Boston commissioner wants laws requiring ‘distance’ for people filming cops

[drunkenshoe]

Yeah, so they can get away with it perfectly. This is fucking bullshit. Moral of the story, don't get 'nosey'. This idiots is talking about making 'it fair' for both sides preventing people filming cops.

Boston police commissioner wants laws requiring ‘distance’ for people filming cops

Boston police commissioner William Evans called for legislation limiting residents’ ability to record police activity and also downplayed officers’ refusal to identify themselves to the public during an interview with the Boston Herald.

“If we can get legislation to make it fair, so it protects both sides, then I’m all for it,” he said. “Should you be up in a police officer’s face, agitating them? Absolutely not. Would I love to see a little distance? I’d love to see that.”

Evans’ recommendation has already met with some resistance from the American Civil Liberties Union’s Massachusetts office, which has pointed out that residents have a right to film police activity if they are not interfering with an officer’s work.

“Its the first part of the constitution that citizens have a right to see what the government is doing,” staff attorney Carl Williams told New England Cable News.

The commissioner also alluded to a July 4 encounter between a reporter for the Bay State Examiner and an officer who would only identify himself as Deputy Superintendent Ridge.

Ridge ordered four officers not to respond to the Examiner‘s request for their badge number and identification, and then ordered the reporter to leave, saying the officers “have a job to do.” The officers were not visibly taking part in any activity at the time of the encounter. Footage of the encounter can be seen here.

“If the officer had an incident with that person and the person wanted our badge, of course we’re going to give it,” Evans told the Herald. “But when you’re just out there for the very reason of trying to get a getcha moment, then that’s irritating to us.”

He also called for legislation in response to an Aug. 3 incident in which officers said residents refused to help them while they were struggling to arrest an unidentified man, who ended up kicking one officer in the chest and throwing another one to the ground.

“If a cop is on the ground struggling with someone, like he was the other night and everybody is videotaping, someone should be held accountable for not stepping up and helping them,” Evans said.

[Johan]

William Evans is a moron.

[Munch]

*Blows out suspects head* "PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD, STOP RESISTING ARREST!"

[peacewithoutgod]

Yeah, so they can get away with it perfectly. This is fucking bullshit. Moral of the story, don't get 'nosey'. This idiots is talking about making 'it fair' for both sides preventing people filming cops.

Boston police commissioner wants laws requiring ‘distance’ for people filming cops

So, the uber-militarized pig starts a war against civilians, and then the PIG gets irritated? I'd like to see him held down and get the bacon sliced off his ass, while he's alive, and then let him comment on being irritated!

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Don't ask, don't tell. The popo's are your friend...until they aren't.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

“If a cop is on the ground struggling with someone, like he was the other night and everybody is videotaping, someone should be held accountable for not stepping up and helping them”

So wait, now I gotta help the cops beat the shit outta black people? This white supremacy thing has gone to far.

[aitm]

This is becoming a "us versus them" thing when it should be a "part of us" thing. We are putting too much distance between the "us's". Cops are us with badges and a difficult job but not perfect and not without faults but most of the rest of us don't have people shooting at us simple because we wear a badge. We really need to work on how "we" can help "the parts of us" be all of us.

The very first part of this surely, is to be far more demanding on who can carry a badge with all that it encompasses. It is a very heavy burden that many cannot handle and unfortunately, we are not doing a good job of making sure those that have it are capable of such a demand.

[drunkenshoe]

This is becoming a "us versus them" thing when it should be a "part of us" thing. We are putting too much distance between the "us's".

Is it becoming "us versus them" OR did people start to react this bullshit seriously for the first time? And the main culture is finally showing its colours? Secularism is on the rise in the States. This wouldn't happen if a republican party was in power.

Marriage is legalised. It's not just important for providing equality, it is also very important symbol. A certain class is fast losing its special place.

Now, it comes to the next battlegrounds.

Wages. Abortion. Gun issue. Taxing Churches. Evolution being thought at schoold, creationism banished form every classroom. These will happen in their own tine WHEN they finally become beneficial and you are already in that track. This will happen sooner than you think.

In the long run....I am talking may be a few decades, this will transform the American society if successful. Then the amount of people who wants to get a badge to be a cop or a soldier will go down.  And the characteristics of police force will change too, they will have to change to adapt.

[Cocoa Beware]

Very funny. I'm sure he would like this "safe distance" to be about a kilometer.

Does he have any "video evidence" to support this? In pretty much every video I've seen of police brutality the cops obviously had no idea the cameras are even there.

[peacewithoutgod]

This is becoming a "us versus them" thing when it should be a "part of us" thing. We are putting too much distance between the "us's". Cops are us with badges and a difficult job but not perfect and not without faults but most of the rest of us don't have people shooting at us simple because we wear a badge. We really need to work on how "we" can help "the parts of us" be all of us.

The very first part of this surely, is to be far more demanding on who can carry a badge with all that it encompasses. It is a very heavy burden that many cannot handle and unfortunately, we are not doing a good job of making sure those that have it are capable of such a demand.

The problem is who the f*** is "us"? I don't have half the reason to fear cops as people of color do, but then I know the law does not represent in any way my interests because I am financially poor. I'm just a financial slave, struggling month by month to pay off a mortgage on outrageous terms for a cramped, almost half-built house, and the cops exist only to protect the interests of the wealthy abusers. "They" do very much exist, and they need to be taken down a peg for cowardly attitude, they need to be demilitarized back to the defense-only level of cops who patrolled streets in previous generations, and they need to be educated a whole lot more than they have been on civil rights. Yes, I do agree that selection policies must be made far more rigorous than they have been. The cop shows have made it clear enough their side of the equation with the Internal Affairs people being nothing but sharks trailing the scent of blue blood in the water, so this too is in need of reforms, but when the blue-line commits obstruction of justice, and retaliation takes place against the whistle-blowers, this must be met with immediate termination and criminal charges.

[dtq123]

Next thing you know, Lobbyists are going to repeal whatever mandate that says police need cameras on themselves. Just Great.

[Johan]

“If a cop is on the ground struggling with someone, like he was the other night and everybody is videotaping, someone should be held accountable for not stepping up and helping them”

So wait, now I gotta help the cops beat the shit outta black people? This white supremacy thing has gone to far.

This. So the police chief wants me to be accountable if I choose not to help a cop apprehend someone? Ok fine. Tell ya what, I'll be happy to help just as soon as we get done discussing what my salary for helping you do your job will be.  You don't work for free, why the fuck should I? Fucking moron.

How the fuck does someone with more phalanges than IQ points end up being a police commissioner in a major US city? How does that happen?