Senate "Race" Relations (was "U.S. Society and Black Men")

The video in Garner's case didn't come from a police body camera. It was a citizen's cell phone video.

One of the biggest advantages of body cameras is that they change department behavior overall. In several studies, they have been shown to reduce the overall use of force because the police become more aware that they are being recorded constantly. The use of those body cameras becomes a potent tool to change the underlying attitudes of the police in general, which is where much of the overall problem lies.

 

Not if they're given the ability to shut them off.several cops have done that recently and have had complaints of abuse placed against them.

 

I agree with Kimball about use of body cameras. If it reduces police violence, that's a real accomplishment and a far easier task then trying to reduce police racism. We need these cameras for the same reason that we need audio/video recordings of all police interrogations. Curbing abuse is a good thing whether or not it cures underlying causes.

 

KK, I think the point is that policy changes without some cultural recognition of the underlying racial issues will ultimately be meaningless. Sure, you can put body cameras on cops, but if they are not held accountable even with video evidence, as the John Crawford and Eric Garner (and likely Tamir Rice) cases would indicate, it's unlikely to change things. You're working under the assumption that this precipitous drop in police killings of citizens that would accompany body cameras would be proportional. Given the dramatic evidence of the racial disparities in the judicial system, I don't know why you would think that. Body cameras may well save more white lives, and that's a good thing. But if the judicial system doesn't demonstrate that black lives matter (as opposed to paying lip service to this notion) by holding police officers accountable, then we'll just have a bunch of recordings of black people being killed by police.

Edit: Which is not to say that I don't agree with body cameras. They're a good thing and I fully support them. But they are not anything close to a panacea for this issue.

 

I woke up and found a bazooka at the foot of my bed!!! Thank you Jesus!

Unfortunately, it only has one rocket inside it.

 

I think you both miss that this is wholly the point.

 

Perhaps instead of investing in body camera technology there could be an investment in some form of eye wear, like virtual reality glasses, that cops can wear and when they are turned on everybody appears to be a middle class white male. That way cops won't have to deal with racism as there will be no black people at all with their VR glasses on. Problem solved.

 

Why would that matter, Lost? There's no racism.

 

You and Boba Neckbeard.

If you keep pushing it to the side, nothing will happen.
"Who told you our plan?"
Nobody, Middle Class White Man, I was just making an observation that inaction will perpetuate.
"Yes."
Oh, you knew this.
"Didn't you?"
No. Wait. It's a bad thing, right? You agree it's bad.
"...yes?"

 

More like; "Being a white middle class male, I am accustomed to a status quo which affords me abundant privilege in everyday life. That's why I support putting off dealing with racism. You see, keeping the blacks angry about police brutality is to my advantage, because they're not focusing on the economic inequality in our society which affects them the most. If they're distracted and we don't move to resolve it, it's all smooth sailing for me."

 

Well, one small step in the right direction: Congress passed a law requiring states to report the number of people killed during arrests or in police custody, along with the dead person's race/ethnicity/gender/etc.

 

Saw that the last message was by a username I didn't recognize. WHO COULD IT BE?!

 

Hi wannasee!

 

Well, that's why I asked him straight out if he thinks it is a racial issue, and if that is a negative thing, which he failed to respond to. MYSTERIOUSLY.

 

Like you don't understand people don't want you here wannabee?

 

Considering the difficulties we had with that FBI data and the lack of data in general earlier in the thread, I think it'll be valuable on a mass scale regardless of whether each individual police force finds them all justified. It's such a basic metric that it was pretty alarming it wasn't tracked at all before this.

 

Yeah, I have no doubt whatsoever that they'll continue to try to justify the shootings. But at least we'll have hard information to base our discussion off of.

 

I think cameras will promote accountability but it's hardly the panacea you hope it will be. I doubt many of the police, who are acting reflexively in tense situations, will find the camera an effective method to address the systemic bias which leads to black people being victimised.

 

I feel sorry for him; like a kicked puppy, coming back. Such a miserable little **** if that's his life.