A West Point graduate and former Army officer sees a woman being abused by cops. He hollers to tell them stop. He video-records the cops. The cops rough him up, arrest him and charge him with a felony.
He advertises on Craigslist for anyone who witnessed the event and, amazingly, someone replies who also video’d the same event. That second video causes the grand jury to refuse to indict him for a felony. He becomes involved in the “Peaceful Streets” project that, in part, encourages people to carry cameras for the principle purpose of video-recording cops while they stop, arrest and sometimes abuse, private people. Peaceful Streets has now spread to several other cities.
This remarkable video doesn’t merely show how a man avoided being charged with a felony. It shows how all of us can help curb the police state by simply using cellphone cameras to routinely record police activities. We live in a surveillance society. There’s no reason why cops should be exempt from that surveillance. When the cops know that they may be being video-recorded at virtually every moment they’re on duty, their inclination to abuse people will be inhibited and their conduct should improve dramatically.
Applause, applause!
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