
Virginia Police Caught Assaulting Teens, Video Deletion Fails - guiambros
http://revolution-news.com/virginia-police-caught-assaulting-teens-video-deletion-fails/
======
nickysielicki
"Smell" as probable cause needs to disappear.

As an extension of this, the existence of drug dogs is extremely irritating to
me. It's been seen more than a few times that they're commonly trained to
react to a cue rather than genuinely detecting illegal substance. Dogs aren't
conscious, and they don't have a sense of morality. I have a huge problem with
them being used by police and that their 'opinion', if you want to call it
that, is respected in a court of law. A dog cannot testify in court. A dog
doesn't realize it is lying. It's insulting to the legal system.

~~~
swift
I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I do think it goes too far
to say that dogs aren't conscious. The evidence I have for dog consciousness
is about as good as the evidence I have for human consciousness, as far as I'm
concerned.

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guiambros
The scary part is:

 _“The Virginia Beach Police Department immediately began investigating this
incident based on the officer’s self-reported Use of Force Report and video
captured from the officer’s TASER camera submitted the night of the incident.
The department was previously unaware of the citizens recorded video until
TODAY”_ [1]. (note the 'incident' happened in January).

Police brutality will only stop when all officers are _forced_ to wear head-
mounted camera, 24x7. No dash-cam, taser-cam; Google Glass-like-cam, recording
_everything_ they say or do.

In the meantime, the only solution is for citizens to do what the young woman
rightly did: try to record - and hope evidence is not tempered with.

[1]
[https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaBeachPD](https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaBeachPD)

~~~
rmxt
Note: I believe that calling it a "TASER camera" is simply using the name
brand of the device. It's not a camera literally mounted on a electrical
weapon, but rather a body mounted camera made by the company TASER. Say what
you will about uninformed writers repeating catch phrases verbatim without
understanding their meaning, or fat public contracts consistently going to the
same vendors. Frankly, I'd rather have the body mounted cameras made by a
company that doesn't also make weapons... seems like all too cozy a situation
between the methods of force (weapons) and the tools used to keep that force
in check (body mounted cameras and video storage and retrieval systems).

~~~
guiambros
Indeed: [https://www.taser.com/products/on-officer-
video](https://www.taser.com/products/on-officer-video)

It seems pretty good, in fact. Very much in line with what was suggested
above.

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Udik
According to the article, three kids are stopped by the police over a broken
license plate light, then one of them, apparently without any reason, is
pepper sprayed twice and tasered four times, and finally they're arrested (one
of them will be in jail till July), not before the cops have tried to delete
the recordings of the whole scene from one of the boys' phone.

Well, the first comment to the story (via Facebook) reads: "It's unbelievable
that people actually justify these kids behavior!! I guess maybe it's because
my parents raised me to respect police officers. They knew that camera was on
them and they added fuel to the fire because of it. Just get out of the car,
no taser, no spray...".

The comment has 100 likes so far. What the hell is going on in the USA?

~~~
paintrayne
These are not the most sympathetic victims so people shit on them. Welcome to
the USA. It's a real shame because the escalation of force there was entirely
unnecessary. Some comments even sarcastically ask, what should the police have
done with the kid who refused to get out? Just leave?

Obviously not. But the kid wasn't going anywhere and they could have waited
for a legal guardian or negotiated further before escalating with the use of
force. Not to mention the gratuitous use of TASER when the kid was attempting
to comply.

Unfortunately, my ultimate take away is that people who object to police abuse
are in the minority. If someone is perceived as a punk or criminal, it is open
season. Democracy at its finest.

I'd really like to hear from a European counterpart how they think this
scenario would have gone down across the pond. Not like this, I am sure.

What good are cameras and recordings if the citizens are OK with what they
see?

~~~
mixmax
In Denmark it would be a major disaster, people would get fired, hearings
would be held, and media discussion would ensue.

As a comparison: In 2012 (the latest year I could find data for) Danish police
fired a total of 49 shots over the year.

~~~
plongeur
"Danish Police Beating Unarmed, Disengaged, Kneeling Civilians"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4xlfiEzx14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4xlfiEzx14)

------
oh_sigh
revolution-news doesn't seem like a particularly unbiased source. A lot of
news stations have reported on it, why not link to them instead if we want to
talk about this story?

My favorite sentence from the article: "the sensible young woman requests a
sergeant be present to avoid her rights being further infringed."

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jqm
I see the big offense not in forcibly removing the kid from the car (the
police are probably within their rights as far as that goes), but in
attempting to delete evidence. That's the real crime for which someone should
be fired and possibly prosecuted as well.

~~~
oh_sigh
Agreed. I'm interested in hearing how this plays out. I hope they can prove
chain of custody of the phone and determine if the video was deleted at all,
and if it was, if it was deleted when in the hands of an officer. Right now we
just have it from the driver that the file was deleted. But this was the same
driver that said "I wouldn't allow marijuana in my car", and the guy in the
back seat ended up being busted for possession and intent to sell marijuana
based off of that stop. I hope there is good evidence one way or the other if
the file was deleted, and the officer is punished if it was in fact deleted
while in an officers custody.

I'm leaning towards the fact that it was not deleted while in the officers
custody, but I'd love to see the forensic evidence. My reasons:

1) The driver already was caught lying

2) It's convenient that the driver had the technical know how to get undeleted
files off of her device

3) The officer was already recording the entire course of events on his body
cam.

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kw71
This corner of Virginia is plagued by disgusting behavior of police and other
officials. Neither you nor your family are safe if you happen to be in
Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, or Portsmouth. The police departments and
commonwealths attorneys in these jurisdictions have a disgusting perversion of
the concept of 'equal protection of the laws,' they simply decide that some
individuals deserve to be abused and the perpetrators of crimes against them
shall be unsanctioned, free to roam the streets and able to possess firearms.
Certain people in the community are free to commit crimes due to their
political or social connections, and they are protected and permitted to hold
government jobs within various agencies of these cities such as the police
departments and school boards.

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mixmax
I'm sorry to say, but looking from Europe America looks more and more like a
policestate.

~~~
guard-of-terra
I'm so not moving to the US ever now!

On one hand Paul Graham's "the only place to be is Bay Area" gig, on other
hand is this and similar stories. One can find a lot of unsafe places without
changing continents.

One more entry for my "rather kill myself than live there" list. Incidentally,
the other one is where I currently reside.

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plongeur
Then again ... if a cop tells you to leave the car and you then start to argue
and to fight back instead of following the order.

What kind of reaction do you expect?

This would happen in any country.

~~~
DanBC
Police do not routinely carry pepper spray and tasers in every country.

~~~
plongeur
So? What country are you referring to? In Germany f.x. they do carry pepper
spray and tasers and a gun and in most other countries as well. What's your
point?

