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.