This varies by region. In my region, the 70's and 80's were a time of pretty great policing. "Protect and serve" along with deescalation techniques were the norm.
In the 90's a new chief changed all of that. It's on a return back, but the damage done will take a decade or two to undo, if it can all even be undone.
It is generally true that the rise of social media and citizen reporting and sharing has improved visibility. In many places, this has been going on a long time. Many people are shamed or harmed to the point where they won't talk about it.
After seeing too many videos like this, I'm starting to interpret police shouts of "stop resisting" as an indication that some kind of law enforcement abuse is happening. Here, it's seems like strong evidence of mes rea.
A better title wound be "Police reposition bodycam in vain attempt to limit evidence of police brutality that got one convicted and the rest lost their badges"
The key takeaway from the article (at least IMO) is that police bodycams can be fooled/sabotaged in this manner to hide/alter evidence. Think about the countless cases out there, where there is no 3rd party footage to corroborate the story told by the bodycams.
Without the 3rd party CCTV footage to expose this, the suspect would probably be facing additional penalties for "resisting arrest".
"Interfering with a peace officer" and "resisting arrest" are nearly always bundled. The two together are hard to defend against in many scenarios, unless there is a record, or a very strong witness.
The arrest is often structured in a way, such as shouting "stop resisting!" almost no matter what, to make it difficult for observers to understand what they are seeing. It's liability management. They lose nothing by doing this and gain a very serious personal and department risk reduction.
It's frightening to think of the tens of thousands (or more) of suspects treated in this way in the eras before bodycams. Only the rarest cases (e.g. Rodney King) were documented in any way.
This "stop resisting" scenario can often be a set piece. I see a few comments in this thread hinting at that.
I have some direct, personal experience with this. Short story is the police came to my home over an erroneous domestic violence report. The truth is my wife and daughter were having one of those moments and did a lot of yelling, and it sounded bad. Nothing criminal, just a really smart and pissed off 14 year old saying vile things.
I come home, see the mess, send everyone off to their corners in order to start the cool down so I can help sort it out. Decide maybe I'll take a step outside and drink my coffee, and there they are. Three very annoyed officers who very clearly believe I did something.
We had a chat, they wanted in the home, I denied that, and they were not going to deal with that AT ALL. My reason was adopted foster kids and how that can play out when cops end up in the home. They worry, as they should. But, I could not get this explanation in, due to the fact that the police were more interested in "running their script" than they were policing.
They ended up touching me, saying, "you are under arrest" and at that point, I completely relaxed. Not to the point where they would have to carry me, just very obviously non-confrontational. I had no issue with getting cuffed, questioned, etc... part of a crappy process.
They, however, wanted more. So I got a knee in my back and slammed into the driveway hard. Really hard, like "jesus, this is happening to me, an ordinary, geeky, non threatening white guy?" hard. (and I'm not a racist, my son is black, and I think in these terms having had a lot of experiences with said son, just saying...)
I remained limp, and they started working me over, clearly intending to teach me a lesson; namely, they get to do what they want to do, rights or not, due process or not. There was a witness, which was a good thing, and that witness is important for this next bit too:
So, there I am, not doing anything. Notably, the moment they assaulted me, they started shouting, "stop resisting", which was puzzling to me. There never was any resisting. When I didn't deliver, they grabbed my arms, yanking me back and forth. To an observer, who didn't know me, this looks a whole lot like somebody fighting arrest!
Of course, nobody in the family had any idea prior to this mess.
They did the yanking around, then when it was time to cuff me, they tried pain holds on my hands. Why? Punitive is my guess, because I did nothing, until those. And the only thing I did was maintain my body position to avoid pain and damage. (My wife worked as an outreach worker and I had been the training dummy for these holds and knew them cold, able to avoid them without doing anything hostile.)
This cycle happened a couple times, and during it, I responded to most of the "stop resisting" directives with something snarky like, "are you gentlemen done?", or "make sure you get all the anger out so we can talk like adults", etc...
