If NYC Police Are Worried About New Crime Wave They Should All Wear Video Cameras

Bodyworn CameraBack in August, Federal District Court Judge
Shira Scheindlin
ruled
that the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD)
pervasive stop-and-frisk tactics violated the constitutional rights
of citizens to be unmolested by the authorities. In addition, Judge
Scheindlin ordered

…the NYPD to institute a pilot project in which bodyworn
cameras will be worn for a one-year period by officers on patrol in
one precinct per borough — specifically the precinct with the
highest number of stops during 2012.

The outgoing Bloomberg administration has now successfully sued
to have the
judge thrown off the case
and her orders have been put on
hold.  In addition, Peter Vallone, the city council’s biggest
booster of aggressive policing tactics is now worried that two new
ordinances will dampened police crime fighting efforts leading to a
new crime wave in the Big Apple. As Capital New York

reports
:

“We are in for what I’ve been warning about, and we’re already
seeing it,” Vallone said, sitting in a cafe on Ditmars Boulevard in
Astoria. “There’s going to be a major crime increase.”

Vallone, whose positions on policing put him far to the right of
most of his fellow Democrats on the Council, was referring to what
he believes will be the effects of two new laws increasing
oversight of the NYPD which passed with the vocal backing of New
York City’s next mayor. 

One law creates an inspector general to oversee police policy
and a second facilitates lawsuits against the department,
in certain circumstances
, for allegations of bias.

Critics warn that lawsuits against the police are going to
proliferate and cost the city millions. Well, actually as
Bloomberg News has reported, settling lawsuits against the
NYPD for abuse already
cost the city $735 million
in 2012.

Fortunately, as Judge Scheindlin noted in her order, there is a
hi-tech solution to the many of these problems: require cops to
wear video cameras on the job. As I reported in my column,
Watched
Cops Are Polite Cops
,” requiring police officers to wear
cameras is a win/win for both police and citizens:

Earlier this year, a 12-month study by Cambridge University
researchers revealed that when the city of Rialto, California,
required its cops to wear cameras, the number of
complaints filed against officers fell by 88 percent
and the
use of force by officers dropped by almost 60 percent.

Just this week, the Washington Post
reported
similar results in the city of Laurel, MD:

The city started using the device six months ago. Since then,
Chief Rich McLaughlin says, complaints against officers have gone
down and so has the use of police force.

“It keeps everybody in check, on both sides,” he said….

When they were first told they had to film every encounter, some
officers in Laurel were not thrilled, McLaughlin said. But now they
come to him asking for the cameras. He just ordered a new batch,
and now nearly all 70 officers have them.

Officers from nearby cities “ask, ‘Oh, how do you like Big
Brother?’” said Officer Matt Jordan. “But I don’t have a problem
with it. I like it.”

The camera helped clear him after a citizen complaint, Jordan
said. Once, it defused a confrontation outside a bar: “As soon as
they saw the cameras, they left.” In court cases, they’ve been used
to secure a drug-related guilty plea and prove that an officer was
shoved….

The American Civil Liberties Union, which generally is wary of
surveillance, recently
expressed support
for the cameras. But the organization
acknowledges the privacy concerns of the police and the public, and
its support comes with conditions.

“I absolutely know this tool will transform policing,” Scott
Greenwood, a police accountability attorney and general counsel for
the ACLU, said in an interview. “It’s an unalloyed good, provided
that policies are in place that mandate the use of devices rather
than leaving it up to the discretion of the officers.”

With proper rules governing the release and retention of video,
I concluded:

It gives citizens better protection against police misconduct
and against violations of their constitutional rights. And it
protects good cops against unfair accusations, too. Requiring
police to wear video cameras should be universally adopted sooner
rather than later.

Anyone worried about a “crime wave” should be advocating the
adoption of this sensible policy.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/12/if-nyc-police-are-worried-about-new-crim
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Enjoying Thanksgiving meal at PTCUMC can also provide meals for others in community

The annual church wide Thanksgiving “Blessed to be a Blessing” meal will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the Robinson Road Campus of Peachtree City United Methodist Church. Tickets may be purchased in the church foyer between services on Sunday mornings and at the church office daily.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/enjoying-thanksgiving-meal-ptcumc-can-also-provide-meals-others-community

Religion Briefs 11/13/13

SDA Church will host Family Fun Night
The Fayette Seventh Day Adventist Church family will host its Family Fun Night on Nov. 23,  from 7-11 p.m.  featuring Jamaican, Antiguan, Dominican, Trinidadian, Mexican, and Filipino cuisine, hay rides, ping pong, face painting, hula hoop, basketball, dominoes, cake walks and much more. Admission is free. Call 678-665-8767 for more details. The church is at 814 New Hope Rd., Fayetteville.

ESL classes continue at Carriage Lane

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/religion-briefs-111313

Carroll Hires Purcell, 92, of Fayetteville

Carroll Hires Purcell, 92, of Fayetteville, went to be with the Lord and his Savior on Tuesday, November 5, 2013.

Carroll was born in Nahunta, Brantley County, Georgia, on May 8, 1921 to the late Carrie Lucille and Jesse Greene Purvis. He and his identical twin brother Jess were adopted shortly after their birth by Carrie’s sister Mollie and her husband Burrell Demry Purcell. 

