Why Waste Money For Body Cameras?
Dec 4, 2014 Commentary, General
B. Hussein Obama is looking to provide federal money (read taxpayer money) to equip police departments across the nation with body cameras that are worn by police officers so that everything they do (every encounter) is recorded.
It is not the place of the federal government to be doling out our money for things that affect state and local law enforcement. If individual states or localities want these cameras then they should pay for them. Federal tax dollars do not belong paying for these things but that is an issue for another day.
For today I am wondering how Obama or anyone else thinks cameras worn by police officers would make a difference. I have no issue with police officers wearing body cameras though I fail to see what value they have.
Let me explain. The body camera would record what the officer and the person with whom that officer interacted did. It would show who did what and it would either corroborate or refute the stories of the participants. So far that all seems good and who could argue with that? Hell, if Officer Wilson had been wearing a body camera we would know exactly what happened between him and Michael Brown.
But would it have mattered?
[note]In Ferguson it would not matter. People were looking for a reason to riot and loot and cause mayhem. They would have done the same thing if Wilson had been indicted. The race pimps and the Media stoked that fire real good.[/note]
A camera in the Ferguson case might have shown Wilson to be lying but would it have resulted in an indictment? Given the evidence presented in the absence of a video I feel he should not have been indicted but I also know, based on cases where video IS available, he would likely not have been indicted even if the entire encounter had been recorded.
There are ample cases on the internet where police officers are recorded clearly violating the law and the rights of citizens. There are videos of officers shooting people (and dogs) for no reason. These police officers who are armed with batons, heavy flashlights (that can be used as a baton), Tasers, pepper spray and a firearm need only say they feared for their lives and they are deemed to have been justified in their actions even though these actions are taken against people who are UNARMED (since that seems to be a buzz word in the Brown case). I know I have said that unarmed does not mean harmless and I have seen plenty of videos where offices were perfectly justified in shooting unarmed people.
In those cases it is usually pretty clear. In those where the outrage is present it is usually obvious that the officer used excessive force. In these cases, where it is all caught in video, the officers are not indicted and are deemed to have acted appropriately and “within their training and department guidelines.”
So would a body camera make a difference?
The city of New York is having its turn at outrage over a Grand Jury decision. In this case an officer was not indicted for the death of a person who resisted arrest, was encountered by the officer and taken down. The guy ended up dying and it was all recorded. In the recording the person is taken to the ground and placed in some kind of choke hold and he is heard gasping and wheezing and saying that he can’t breathe. At what point does it become obvious the guy is in distress?
If this were a lone cop (the suspect was quite large) one might conclude that he did not let go because that could have been a ruse to attack the officer. But there are several other police officers present. All the cop on the ground has to say to his fellow officers is grab his arms guys, sir I am going to let you go so you can breathe but if you resist we will be right back where we started. With several other cops present there was no reason for this. [Please police officers save your righteous indignation and don’t waste my time telling me how tough it is on the street. Four or five armed to the teeth guys can handle a man who is having trouble breathing and who is NOT fighting. If not, turn in you badges.]
“All over America, cops are getting away with this,” added 22-year-old Demetri Green. “They’re the real gang in New York City. They’re the real gang in this county.” New York Daily News
[note]In my opinion there was no need to begin with. This man was accused of selling untaxed cigarettes. Was it OK for him to die because he was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes? It is not like this guy committed some violent felony and his resistance was non violent. He was simply accused of selling something the state did not get a cut of.[/note]
In my opinion those who said Trayvon was shot for carrying Skillets (Skittles to the literate among us) and that Mike Brown was shot for walking in the street are idiots and ignored the facts in the case. Both of the people killed in these cases were VIOLENT. They were attacking someone. The guy in New York was not attacking anyone. He was selling an untaxed tobacco product.
The question should not be whether the officer followed procedure it should be was his response appropriate for the infraction and was the result of his actions an acceptable consequence of the person’s crime. In other words, was too much force used for a guy allegedly committing a non violent crime? Hell, they don’t treat people carrying small amounts of marijuana in New York the way they treated the victim here and he had a LEGAL product when the police killed him.
Given the video that shows the entire episode (the video came from a bystander) and given the reality that a lot of force was used for a non violent crime and given the man can be heard gasping and wheezing and saying he could not breathe and given the medical examiner ruled this a homicide a reasonable person could conclude that the officer went overboard and caused this man’s death. The Grand Jury did not see it that way and refused to indict.
It is rare for a police officer to go before the Grand Jury for these things and it is rare for any officer to be found guilty of a crime when he uses force while doing his job even if it is clear that what he did was wrong (and would be illegal if we did it). This is true even when video evidence is present.
So I ask, what good would body cameras do?
