Cop Watchers and 1st amendment auditors.

Discussion in 'Civil Liberties' started by dgrichards, Mar 27, 2022.

  1. dgrichards

    dgrichards Well-Known Member

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    Are they needed? Why or why not?
    Have they been a positive influence? Why or why not?
     
  2. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't like them, but it does keep law enforcement on their toes and teach them not to escalate when they are upset that someone is pushing for their rights as it makes their jobs harder
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2022
  3. Hotdogr

    Hotdogr Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They are absolutely a positive influence, both in educating the public about their rights, and the boundaries police have to their authority, as well as holding police accountable when they violate their oaths and the law.
     
  4. dgrichards

    dgrichards Well-Known Member

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    I'm just curious, guy. Why don't you like them?
     
  5. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I do not like people that are that obnoxious and narcissistic, but like I said, they serve a purpose

    if cops can deal with them properly, they can deal with all of us properly, it's a good test to see if they have what it takes to be a cop
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2022
  6. dgrichards

    dgrichards Well-Known Member

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    Fair enough! I disagree, but then, that's why they make Fords and Chevrolets, isn't it?
     
  7. Kranes56

    Kranes56 Banned

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    They are desperately needed, especially what happened with the George Floyd protests. The number of first amendment violations was a travesty.
     
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  8. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Times have changed. People have phones that can record everything. Cops are increasingly wearing body cams. People have GoPro cams in their cars and on their bodies. Surveillance cams are everywhere.

    Technology is gradually replacing “cop watchers”.
     
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  9. Mircea

    Mircea Well-Known Member

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    Did it every occur to you that cops are doing their job wrong?

    By the way, what are the names of the cops that patrol your street?
     
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  10. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    do you think cops that follow the constitution are doing their jobs wrong? I disagree if so....

    I think these people are doing us a service, even though I don't like their behavior personally
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2022
  11. dgrichards

    dgrichards Well-Known Member

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    Time was that the police patrolled on foot and were known to the public and known to the police. The disconnect began when the patrol men were assigned to cars and were thus invisible to the public
    As to when they adopted the attitude that they were the good guys with unlimited powers and the general public is the enemy is anybody's guess.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2022
  12. MJ Davies

    MJ Davies Well-Known Member

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    Not really. Our hospitals don't allow the use of recording devices inside the building. People disobey the rules so they have some kind of signal blocker so our phones don't work once inside.

    I think this started before everyone had a cell phone though. There were lawsuits against doctors and hospitals when family members were recording births so they put a stop to that.

    Also, while it's not "approved" by the departments, I know several abusive cops that carry devices that blocks recording devices. It's always the bad guys that work around the laws and safety nets (and "bad" guys are on both sides of the badge).
     
  13. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well I’m no tech expert, but I have never heard of devices that block your phone from recording video. Also, the last time I was in a hospital nothing was stopping me from using the phone. The hospital even had a WiFi for guests I logged in to.
     
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  14. Mircea

    Mircea Well-Known Member

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    I agree in part and disagree in part.

    The disconnect did not begin with patrol cars, rather it began when police retreated from neighborhood precincts into districts and also due to idiotic theories proffered by Ivory Tower academicians on crime.

    "Community-oriented policing" is all the rage, yet it is nothing but lip-service and there isn't a single city in the US that actually has community-oriented policing.

    Who knows the names of the police officers who patrol their streets? No one does, ergo, there is no community-oriented policing, because if there was, you'd know their names.

    In Cincinnati, I could move police from the 5 districts back to the neighborhood precincts, cut 400 dead-weight police officers from the force and still reduce crime 50%.

    Police cannot deter crime if they aren't visible and if they aren't patrolling, they aren't visible.

    Congress and the State legislatures have really screwed things up. We were winning the war on drugs until Congress reared its ugly head. True, police were only arresting 2-4 people at a time, but they were seizing $Millions worth of drugs and keeping them off the streets.

    The Media framed it as a Quantity vs Quality issue: "How can we win the war if we're only arresting 2-4 people at a time?

    It's not about the number of offenders arrested, it's about the quantity of drugs removed from the streets.

    Most cities are beholden to the government for funding, initially through the Justice Department, but now through them and Homeland Security, and the strings Congress attached to the funding bills require that cities show "improvement" which means arresting more people this year than you did last year. The only way to do that is use "buy-bust" where you target street level dealers and the users, instead of the mid-level to high-level dealers and distributors.
     
  15. Mircea

    Mircea Well-Known Member

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    There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits anyone from filming/video-taping anything that cops do.

    That's my street, my police car, and my cop....I pay for them. I'll video if it damn well pleases me.

    Cops are doing their jobs wrong for any number of reasons, none of which have anything to do with the Constitution.
     
  16. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    never said there was, but I have watched some of these people be dicks, and like I said, I do not like their behavior... but I also think they do us a service
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2022
  17. dgrichards

    dgrichards Well-Known Member

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    Fortunately...or unfortunately...I guess it all depends on your point of view, candidates for the office of district attorney, particularly in our larger cities, are running on a platform of police reform, transparency, and accountability. Police in some of these cities are retiring in droves and I say good riddance. Your thoughts?
     
  18. Jarlaxle

    Jarlaxle Banned

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    That will not actually stop a phone from recording.

    If they use phone jammers, that in and of itself is a Federal felony.
     
  19. Jarlaxle

    Jarlaxle Banned

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    Police body cameras need to be Federally mandated. The wearer disabling, damaging, deactivating, or otherwise tampering with them should be a Federal felony with at least ten years mandatory prison time.
     
  20. MJ Davies

    MJ Davies Well-Known Member

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    I have a myriad of health problems resulting from a messy divorce. I know, for a fact, that my cell phone will not work inside a hospital's ER.

    Further, I purchased two completely difference recording devices because I was being brutalized by local police officers and both malfunctioned when I used them to record such incidents.
    Correct, but one has to prove that was done and it's very easy to claim faulty manufacturing. The people on the wrong side will stand behind one another while the target is ignored.
     
  21. Jarlaxle

    Jarlaxle Banned

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    I'm sorry, that's wrong. I just asked an ER nurse: phones work fine in the ER area. Some places in the building, they lose signals (steel-frame building, lots of wire in the walls), but they work fine in the ER. In fact, she got and replied to my text in the ER.

    Something else was wrong. You do not need any sort of phone signal to record!
     
  22. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm not entirely certain what 'cop watchers' or '1A auditors' are, but anything that legally and lawfully stands as a check against the proliferation and/or abuse of delegated authortiy (which it sounds like these are meant to be) is a benefit by my reckoning.
     
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