Lords of Death Forums Lords of Death Forums Movie Forum Suicide negotiation w/ front bumper of cruiser

Anti, your last post sort of sums up what I said to you in a previous thread. I think you're too far to one side of the issue to be objective because you're a cop. I don't fault you for that at all. I have no doubt that if I were in your shoes doing the job you do every day, my perspective on the issue would be much more similar to yours.

I would like to point out what I think is a flaw in your logic though in that last post, if I am reading correctly.

One the one hand, you say that everyone on the outside wants to second guess the officers decision and think that they could do better, but that the officer made a split second decision with limited information in a dangerous situation and nobody was killed.

Fair enough, I respect that statement. It's kinda like the whole concealed carry thing in a sense. In the event they ever need to use it, a responsible person with a CCW is going to have million thoughts going through their head the instant before they draw that weapon. Also, an informed civilian knows that the standard for justifiable homicide by which they will be judged will be FAR more strict than an officer of the law, so you better be damn sure you're pulling it for a good reason if you don't want to end up in prison. I use that example because it's the closes analogy I can think of to using lethal force justifiably if you're not a cop. So that said, I can agree with your statement.

You were a bit vague with your response to my quote about all cops needing body cameras. I think you are disagreeing? If so, then your logic is not consistent. Your statement I agreed with above hinges on the idea that we, the general public, are supposed to trust cops to make split second, life or death decisions and trust that they will make the right decision. If cops have body cameras that record encounters with suspects from start to finish, then either a prosecutor or a grand jury can review that footage and determine if the cop made a mistake. Why would it be bad to have proof of whether or not the trust in police that general public is supposed to have is well founded?

Let me phrase this another way. As someone who works in law, I frequently come across the term, "conflict of interest". I am sure you are familiar with that concept. In law, it's when an attorney's personal interest conflict with his professional interest. For example, if I am a criminal attorney and know a client has zero valid defenses, I convince him to go trial anyway to rack up my legal bill, knowing he will end up with a longer prison sentence than taking a deal. Bad for the client (my professional interest) but good for me (personal interest).

Absent video evidence, often times issue of excessive force hinges on the testimony of the officer(s) involved. If those officers are found to have used excessive force, then their careers can suffer. Could there be a more clear case of conflict of interest? Cops are people too, as you keep reminding us, people with families who depend on their financial support. Leaving it up to their discretion on whether or not to tell the truth when their careers are at stake is simply a bad idea, because human nature relies on self-preservation. Body cameras that allow video footage of every altercation are seriously a no-fucking-brainer. Allowing an independent, non-biased 3rd party review of cases where excessive force are claimed is kind of a big deal because of the whole conflict of interest thing. For those of us that don't have a badge, it would be nice to have all encounters recorded so that in the event of questionable circumstances, there is a clear and unbiased record of the events that took place. Moreover, as a cop, why WOULDN'T you want that? Then there'd be no more Michael Brown cases with the media creating a false narrative and ruining the career of police officers. With video feeds running start to finish, there'd be a clear record.