Vivid example of why it’s good for citizens when cops’ actions
are recorded, in a nice happy-ending story out of New Jersey,
summed up by Raw Story over the weekend:
Evidence from a dashboard camera on a police cruiser ended a
nightmare for a New Jersey man facing false charges of eluding
police, resisting arrest and assault.Prosecutors dismissed all the criminal charges against Marcus
Jeter, 30, of Bloomfield, N.J. and instead indicted two Bloomfield
police officers for falsifying reports and one of them for assault
after the recording surfaced showing police officers beating Jeter
during a traffic stop, according to WABC of New York. A third has
pleaded guilty to tampering.Jeter’s defense attorney requested all recorded evidence, but
the police failed to hand over a second tape until additional
evidence surfaced of a second police car at the scene. The tape
showed Jeter complying with police, even as one punched him in the
head repeatedly.
The kicker:
Without the tape, prosecutors had been demanding a
five-year prison sentence.
Reason classic by Radley Balko
on cops’
war against cameras, and Ronald Bailey
arguing for filming cops at all times as a matter of
policy.
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