Re-do of blog assignment #3

I never thought that I would agree with anything that John McCain says but ill have to agree with him about the CIA’s torture tactics. He states that the CIA’s torture policies “stained our national honor, did muchharm and little practical good”.  He also stated "This question isn't about our enemies; it's about us. It's about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. Our enemies act without conscience. We must not."

            According the article it says that the program had a knack for lying and misinforming congress on what their “interrogations” were really like.  There were 119 detainees and 39 of which were “interrogated” which I think we can assume this means that they were tortured for information. It pains me to hear that the CIA was torturing this many people never the less just one. After all this it’s also made clear in the article that we could have acquired this information in other ways. I always thought up until recently that the government was here to protect us and I looked up to the president and the various government agencies to look after the American public. After reading this article I feel like we are the ones in the wrong and now we need some one to keep us in check.

            I completely agree with the author who repeatedly quotes John McCain, the American public needs to know about what is going on behind closed doors. After reading this article I have little respect for the way our country is going about protecting us. Protection should not involve torturing others, ideas like that seem like something that a terrorist organization would rationalize. After 9/11 over reaction is to be expected but when we lash out like this it makes us the villains too.

Criticism #2

      I really liked our cohort, Andrew's blog entry about the fallout from Ferguson. It’s apparent after reading his entry that there isn't anything to loose from the police having to wear body cameras. Personally I think that everything that has been announced about Ferguson seems a bit skewed and the evidence presented at the trial for the murder of Mike Brown just doesn't add up. I honestly feel that Darren Wilson was in the wrong and if things spiraled out of control like he said they did than he should be advocating for body cameras too. Andrew uses a quote that really stuck with me "The city of Rialta California has seen an 88% drop in the number of complaints filed against officers and a 60% drop in the use of force since implementing body cameras.  These numbers should please both the police department and the community." I agree that these cameras would create more trust between the police and the communities that they "serve and protect".
It shocks me with statistics like this that any one would be against body cameras.
     After 9/11 we gave up our privacy such as our emails and phone lines to help protect our country from terrorism. I think that we are having another time of crisis, especially in Ferguson and that some privacy needs to be sacrificed again. Weren't we not told "not to worry about our privacy if we weren't doing anything wrong" back in 2001? Police officers should be no exception to this. Andrew proposed a solution to get the police to wear the body cameras. "The federal government may not be able to mandate the use of body cameras at the local and state level, but they could tie grant money to the adoption." I think that's a great idea and that the idea would become more popular when we start to see the difference in the amount of force used and complaints against the police. I agree with this blog post, body cameras are needed to make sure that the police aren't abusing their power. With the latest tragedies such as Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Treyvon Martin in the headlines we seriously need to reassess why we think the police should be trusted and how we can keep them in check.
    I think this article was really well written and kept me intrigued the whole time. However there could have been a little bit more information about why the police shouldn't be trusted. I feel that the stronger the disdain for the police, the more likely people would want to correct their behavior. Nevertheless I think the author did a great job and the structure of this article was very strong.