Ferguson Police Dept ---"Body Camera OFF"

[kpete]

Police also confirmed today that the wounded officer had a body camera, but that it was turned off during the incident.

St. Louis County Police Sgt. Brian Schellman, a police spokesman, said he did not know why the camera was off.

Ferguson police officers began wearing body cameras on Aug. 31, three weeks after a white police officer, Darren Wilson, fatally shot Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed black teenager.

Police originally reported late Saturday night that the officer spotted two suspects trying to break into a business and that when confronted, one of them pulled a gun and fired at the office, wounding him in the arm.

Police, however, now are describing a different scenario: that the police officer, during a business check, saw a male subject in the rear of the Ferguson Community Center. When he approached, the person began to run and the officer followed on foot. During the pursuit, the man spun around and fired at the officer, who was hit in the left arm, before disappearing in the wooded area behind the center.

MORE:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/police-searching-for-only-one-suspect-in-ferguson-police-shooting/article_21e165ad-1f7f-5ae8-b30a-fb9d9dc40afe.html

[bravenak]

1. Self inflicted.

I cannot trust the word of an officer who deliberately turned his body camera off. I am now concerned that this may be a stunt. It sounds like something Carver would say on the Wire.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Definitely suspicious.

Leaves room for the conclusion that he knew that whatever he was going to do was something that would not meet approval.

[bravenak]

11. Exactly.

If he had nothing to hide, why shut the camera off? It reminds me of that cop who shut the camera off while interviewing a woman arrested for DUI. By the time he turns the camera back on, she has broken teeth, a jacked up face, and is laying in a pool of her own blood. The cop said she fell. Cops tell magnificent lies.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. Our world turned upside down the day that lying became permissible among law enforcement agents.

If we can't trust them, well, what good are they as law enforcement agents?

[bravenak]

20. When cops and criminals do the same things, but only the non cops are held accountable.

Then there is no such thing as cops anymore. Just different types of thugs; those that are state sanctioned, and those who are redeemable. Any cops who sits back and says nothingv is no good cop. I am still waiting for a good cop to show up and do something. But who am I kidding? What are cops anyway besides glorified Night Riders sans sheets and horses. I have determined that our police is the way it is because they still approach the job like it's 1850. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_patrol

[Gman]

23. I've said for many many years now that

There is a very fine line between cops and criminals. And cops go back and forth across it as they feel. There are some good cops. And maybe we just don't hear about them. But there sure are a lot of bad ones out there we do hear about.

[bravenak]

26. You have been correct for many years.

My homeboys always lamented that they got treated like trash while the C.R.A.S.H. Unit could come into our neighborhood, jack them up, rob them, batter them, and get away with it.the cops would literally steal their lunch money under the guise of helping them not buy weed. Cops steal money all the time.

[Gman]

51. And generally they're well paid

It's not like they're stealing to put food on the table. They make a decent if not good living so they don't have to steal. But they do.

[arcane1]

35. The movie "CSA" does a great job with that, and the show "Cops" if the south had won the civil war.

[bravenak]

36. I gotta see that one now. Sound delightfully dreadful. My kinda film.

[arcane1]

38. That's a great way to describe it!

I expected something with easy, make-fun-of-racists humor, but it was much more powerful than that.

[DrewFlorida]

28. I agree, these differing stories along with a body camera turned off are suspicious.

I have zero faith in the Ferguson PD, it seems they are the source of the majority of crime in Ferguson!

[bravenak]

32. Right?!?

The seem to be the real problem. And they know it.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. That might be somewhat hard to do without leaving powder burns

on clothing &/or flesh, no?

(Not that I have any more trust in the Fergustan PD than you do, but a proper examination of the physical evidence would probably effectively answer your suspicion one way or the other. Let's see if they actually do & report the forensic exam.)

[randome]

6. Unless he had an accomplice.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[Jackpine Radical]

8. Interesting thought, but that might be somewhat dicy.

Firing from far enough away to avoid powder burns (3 meters?) introduces the potential of not hitting exactly where you want, e.g. hitting the humerus when all you wanted was a superficial flesh wound.

[Kber]

12. Or they didn't check for evidence to back his story in th first place.

Did they confirm that they ran the tests? Do we trust them to be honest about the results?

[randome]

17. Or they didn't test until 4 hours after the report.

You know, standard procedure.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[bravenak]

13. I hope they save the clothing for testing.

I was thinking that he had a friend cop shoot him. To prove how dangerous the townsfolk are.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. I agree that the whole story is fishy as hell,

complete with a major revision after the original report. I just don't know what it is that they're trying to obfuscate or pull off here.

