SimonF Posted May 13, 2013 Posted May 13, 2013 May 10, 2013 | BALTIMORE (CN) - Baltimore police beat up a woman and smashed her camera for filming them beating up a man, telling her: "You want to film something bitch? Film this!" the woman claims in court. Makia Smith sued the Baltimore Police Department, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and police Officers Nathan Church, William Pilkerton, Jr., Nathan Ulmer and Kenneth Campbell in Federal Court. Smith claims she was stuck in stand-still rush hour traffic in northern Baltimore when she saw the defendant officers beating up and arresting a young man. http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/cops-beat-woman-filming-another-beating?akid=10423.213180.-3EiBO&rd=1&src=newsletter838447&t=4
J-William Posted May 13, 2013 Posted May 13, 2013 Lemme guess, she was black right? The cops can get away with anything... I mean she's suing them, they are not being brought up on criminal charges. The cops will get out of this without paying her one thin dime. What judge is going to believe her word over that of a policeman? This sort of stuff is just awful, I feel terrififed to think about what it must have been like before people had ubiquitous and cheap recording devices...
nathanm Posted May 13, 2013 Posted May 13, 2013 Citizens hate being surveiled by mounted cameras in public, but those cameras serve those in power. Cops hate being surveiled by everyday folks becaise those cameras do not serve those in power. But what could the cops possibly do if every person who was just LOOKING at the scene also had a HIDDEN camera in a hat or on their glasses or shoulder? A hidden camera and hopefully more than one, is the only way I can think of to fight this sort of crime. Since everyone's so fond of calling America a Christian Nation, well then when every person is able to record everything they see at the touch of a button we've effectively created a communal God (the all-seeing part at least) who watches your every move. Since universal surveilance is the alleged motivation for moral behavior, the majority of Americans should be in favor of hidden cameras for all. What if such videos automatically streamed into a Cloud server somewhere, encrypted and all that jazz, so that even smashing the camera itself would do nothing to destroy the evidence?
Guest darkskyabove Posted May 13, 2013 Posted May 13, 2013 The article did say there were witnesses, but was lacking in details about whether any testified. Nathan brings up a great point. Instead of pulling out the cell phone or camera for the cops to see, have a micro spy-cam on our person somewhere that's linked to a flash drive. I think there are even bluetooth cams now that would be wireless.
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