Yes, I know. This did not do me any favors, but to be frank, I was so angry, hurting, and shocked at this game playing out that the snark was coping. I really didn't want to do anything to lash out, nor anything dangerous, so snark it was.
Eventually, they wrapped it up. The whole "rag doll" act was maybe a minute? Two tops?
My brother in law was observing, and they wanted him gone. Thankfully, he simply observed and did not "take a walk over here to talk", quietly affirming his intent to comply with their request once the action was over. He made it clear he was watching, and only watching.
Once it was done, I was in the car, hurt, bleeding from a head slam or two in response to the snark, looking around in wonder over how what should have been a rational conversation ended up such a mess!
Well, maybe this isn't so short. Sorry.
Anyway, my wife comes out, they get all their questions answered, b...
Wow. That's one hell of a story (long one, but it was worth it). Glad to see you turned out okay, and was fortunate enough to have the financial capabilities to fight it off. Most people don't. Especially the whole appear-20-times-in-court, a lot of people (especially lower class working people), would probably get fired.
When people see prosecutors rack up huge bogus charges that can get you sentenced to years if not life in prison, they fold.
I agree completely on the body cam issue. I think constant monitoring of public servants is the best way to move us from them from "escalation of force to compliance" stage to the "protect and serve".
It was expensive. I had to call all my notes and favors in. One thing that did help was that document I made the morning after. That was just brain dump, good, bad, ugly.
When qualifying attorneys, I asked if I did anything wrong. If I did, my thought was to take the hit and do the community court to limit my obligations. The attorney I selected said I needed a trial, and she was pissed.
The discussions we had were worth every penny, and she basically said this whole mess was going to be "civics 101" and was right. I learned a ton and I got well informed, "school of hard knocks" style.
We are currently, in most places, nowhere near a policing doctrine we can believe in. Social norms, our petty "blame those other people" polutics, and money lie at the roots of this problem.
Thuggery is cheap. Actual policing is more expensive, until externalities are considered.
In addition to the monitoring, we really do need to find ways for people to understand the external costs and risks.
Most interestingly, people appear to be driven by their own safety. Makes sense. Who isn't? However, the reality is counterintuitive, in that thuggery replacing real policing actually raises our cost and risk exposure, both if which drive more petty crimes, and can contribute to real crime too.
This problem hurts everyone, including the thugs, who are often capable of policing, despite their lower overall education and background.
14 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 39.6 ms ] threadThe thing is, there hasn't been any uptick in police abuses, we just are now able to check out collective cognitive bias with video evidence.
Imagine what was going on in the 90s, or the 80s can your mind even take it to contemplate the 1970s?
In the 90's a new chief changed all of that. It's on a return back, but the damage done will take a decade or two to undo, if it can all even be undone.
It is generally true that the rise of social media and citizen reporting and sharing has improved visibility. In many places, this has been going on a long time. Many people are shamed or harmed to the point where they won't talk about it.
http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/mens-rea
It's about liability management, and the implications of the "escalation of force to compliance" doctrine governing so much of our policing today.
... but that's more than 80 characters.
Without the 3rd party CCTV footage to expose this, the suspect would probably be facing additional penalties for "resisting arrest".
The arrest is often structured in a way, such as shouting "stop resisting!" almost no matter what, to make it difficult for observers to understand what they are seeing. It's liability management. They lose nothing by doing this and gain a very serious personal and department risk reduction.
I have some direct, personal experience with this. Short story is the police came to my home over an erroneous domestic violence report. The truth is my wife and daughter were having one of those moments and did a lot of yelling, and it sounded bad. Nothing criminal, just a really smart and pissed off 14 year old saying vile things.
I come home, see the mess, send everyone off to their corners in order to start the cool down so I can help sort it out. Decide maybe I'll take a step outside and drink my coffee, and there they are. Three very annoyed officers who very clearly believe I did something.
