The more you get a chance to look at the American criminal justice system, the more you see just how slanted it is against people of color. A closer look opens up a bird’s eye view of the collusion between police, district attorneys, judges, and all of the players throughout the sector. It gives a clearer view of how the system colludes to protect police, the foot soldiers of white supremacy.
Why would a legislature decide that police body camera footage is not public record? The cameras are purchased with tax dollars. Those dollars come from the public. The police are paid and retained by the public. Tax dollars finance those salaries and benefits.
A legislature in North Carolina decided that the very devices that were agreed upon as a necessary tool to hold police accountable are not a public record is direct evidence that the states will do anything to cover up police crimes.
Never mind what they tell you about compromising investigations.
There are times that it may be important to preserve the identity of people who may be caught up in those recordings; however, the idea that the public has no right as a blanket policy to what they paid for is an attempt at protecting police, even when they have broken the law.
The government should not be in the business of protecting rogue agents of the state, not just police officers, but all public employees should be held up to the highest standards.
ON ANOTHER NOTE
Federal prosecutors indicted the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery on hate crime and attempted kidnapping charges, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was out for a jog near Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23, 2020, when he was chased down in a truck by three men and fatally shot. Two of the three men — Gregory and Travis McMichael — claimed to be conducting a citizen’s arrest and acted in self-defense. A third man, William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., who recorded a video of Arbery’s death, allegedly hit Arbery with his truck after he joined the McMichaels in the chase. All three men were charged with one count of interference with rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping, according to a news release from the Justice Department.
