Showing posts with label cameras. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cameras. Show all posts

Steve Weis: When Curtains Block Justice

A parody of “When Phone Encryption Blocks Justice”.    In June, a laptop was stolen from a bedroom on a Monday afternoon in Palo Alto, CA, a suburb 15 miles south of San Francisco. There were no witnesses to the larceny, and no surveillance footage either. With a laptop thief on the loose and few leads at their disposal, investigators  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Walter Scott Shooting Highlights Cops’ Contempt For The Citizen's Right to Record Police

Harassing camera-carrying bystanders needs to stop.  Even before it became clear that Feidin Santana was witnessing what local authorities now describe as a murder, it took guts for him to record the police encounter that ended in Walter Scott's death. Santana, who was walking to work at a barbershop in North Charleston, South       ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: South Carolina Cop Charged With Murder After Video Shows Him Shooting Motorist in the Back

Bystander video reveals inconvenient truth.    In a column last December, I noted that video footage, while not necessarily decisive in cases where police use deadly force, can make a crucial difference. Here is a good example: Today police in North Charleston, South Carolina, arrested one of their own, Patrolman Michael Slager, and charged ... MORE

Montana Poised To Ban Government License Plate Cameras

by J.D. Tuccille.      Cops in Big Sky Country aren't happy about it, but Montana lawmakers look ready to ban the use of license plate cameras by government agencies to track motorists' movements. The legislative move comes after a stream of revelations of local, state, and federal tracking and databasing of Americans' movements by car, without cause  ... MORE

California Legislature Seeks To Reign In Police Violence

Cops likely to get cameras and lectures.     After a year in which the use of lethal force by police officers spurred nationwide protests and bared outrage about the intersection of race and law enforcement in America, California legislators have returned to Sacramento determined to pass laws blunting police violence. “It will be probably the    ... MORE

Police State America: Man Jailed For Recording Cops

Public servants don't want their behavior public.   An Orlando man was jailed for recording police as they arrested another individual. The man subsequently sued for taking his phone and for false arrest and won a settlement of $15,000. The Blaze reported: Alberto Troche, who sued Orlando police for wrongfully jailing him and taking     ... MORE

VIDEO: Nanny Of The Year 2014 - And The Winner Is ....


Who is the most outrageous busybody trying to mind YOUR own business?

Body Cameras For Police Officers And Ordinary Citizens

by Steve Mann and Brian D. Wassom.      In the wake of the fatal encounters between police and citizens in Ferguson, New York and Cleveland, President Obama recently announced millions of dollars in funding to equip police officers with body-worn video cameras. The concept is not new; scores of police departments across the     ... MORE

It Is Now A Felony for Illinois Citizens To Record Cops

by Matt Agorist.      Government cockroaches prefer darkness to light. In March of this year the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s eavesdropping law, and rightfully so, as it was touted as the most unconstitutional law of its kind in the country. But Illinois, being the the corrupt and violent police state that it is, couldn’t let their    ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Catching Cops On Camera Can Be Crucial

A powerful weapon against police brutality.        Last week, in response to the shooting of Michael Brown and other controversial uses of deadly force by police, President Obama proposed federal funding for body cameras to record interactions between cops and members of the public. Two days later, a Staten Island grand jury cast doubt    ... MORE

Surveillance Sneaking Its Way Into The Cities

by Steven Greenhut. In 1966, the then-Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas warned about an "alarming trend whereby the privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away." Each step is imperceptible, he wrote, "but when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a… society in which government may intrude into the secret regions  ... MORE

NYPD Officers Caught On Camera 'Brutally Punching And Pistol-Whipping' Unarmed Teenager With Hands Up

by Murray Weiss.       Public servants caught in the act of being themselves. Two New York City cops are facing criminal charges after they were caught in disturbing footage punching and pistol-whipping a teenage suspect who had already raised his hands to surrender. In the video obtained by DNAinfo New York, 16-year-old Kahreem Tribble is  ... MORE

VIDEO: Nanny Of The Month - September 2014


The strained relationship of government and transparency.

NY State Governor Candidate Arrested For Filming Police

by Brandon Turberville.    Despite the Supreme Court having ruled that videotaping police is legal and protected by the 1st Amendment, citizens all across the country continue to be arrested, charged, and abused by police for doing so. Generally speaking, those videotaping and subsequently subjected to police harassment or brutality are    ... MORE

John Stossel: Mindless Drones

As mindless as those who regulate them.   Drones — unmanned flying machines — will soon fill our skies. They conjure up fears, especially among some of my fellow libertarians, of spying and death from above. These fears aren't groundless. President Bush approved the use of armed drones against suspected terrorists overseas, and President     ... MORE