We had a chat, they wanted in the home, I denied that, and they were not going to deal with that AT ALL. My reason was adopted foster kids and how that can play out when cops end up in the home. They worry, as they should. But, I could not get this explanation in, due to the fact that the police were more interested in "running their script" than they were policing.
They ended up touching me, saying, "you are under arrest" and at that point, I completely relaxed. Not to the point where they would have to carry me, just very obviously non-confrontational. I had no issue with getting cuffed, questioned, etc... part of a crappy process.
They, however, wanted more. So I got a knee in my back and slammed into the driveway hard. Really hard, like "jesus, this is happening to me, an ordinary, geeky, non threatening white guy?" hard. (and I'm not a racist, my son is black, and I think in these terms having had a lot of experiences with said son, just saying...)
I remained limp, and they started working me over, clearly intending to teach me a lesson; namely, they get to do what they want to do, rights or not, due process or not. There was a witness, which was a good thing, and that witness is important for this next bit too:
So, there I am, not doing anything. Notably, the moment they assaulted me, they started shouting, "stop resisting", which was puzzling to me. There never was any resisting. When I didn't deliver, they grabbed my arms, yanking me back and forth. To an observer, who didn't know me, this looks a whole lot like somebody fighting arrest!
Of course, nobody in the family had any idea prior to this mess.
They did the yanking around, then when it was time to cuff me, they tried pain holds on my hands. Why? Punitive is my guess, because I did nothing, until those. And the only thing I did was maintain my body position to avoid pain and damage. (My wife worked as an outreach worker and I had been the training dummy for these holds and knew them cold, able to avoid them without doing anything hostile.)
This cycle happened a couple times, and during it, I responded to most of the "stop resisting" directives with something snarky like, "are you gentlemen done?", or "make sure you get all the anger out so we can talk like adults", etc...
Yes, I know. This did not do me any favors, but to be frank, I was so angry, hurting, and shocked at this game playing out that the snark was coping. I really didn't want to do anything to lash out, nor anything dangerous, so snark it was.
Eventually, they wrapped it up. The whole "rag doll" act was maybe a minute? Two tops?
My brother in law was observing, and they wanted him gone. Thankfully, he simply observed and did not "take a walk over here to talk", quietly affirming his intent to comply with their request once the action was over. He made it clear he was watching, and only watching.
Once it was done, I was in the car, hurt, bleeding from a head slam or two in response to the snark, looking around in wonder over how what should have been a rational conversation ended up such a mess!
Well, maybe this isn't so short. Sorry.
Anyway, my wife comes out, they get all their questions answered, b...
When people see prosecutors rack up huge bogus charges that can get you sentenced to years if not life in prison, they fold.
I agree completely on the body cam issue. I think constant monitoring of public servants is the best way to move us from them from "escalation of force to compliance" stage to the "protect and serve".
When qualifying attorneys, I asked if I did anything wrong. If I did, my thought was to take the hit and do the community court to limit my obligations. The attorney I selected said I needed a trial, and she was pissed.
The discussions we had were worth every penny, and she basically said this whole mess was going to be "civics 101" and was right. I learned a ton and I got well informed, "school of hard knocks" style.
We are currently, in most places, nowhere near a policing doctrine we can believe in. Social norms, our petty "blame those other people" polutics, and money lie at the roots of this problem.
Thuggery is cheap. Actual policing is more expensive, until externalities are considered.
In addition to the monitoring, we really do need to find ways for people to understand the external costs and risks.
Most interestingly, people appear to be driven by their own safety. Makes sense. Who isn't? However, the reality is counterintuitive, in that thuggery replacing real policing actually raises our cost and risk exposure, both if which drive more petty crimes, and can contribute to real crime too.
This problem hurts everyone, including the thugs, who are often capable of policing, despite their lower overall education and background.