Officer Alex ponders on how the tide has changed on body cameras
I’m not talking about that of mankind (or even that really horrible David Duchovny movie from 2001); I’m talking about the evolution of the American Civil Liberties Union and Police Body Worn Cameras.
In police-involved shooting after shooting, they were demanded to bring accountability to police actions in the worst situations, and I’m pleased to say that police officers and administrations both agreed.
Silence from the left was matched with police officers on the right actually buying their own personal body cameras as municipalities struggled to find the funding for what turned out to be not inexpensive equipment and data storage fees, but eventually they made it there where they belonged—on the front of coppers everywhere.
And as I predicted just a few years ago from this very platform, the ACLU’s stance on body worn cameras began to “evolve.”
Case in point: Last month, 18-year-old Logan Huysman of Burlington Vermont was doing what most teens do and was passed out in a car full of other teens at a shopping center after dark thanks to the twin miracles of alcohol and sweet, sticky Vermont Weed.
Unfortunately, this kind of activity attracts police and prompts them to do what police do, and Ms. Huysman was ultimately arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assault on police.
This being 2017, the young Miss took to social media after her arrest, claiming on social media that police touched her inappropriately, and posted pictures of her bruised arms. “I would consider that sexual assault, especially coming from ‘authority,’” she said. She later claimed that the post was meant to be a “wake-up call” on police misconduct.
In an apparently shocking response to claims of police brutality and sexual assault of a young girl, however, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo (wait for it!) released the bodycam footage which showed an impaired Huysman demanding that the officer pay her $80 for her bong, threatening suicide, doing cartwheels, destroying paperwork, reaching into her waistband and simulating producing a gun with her hand and pointing it at officers, screaming at them, resisting her inevitable arrest and assaulting the cops in the process.
The Chief also responded directly to the girl’s Facebook post which prompted a wave of outrage at the girl’s behavior which resulted in her doing the first responsible thing since this whole interaction began: She deleted the post.
Enter the ACLU.
“There’s a fine line between engaging the community, which is something we want our law enforcement officers to do, and doing what some might see as trying to shut down conversations,” said Jay Diaz, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont said in a statement.
In other words, the ACLU is furious that the local police chief released facts about the case in order to counter lies spread by Logan Huysman, and are therefore accusing him of using facts to “shut down conversations.”
As discussed in previous columns, the American Civil Liberties Union has released an updated (“evolved”) version of its policy for regulating how police-worn body cameras should be used and under what circumstances the footage they capture can be released.
This new “model law” suggests that most body camera footage shouldn’t be released unless there is a strong public interest, such as a use of force by police or a complaint against an officer that outweighs privacy issues.
In this case, an on-duty police officer was publicly accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in their community on a publically accessible social media platform.
I feel comfortable arguing this as something the public would be “interested in,” since it somewhat shocks the conscious and shakes the very faith in public trust.
A public official responded directly to the accusation and provided taxpayer-funded video evidence to the contrary, and now the ACLU considers this “shutting down conversations.” Well…yes, that was the point. Guilty.
The ACLU has discovered what we have always known on this side of that vaunted Blue Line: That the behaviors of our clients are at times deplorable, and such displays are destroying the cases that were until now tried in the court of public opinion without defense.
Now that the public finally gets the same front seat view that law enforcement does, of course they want to restrict what’s released. It’s only “fair” when the other guy looks like an asshole.
Welcome to the party, boys.
When officer Alexander D. Teach is not patrolling our fair city on the heels of the criminal element, he spends his spare time volunteering for the Boehm Birth Defects Center.