[note]It seems to me the cameras would only beneift cops. They could prove a citizen’s claim of abuse, foul language, or racial bias was untrue (as happened recently). Since clear video evidence of police wrong doing does not hold them accountable it is unlikely their own recordings would…[/note]
It will be interesting to see what happens in Ohio where it is obvious a cop murdered a child. The kid was playing with a toy gun and the police were called. When they arrive one of the Miami Vice wanna be cops shoots the kid dead seemingly before the police car comes to a stop. If this guy is found to have acted appropriately then maybe we really do need to burn the place to the ground and start over…
Related:
Obama Body Cam Request Takes a Hit
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: abuse, body cameras, ferguson, lies, murder, New York, Obama, ohio, police excessive force, protests
Obama’s Voter Base Ramps Up For 2012
Apr 13, 2011 Political
It looks like the Obama (and Democrat in general, for that matter) voter base is getting ready for the 2012 election. Ohio is a battleground state (oops, is battleground a word that incites violence) and Obama will have a hard time keeping his job if he can’t win there. So his base is ready for him:
Secretary of State Jon Husted says a report has found nearly 18,500 dead people on the state’s voter rolls. Records of registered voters were cross-checked with a list of deceased Ohioans maintained by the state Health Department. FOX Toledo
Even Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd are eligible to vote in Ohio! Notice they also want to check the jail system records. They are really clamping down on the Democrat’s base.
It looks like Ohio has a good voter ID program to eliminate the life challenged from voting.
Good! It is about time this Democrat voting block was discovered and removed.
Now we just need to do something about the undocumented Democrats who cross our border illegally…
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: dead voters, Democrats, ohio
The Book Even Made Carter Sick
Sep 28, 2010 Political
A Delta flight alerted ground control that a sick passenger was on board. Turns out that the passenger was former president Jimmy Carter and he was suffering an upset stomach. Carter was taken to a hospital and while he was in route the folks in the ER waiting room were “kicked out’ because Carter was on the way.
Carter was on his way to Legacy Village in Ohio to promote his new book, “White House Diary” but instead will spend the night at MetroHealth Medical Center for observation.
Can someone explain why the waiting room had to be cleared? They could have put him in a single room with the Secret Service and let the other folks get the treatment they needed. Instead, people were denied health care so a politically connected person could be accommodated. Hmm, sounds like what we will get under Obamacare.
What are the odds that someone in the ER was waiting there in the event Carter became sick and needed to be transported to the hospital? What is the likelihood that a person there would want to harm Carter?
Isn’t the Secret Service detail sufficient enough to handle any threat that might have occurred? How could he have been any more unsafe in the hospital than he would have been at the book signing?
I can’t imagine a has been 80 something year old man who has little impact on society could disrupt an ER more by being there among the commoners than by them being removed.
I hope he is OK but this is all a little too much drama.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: book, illness, jimmy carter, ohio
Fraudulent Ballots, Yes; Fraudulent Candidate, Who Knows?
Oct 25, 2008 Political
Obama supporters volunteering in Ohio have negotiated to have their absentee ballots withdrawn because they are NOT eligible to vote in Ohio. These people, 13 in all, requested their ballots be removed after a waring from a prosecutor that staffers for both campaigns faced prosecution if they did not meet residency requirements. The blanket statement must have scared them.
The letter – a copy of which was obtained by palestra.net, a Fox News affiliate – came a day after prosecutor Ron O’Brien publicly urged out-of-state campaign workers for both Obama and John McCain to “examine your conscience” before the elections board beings begins opening absentee ballots today.
Earlier in the week, O’Brien spoke with lawyers for both camps and urged them to make sure their staffs met permanent-residency rules, or face possible felony charges. NYP
These ballots would likely have been counted had not the prosecutor said something. Now, have these Obama supporters missed the deadline to cast an absentee ballot in their own states? If they have already cast ballots in their home states why are they not in jail for fraud? If they have withdrawn the Ohio ballots and have not otherwise voted they should still be able to vote in person where they live which is what I believe they intended to do all along.
The deception begins at the top with the Obamessiah. He has yet to prove he is a US Citizen. I know, there is a Certificate of Live Birth that has been verified by Fact Check. That document is computer generated from information that was put in a computer database well after Obama was born. The abbreviated COLB is not the handwritten (or typed) birth certificate that is generated at the place of birth. Only the ORIGINAL document will satisfy the requests for proof. This document only reflects what is in a database, not what is on a birth certificate. The document provided earlier was shown to be questionable. There are things on the COLB that would not have appeared on a birth certificate from 1961. Where is that original document?
I am not saying Obama is or is not a citizen, I am saying it has yet to be confirmed. He could have proven it by providing the vault copy of his birth certificate and it would have been settled. Instead, he spent quite a bit of money fighting the lawsuit, which was dismissed when the judge ruled that the admittedly strange Phil Berg had no standing and that his claims were vague. I don’t see how an American Citizen can have no standing in a court to determine if a person running is an American. The claim that Berg has not shown the requisite harm to have standing is ridiculous. All Americans are harmed when the Consitution is violated. I also fail to see how the issues raised were vague and why the court, in a matter this important, would not force a resolution that would satisfy the need to know rather than fuel conspiracy theories.
Why is Obama afraid to show his vault copy? Why are his college records under wraps? These issues raise questions that should be answered. Is there information on his BC or in his school records that would disqualify him or that would embarrass him (like showing he lied about certain aspects of his life)? By failing to release this information he gives fuel to those who will always look skeptically at him. He has fueled the fire by failing to respond and his refusal to release documents runs counter to his claim of bringing transparency to government. It also makes him no better than what he claims George Bush to be.