[bravenak]

22. They are trying to prove that they're in danger too!

I bet ain't nobody even got shot. Or he tried to shoot somebody and got a fragment of something embeded in his arm from a ricochet. We'll never know... They don't do incident reports in Ferguson, nor do they release any pertinent info on any issue. I hope voters got registered in droves. They need a whole new council.

[Jackpine Radical]

27. Ya know, having made the acquaintance of 3 AK bullets in Vietnam,

one of which is still lodged up against my scapula, I have a lot of trouble imagining allowing anyone to deliberately shoot me. Especially from any distance because of accuracy issues. An intended upper-arm flesh shot that goes an inch off course could take out your humerus and cost you your arm. NOBODY is that damn trustworthily accurate with a pistol, even at 10 feet. I guess that's the basic problem I have with your theory. Now, if the stupid cop shot himself by accident or something like that, then I could easily imagine the whole rest of it being set up opportunistically, with the camera evidence disappearing and the "camera was off" story used to cover the absence.

[bravenak]

30. Yes. Huge plot hole, but I am changing my story now.

Accidental self inflicted. Or a flesh wound from a ricochet. And then we can add your theory of an opportunistic set up after the fact. They will never find the suspect. He probably doesn't exist.

[Jackpine Radical]

34. I was already wondering about the alleged suspect.

First there were 2 of them engaged in a burglary. Then there was no burglary (no time to plant fake evidence?), and it was 1 suspect, etc. Here it is again from the article:

Police originally reported late Saturday night that the officer spotted two suspects trying to break into a business and that when confronted, one of them pulled a gun and fired at the office, wounding him in the arm.

Police, however, now are describing a different scenario: that the police officer, during a business check, saw a male subject in the rear of the Ferguson Community Center. When he approached, the person began to run and the officer followed on foot. During the pursuit, the man spun around and fired at the officer, who was hit in the left arm, before disappearing in the wooded area behind the center.

The officer was treated and released from a local hospital today.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar were originally told that the incident involved two suspects at the time they provided statements to the press Saturday night, but later detectives confirmed it was only one individual, Schellman said.

Schellman also said that police did not have any more details on suspect's description.

The 2 stories are totally different. Both come from the cops. If the first one were true, there ought to be evidence of the burglary. The second story requires no evidence. If that doesn't reek, I don't know what does.

[bravenak]

39. Is it just me, or are their stories in need of a good fiction author?

Every explaination they have given has struck me as stupid and has a cheesy movie quality to it. First a black kid tries to get INTO a cop car to grab the cops gun FOR NO REASON. Now, we have Two Story Sam over there, giving different versions of events that sound like they don't even belong to him, like a bad script. Whole department needs to be shut down.

[Jackpine Radical]

44. The scariest thing for me isn't really Ferguson.

It's all the other unexposed Ferguson-style cesspools out there. The rock got lifted on Ferguson & we've got a glimpse of what was squirming under there. There's a whole lot more rocks to be lifted across the country. I could tell you some rather interesting stories about sheriffs departments in rural northern Wisconsin counties, for example.

[sheshe2]

37. Yup! They are trying to prove they are in danger, bravenak.

The only thing they are serve and protecting are their self serving asses. They don't want to give up their money making scam or their racist beliefs.

[bravenak]

40. Hell no! That money making scheme is their bread and butter.

I bet those ankle monitering places and for profit halfway houses are making a killing. How much you wanna bet that the money makers are donating to the town officials, police and judges? I bet you five fake bucks that they do.

[sheshe2]

49. Monopoly isn't just the name of a board game anymore.

It's Ferguson owned and operated as a lucrative business off the backs of black people. And they sure as hell don't have a get out of jail free card in their "game", well, unless you are white of course.

Nah, not taking that bet bravenak, 'cause it's the truth.

[Gman]

21. That's whst I'm thinking.

[bravenak]

24. You too? Glad other people see how strange this all seems.

We better check his facebook soon so we can find out why he deserved to get shot.

[Feral Child]

47. I'm betting that GSR tests

will show the shot was fired at extremely close range. Like from the officer's right hand.

[giftedgirl77]

52. Or it was shut off so he could take a shot at somebody

without the worry of incriminating evidence...

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Wait, wait--It was just one burglar,

Yeah, that's the ticket--one burglar, and he ran from the scene and, uh, um, yup, he spun around and shot me in the arm, and then, uh, umm, uh, he ran into the woods…

[seabeyond]

3. fire his ass. if not a technical issue he did not know about, then all other explanations, fire his

ass

that simple. get the camera. wear the camera. have on the shift until you sign out. or your ass is fired.

