Free Talk Live

With a quota driven system that forces cops to meet summonses and arrest numbers, I fear that unarmed motorist will be shot by inexperienced rookie cops that are trained to shoot first and ask questions later. These constant interactions between people and police are a recipe for disaster and will cause far more harm than good as nervous cops with guns converge on cars that approach this intersection after dark.

Minutes after a suburban Chicago police officer was charged with striking a motorist with his baton, prosecutors handed out copies of a video showing the beating — taken by a dashboard camera on the officer's own squad car.

he Obama administration proposed new rules Friday that would effectively require passenger cars to be equipped with video cameras and in-vehicle displays to eliminate driver blind spots behind the vehicle.

The rule would be phased in starting in 2012 and would apply to all cars manufactured after Sept. 1, 2004.

Rearview video is the most expensive single technology in vehicles, regulators said, and they estimated that equipping all new cars in a given year could cost between $1.9 billion and $2.7 billion.

About 100 video cameras were handed out to volunteers who committed to record all police encounters they come across.

Peaceful Streets Project organizer Antonio Buehler said he hopes the project and summit will help a culture shift.

"One where the people don't have to live afraid of the police and they don't have to be afraid to stand up for their rights. One where bad cops get run out of their organizations by the good cops, and one where the chain of command and internal affairs and the system doesn't cover up the crimes of these criminal cops," Buehler said.

For a long time I wanted to offer a video camera for citizens to record their police encounters and then upload the video to my website for expert analysis and review of the incident. It's like having me as a passenger every time you are pulled over by the kops. You can imagine how excited I am to announce my new high-quality and very affordable BarryCams car video cameras!

Six men say that 20 Chicago cops assaulted, Tasered and Maced them in a private home, with a helicopter hovering overhead, because the men had shouted that "the kids were OK" as cops patted down a group of 10- and 11-year-old kids on the street.

I understand that there re many complaints about how the police react to people using cameras to record their actions, but you need to understand what goes through distorted mind.
To you and any other normal person, you are simply being peaceful and recording them using a non threatening camera.
To the police officer, they see an object containing glass, circuits, plastic, aluminum, steel, and death. And thus they get scared and conferscate your cameras and put you in a cage.

I remember the first time I heard anyone in "regular" society express hatred for cops (I'm not counting "revolutionary" times back in the '60's which on retrospect appear not to have been very serious). It was a friend of mine, a fellow engineer, who happened to like going fast on motorcycles, and he was complaining about a ticket he'd gotten. I was a bit shocked to hear him say that. I had thought until then of cops basically as decent people with an important job to do, with maybe a few "bad apples". I was pretty naive back then.

Man riding E-Bike is detained by what looks like the entire local police force. More and more extremely bored cops, that have evidently already solved all the local robberies and crimes, are called in for backup and arrive at the dangerous crime scene. Watch the hilarity ensue in this classic video from 2009.