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/carroll-hires-purcell-92-fayetteville

Philip R. Slagle, age 81, of Fayetteville

Philip R. Slagle, age 81, of Fayetteville, Ga. and formerly of Fairfield, Ohio died peacefully at 9:02 p.m. Thursday, November 7, 2013 at Ashley Glen Senior Living and Memory Care in Peachtree City, Ga.

Born January 29, 1932 in Brookville, Ind., he was the son of the late Bradley & Eva (Leigh) Slagle. He attended the former Brookville High School in Brookville, Ind.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/philip-r-slagle-age-81-fayetteville

Alan R. Baker, 62, of Fayetteville

Alan R. Baker, 62, of Fayetteville, passed away November 8, 2013.

He was a member of Harp’s Crossing Baptist Church and retired from Georgia Power after 29 years of service.

He was preceded in death by his parents Raymond and Jean Baker.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/alan-r-baker-62-fayetteville

Winston S. McAdoo of Peachtree City

Winston S. McAdoo (known to many as Mr. Mac) passed on peacefully at home Friday, November 8th, surrounded by his family.

Born in St. Louis, Mo., and formerly from Darien, Conn., and Barrington, Ill., Mac lived in Peachtree City for the last 10 years.

He was preceded in death by his dear wife of 58 years, Pearl Sidenius McAdoo.

Mac is survived by sons David and wife Susan from White Pine, Tenn., Richard and wife Jean from Fayetteville, Ga., and a daughter, Barbara McAdoo Gahlon and husband James of St. Paul, Minn., four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/winston-s-mcadoo-peachtree-city

Craig Ethridge, 45, of Haralson

Mr. Craig Ethridge, 45, of Haralson, died November 8, 2013 as the result of an automobile accident.

He was an outdoorsman who loved to hunt and fish and was also an employee of DBS Manufacturing for over 22 years. He was a loving husband, father, son, and brother who will be greatly missed.

He was preceded in death by his mother Carolyn Theridge.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/11-12-2013/craig-ethridge-45-haralson

Venezuela Dispatches Army To Enforce Appliance “Fair Price” Ceiling After Looting Ensues

Over the weekend, in “Venezuela Government “Occupies” Electronics Retail Chain, Enforces “Fair” Prices“, we reported that unpopular president Nicolas Maduro ordered the “occupation” of a chain of electronic goods stores in a crackdown on what the socialist government views as price-gouging hobbling the country’s economy. Various managers of the five-store, 500-employee Daka chain – the local equivalent of Best Buy – have been arrested, and the company would be forced to sell products at “fair prices.” Since then things have escalated rapidly. Because as we queried, and many wondered, the first question that arose is how would Maduro i) assure that prices were indeed kept at their “fair values” and ii) how would the cool, calm and orderly social order be preserved when suddenly everyone scrambles to buy all those flatscreens (which may have certain operational problems once the socialist paradise is hit with daily electric brown and blackouts very soon) they have been dreaming of for years. Now we know: with the help of the army.

NBC reports that in his “fight” against the economic “war” that he says the political opposition, in collusion with the United States, is waging against Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the military occupation of a chain of electronics stores over the weekend, forcing the company to charge “fair” prices. This is happening hours after Maduro also promised that he will lower prices of mobile phones: will battalion regimens be tasked with making sure iPhone 5S are sold at a net profit for Apple?

But back to serious matters such as how brilliant socialist decrees result in immediate looting:

Pictures shared on social media as well as local newspaper reports said that one store in the country’s central city of Valencia faced looting. Some critics suggested that the entire operation was a form of looting organized by the government, just in time for municipal elections in December.

“This is for the good of the nation,” Maduro said on state television. “Leave nothing on the shelves, nothing in the warehouses … Let nothing remain in stock!”

Pay attention: this is coming to every “developed” banana republic near you.

Head of the High Commission for the People’s Defence of the Economy Hebert Garcia Plaza attempted to explain the government’s decision to take over Daka on state television on Friday, accusing the chain of unfair markups.

 

From a Daka store in Caracas, the government minister tweeted a picture of a washer/dryer that “cost 39,000 VEF on November 1 and today costs 59,000 VEF, a nearly 100 percent rise in a week.”

And while observed from the outside what is going on in Venezuela is a hoot, it hardly is to those stuck in the socialist paradise:

Local economist Jose Guerra, a former Central Bank official, was critical of not just the events at Daka but the bigger picture. “Food today, hunger tomorrow,” he wrote on Twitter.

 

Venezuela’s opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, has long blamed the government for the state of the country’s economy. On Saturday, he tweeted: “Everything Maduro does leads to further destruction of the economy.”

 

“Today it’s Daka. Tomorrow it’ll be the banks where you save your money,” tweeted Maria G. Colmenares, a professor at a local university.

 

Oscar Diaz resorted to sarcasm to make his point: “Daka had flour, sugar, milk and other basics. The shortage is over! Ah sorry, they sell [appliances]! Oops.”

At this point there is little left to comment on either Venezuela, or the rest of the world that has adopted the same “fairness doctrine” principle. Best to just sit back and consume the trans-fat free popcorn.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/7yjl0j-7skE/story01.htm Tyler Durden