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This bothers me
The world is a strange place.
I happen to think a record of police behaviour is a good thing. Interrogations/interviews ought to be recorded, and not just with the officers' notes.
But Anderson County, Tenn. has gone one better, or worse, depending on ones outlook. They have at least three video cameras recording bookings at the jail, how do I know this... because they broadcast the camera, live, on the web.
Jail cam
I'll grant, despite my lack of complete faith in the police, that most of the people they arrest are guilty (not all but that's the nature of the beast), but it seems unfair, even to the guilty, to let anyone in the world watch them being booked.
Being booked is a less than dignified thing, one is helpless, and adrift. No one is on your side... even the friendliest of the staff have an air of mild scorn (I was called a liar at my booking {long story, from long ago, and not pertinent at the moment} because I knew (from reading the Hardy Boys' Detective Manual, how to give a good fingerprint. The tech refused to believe I'd never been arrested before), and to know, or not, that one is being watched by random people... yoiks.
Now, for the most part I think this is a PR ploy... they get to say not only are they treating people well, not only are they recording it, but it is live, so they can't, "lose" the tape when someone alleges abuse.
Also, because the Anderson County Jail isn't that busy (my father is a Deputy Sherriff in Anderson county... I know how busy it is), most of the people who look in on it will see empty halls, but still.
And if you wanted to see an arrest, they are kind enough to inform people how many sheriff's calls are going on, at the moment one looks in, so you could set up a small window and wait.
Seems to me it jeopardises the innocent, and holds the guilty up to ridicule. It ain't the stocks, but it's related.
I happen to think a record of police behaviour is a good thing. Interrogations/interviews ought to be recorded, and not just with the officers' notes.
But Anderson County, Tenn. has gone one better, or worse, depending on ones outlook. They have at least three video cameras recording bookings at the jail, how do I know this... because they broadcast the camera, live, on the web.
Jail cam
I'll grant, despite my lack of complete faith in the police, that most of the people they arrest are guilty (not all but that's the nature of the beast), but it seems unfair, even to the guilty, to let anyone in the world watch them being booked.
Being booked is a less than dignified thing, one is helpless, and adrift. No one is on your side... even the friendliest of the staff have an air of mild scorn (I was called a liar at my booking {long story, from long ago, and not pertinent at the moment} because I knew (from reading the Hardy Boys' Detective Manual, how to give a good fingerprint. The tech refused to believe I'd never been arrested before), and to know, or not, that one is being watched by random people... yoiks.
Now, for the most part I think this is a PR ploy... they get to say not only are they treating people well, not only are they recording it, but it is live, so they can't, "lose" the tape when someone alleges abuse.
Also, because the Anderson County Jail isn't that busy (my father is a Deputy Sherriff in Anderson county... I know how busy it is), most of the people who look in on it will see empty halls, but still.
And if you wanted to see an arrest, they are kind enough to inform people how many sheriff's calls are going on, at the moment one looks in, so you could set up a small window and wait.
Seems to me it jeopardises the innocent, and holds the guilty up to ridicule. It ain't the stocks, but it's related.
no subject
For those people over a million at last count (1993), who wear the label "prisoner" around their necks, there is no law, there is no justice, there are no rights."
-Mumia Abu Jamal
Febuary 1993
The criminal "justice" (if it could be called that) system never ceases to amaze me. Here in Florida on the 4th the police had, by my count seven boats, three all-terrain vehicles, and at least two helicopters patrolling the beach areas to be sure no one was lighting fire works. Not mention the Miami Marshall Law during the protest of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, "Free Speech Zones", and parts of the Patriot Act, and the Clinton-era Terrorist Act (the trigger Bush only needed to pull). Now we will be broadcast over the web, it's much like Kafkas' In The Penal Colony, these are strange times, critical times indeed.