Like I said before, we know more about Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber than we know about Barack Obama. The media made an issue out of McCain’s qualifications and he proved he was eligible. The media and the liberals on the web paid more attention to this than they are Obama’s citizenship status. The big question is, if there is nothing to hide, why hide it?
Let me add to the conspiracy theory. Obama knows he is not qualified and is working hard to block all issues so that if he is elected he can serve as president. He needs the process to last past election day so that if he is determined to be ineligible at some later date, Joe Biden can automatically become president (even if he is still the VP elect at the time). If Obama were found to be ineligible now, McCain would probably win handily and Democrats never put country first so they will stonewall on any issue that might hurt their chances to hold office.
This is certainly plausible and makes more sense than the stories by wackos who think that George Bush was behind the attacks of 9/11.
Ever wonder how it is that people like George Clooney and Rosie O’Donnell can believe that 9/11 was an inside job and yet support Obama because they, in no way, would believe in a conspiracy theory about his place of birth?
For that matter, how many libs believe all kinds of conspiracies about Bush (blowing up levees in New Orleans, 9/11, blood for oil, etc) but ignore the very real possibility that Obama is not a citizen? I am not saying one way or the other but I want proof and I want the proof that comes in the form of an original, not a computer generated certificate.
This is what an original from the early 1960s looks like.
I know there are liberals who call this nuts or conspiratorial and they are entitled to that opinion. I just like to see the proof.
However, since the court will not do its job and ensure the man has been fully vetted then it is up to voters to ensure they keep this secretive man out of office.
Keeping his supporters from voting fraudulently is a good start.
Democrats and ACORN (whom Obama paid 800,000 dollars to commit fraud) say no fraud is committed until the ballots are cast (so his supporters in Ohio committed fraud). Liberals say voter fraud is very minor, almost non existent. They say that when they win (or think they will) but if they lose on 4 November they will be screaming voter fraud from the top of their lungs. I would like to see McCain win for nothing more than to see liberals screaming about voter fraud like they did in 2000 and 2004.
Tags: election fraud, Obama, ohio, phony records, voter fraud
If You Don’t Vote Obama You Are An Unpatriotic Racist
Sep 19, 2008 Political
I wrote earlier about the line I have heard for a while and that is, if you don’t vote for Obama you are a racist. This is becoming a more common theme as The One fails to take control of the election and faces the real possibility that he will lose. His surrogates are out in full force and they are playing a complete deck of race cards and they are dealing from the bottom. The sleazy Obama campaign used Rush Limbaugh’s words out of context so it could pander to Hispanics. Limbaugh had this reaction.
Today, two more Obama surrogates from Ohio came forward to call Democrats and Independents who will not vote for Obama racists and said that not voting for him would be unpatriotic:
Monday afternoon, state Representatives Bob Hagan of Youngstown and Tom Letson of Warren met with reporters.
They argue many voters who call themselves “Democrats” or “Independents”, but won’t vote for Obama, have only one excuse, with Letson saying, “I would say that a lot of it is they’re not going to vote for ‘the black guy'”.
Hagan called the issue “unpatriotic,” adding those not willing to vote for Obama need “to face that fact. That that’s not acceptable in America.”
Both men say they will work to convince those “swing voters” to change their minds between now and election day.WYTV
I think it is worthwhile to take a look at this. Since only Independents and Democrats are mentioned, Republicans who do not vote for Obama are not racists and they are patriots.
If we accept that not voting for Obama is unpatriotic and racist as true then it would mean the converse is also true. Those who vote for Obama are not racist and are patriots. Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate, said that it is patriotic to pay more in taxes.
So, a vote for Obama is patriotic and paying more taxes is patriotic, therefore a vote for Obama is a vote for more taxes. No surprise there.
However, let me educate these two dim witted liberal morons. There are plenty of people who do not care what color Obama is. They oppose his policies and what he wants to do to this country or they feel he is not experienced enough for the job. There are many, many reasons that people will not vote for Obama and NONE of them have to do with being racist. This is nothing more than a strong armed tactic designed to play on white guilt and try to make people believe they are racist if they don’t vote for The One. Remember people, the ballot is secret so you may vote for whom you want. Also, you are not racist because you do not vote for Obama anymore than you are an ageist or a sexist if you don’t vote for McCain/Palin.
This is the way the left thinks. They believe that their views are so natural and so good that there must be something wrong with a person who will not vote for their candidates. In the case of Obama, race MUST be the only reason because, naturally, no person in his right mind could disagree with his positions. It never occurs to the left that people could actually disagree with their views.
I am a conservative Republican so, according to these guys, I must vote against Obama so I won’t be racist or unpatriotic. Happy to oblige!
For you Independents and Democrats who don’t want to vote for him then don’t. If you are worried about the racist tag, this will ease your mind. Obama is half white so just vote against that half of the man.
As for your patriotism, you are displaying it when you go out and vote regardless of who the vote is for. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
BTW, would these people be unpatriotic racists?
Tags: Obama, ohio, racism, unpatriotic, vote