[In_The_Wind]

7. +1

[MohRokTah]

9. I'm with you.

Cameras should be mandatory and turning off the camera should be grounds for automatic dismissal no appeals. End of story.

[seabeyond]

10. turning off the camera should be grounds for automatic dismissal no appeals.

[951-Riverside]

16. He or She isnt going to be fired. Period.

Forced into medical retirement?

Probably.

have on the shift until you sign out. or your ass is fired.

If cops arent held accountable for shooting people do you honestly think they're going to be held accountable for not keeping their recording equipment on?

Albuquerque police on Wednesday confirmed that lapel camera technicians were unable to retrieve video from the officer who shot 19-year-old Mary Hawkes last month after a foot chase, but they did release new videos taken after her shooting death.

Police still would not say whether the lapel camera of officer Jeremy Dear, who shot Hawkes three times, malfunctioned or if he failed to turn it on.

The officer, who has a history of not capturing encounters on video in which he used force, is on desk duty while an Internal Affairs investigation is underway.

http://www.abqjournal.com/404223/news/apd-no-lapel-video-of-mary-hawkes-shooting-2.html

[951-Riverside]

14. THIS is what I keep telling people about body cams!

Without accountability, they are utterly useless. They are nothing more than a scam to make the Taser corp even richer.

The same cops gunning people down arent going to turn them on and if cops are never held accountable for turning them on then you have nothing more than a paperweight.

Only the good cops will voluntarily have every aspect of their on-duty life recorded and they will be the first to be fired the moment they drop a pen wrong.

[markpkessinger]

43. There are ways to address that as a matter of policy . . .

. . . If the public demands police forces to enact a policy whereby an officer is automatically dismissed if his/her camera is off during any encounter involving the use of force, that would resolve that problem for the most part.

[logosoco]

15. This admission really adds to my suspicions.

The whole thing just seems off.

This happened Saturday night. It is not even making the news, a small story in STLtoday, which is the cities main papers website.

I would assume that if someone suspected of shooting the police was out there and they were looking for them it would be a big deal, right?

If I was a cop and I was approaching someone, I would make sure my camera was on.

I doubt we will ever hear the evidence (re powder on clothing).

[arcane1]

41. Do we even have a description of the suspect, so that people can be on the lookout for him?

[logosoco]

42. I haven't heard a thing! nt

[FourScore]

46. Yeah -- he's BLACK!!!!

I'm assuming the police think that's all you really need to know.

[Cali_Democrat]

25. Never trust the cops. nt

[greatlaurel]

29. Very fishy story.

Sounds like he was messing around with his gun and shot himself, then came up with the continuously modified story to cover himself. The Ferguson police are desperate to come up with any story to justify their out of control thuggery, so his cover story works for his bosses, too.

[lumberjack_jeff]

31. Are you allowed to turn it off when you use the lavatory? n/t

[bravenak]

33. Yes.

[Feral Child]

48. Why?

It's not pointed at the officer's junk. Anyway, footage of an officer peeing isn't likely to be viewed by anyone. They're probably only reviewed after an incident, and then only the pertinent footage.

Unless Officer Stupid shoots someone (a young black man, for example) whilst taking a leak...

[Not Sure]

45. I work with cameras on me all day and night

and tampering with them or disabling them is grounds for dismissal. The same standard should be applied to police. I'll leave it to someone else to figure out how to make them pause or turn off while using the toilet, but all interactions with the public must be recorded, no exceptions. If the camera on my train suddenly "malfunctioned" or was "accidentally turned off" just before and during a signal violation, grade crossing accident or collision, I'd be on the street at the least and possibly accountable for civil damages and criminal charges. I want the same standard for cops, period. If cops can't handle that, they should be prepared to find another job.

[Rex]

50. Wow, I am so glad I don't live in a fucked up area like Ferguson.

Their PD sounds like it has all kinds of BS going on. Forgot to turn on his camera? Yeah, right. The sad thing is that Wilson will probably get off on murder charges, since the prosecutor is biased toward the PD.

Someone should check to make sure the bullet didn't come from the officers gun. Bunch of thugs running around without their badge number and ID. Now, of course, their cameras are turned off as well...how fucking convenient.

[locdlib]

53. "St. Louis County Police Sgt. Brian Schellman, a police spokesman, said he did not know why the

camera was off." That's interesting, Brian. Everyone knows police officers are trained/instructed to turn the cameras, if they are even wearing one at all.