After the September 20 shooting of Keith Scott, protests have occurred for 5 days to pressure police to release the dashboard and body camera videos. Due to public insistence, the Charlotte Police Department eventually caved and released the video. However, the videos might be the last of their kind. A law is to be enacted October 1 that restricts public access to body camera and dashboard footage. Only those recorded can retrieve the videos, or in some instances, their families. Governor McCrory of North Carolina stated that the new law would protect the public, the families of those involved, and the officers. He claimed that the videos might not show the whole story. There are elements that video footage simply cannot portray, like different angles and audio. So, in an effort to treat all parties equally, dashboard and body camera footage is no longer considered public record. Protesters are angry because they feel that they deserve to see the evidence and know the full story. They feel that transparency will be inadequate after the law goes into effect. None of the videos conclusively prove either side.
While it is important for the public to be informed, there are also positive points that the law offers. The most crucial of those is that the videos will no longer be tainted by what the videos show. They will be required to go strictly off of what they heard or saw that day. They no longer will be able to edit or tailor their story to the video. That is important in the process of law because now testimonies will offer straight up facts. Another benefit is that the public will no longer protest for videos. Because they cannot have the footage, violent protests demanding their release will no longer be an issue. Of course, there will be protests against the actual event, but those are a different matter. It will be easier to obtain peace if the added element of the video's release is simply removed from the equation. A final benefit is that the privacy of all parties will be maintained. Without the public peering into the scene, it will be easier to conduct an investigation. There are pros and cons to both the backers of the law and the protesters, and it will be interesting to see what, if any, effect it has.
This event could be connected to the Boston Massacre. British troops, without orders, killed and wounded eleven citizens at a protest. The Bostonians were protesting the death of an eleven-year-old boy who was shot at another protest. The following trial proved that both parties were slightly to blame, so only two soldiers were convicted. The following laws, known as the "Intolerable Acts", stated that British officials who killed colonists would be tried in England. This angered the colonists because the soldiers would presumably get off without as much punishment, and also the public would have restricted access. Like in the "Intolerable Acts", there is a lack of transparency in the new North Carolina law, and people are angered by it.
Sourcehttp://www.cnn.com/2016/09/25/us/charlotte-police-video/index.html
People are arguing about how unfair and unjust these acts are but are we forgetting why they came about in they came about at first???? Someone died again - not just someone - another black man my police brutality. This also reminds me of the Boston Massacre because Crispus Attucks was murdered by British soldiers but your boy Paul Revere oh so randomly did not him in his portrayal of the event.
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