s wars.
Sloan,
Magnificent, Potent, Beautiful, Courageous and Loving…That’s what your comment is…I’m all fired up. In a very spiritual and concentrated manner.
You explained it all brilliantly. It really is as you say it is. I feel it in my soul.
I’ve been getting caught up fighting with one Governor, one Attorney General, one Secretary of Prisons, one Warden, one Inspector General, one agency after another; after another; after another…They’ve worn me down.
There is always some corrupt entity to take their place and run interference with distortions, inaccuracies, misinformation and threats.
I’ve been knocked to the ground and ridiculed frequently. But something in me, or about me, has raised me up and allowed me to continue on. I attribute it to the positiveness (force for good) that has been conveyed to me through Arnaud, Naja and all the writers and commentators at The Blue Paper. I have a small circle of friends and meditation group that gives me balance and perspective.
Your words and encouragement through the years have been extremely valuable, providing me with strength and stamina. The vibratory flow (energy) from your thoughts are palpable.
I am struck by your comment. Re-tooling and Re-strategizing my methodology, in keeping with the realities that you presented, will provide more appropriate targets for the ‘Change’ we were promised and never received.
I’m not in the category of the heavy hitters that you indentified. However, in some small way, if I can make a difference, I will feel that my life meant something.
Blessings & Respect, Always…
Thanks, John –
Give God’s angels their due credit in all that you are given to oppose. Those same angels arranged for Naja and Arnaud to take over the blue paper. Those same angels arranged for Arnaud and Naja to break the Charles Eimers case, which launched the blue paper into a different dimension than the original blue paper. Then came other cases to the blue paper, which the angels arranged.
I find it helps me, at least, to approach all the angels give me to engage with a grain of salt. a healthy skepticism, a wry sense of humor peppered with sarcasm and irreverence, which, along with not expecting anything to change, but happy for small successes, and curiosity about how it will go, but not holding my breath how it will turn out, makes it interesting and bearable, when it’s not side-splitting hilarious in the gallows humor sense..