Big Brother can work both ways

A police officer in Orlando, Florida is under investigation for throwing a citizen to the ground and handcuffing him. For what? Videotaping a traffic stop that the officer was performing. The citizen was not involved in any way, but was merely standing a good distance away and filming the scene.

The bystander, who was released without being arrested or charged, is a member of a group called Cop Watch, whose members stay vigilant to police misconduct and brutality.

Ironically, the tape actually showed the officer doing a good job, until he got all torqued up over being filmed:

"Leclair, who is a member of the Cop Watch group, said police initially appeared to be acting lawfully during the traffic stop until they turned their attention to him.
"My video could have been used as an asset to their actual investigation until I was detained," Leclair said during a news conference Thursday."

Why would one ever want to tape the police doing their job? Well, just watch this tape, and see what happened to Brett Darrow, a 20-year-old resident of Missouri who is also a member of Cop Watch, after he was stopped on a "fishing" expedition by a Sergeant James Kuehnlein of the St. George, Missouri Police Department, an alleged "speed trap" town. While being questioned, Darrow declined to discuss his personal business with the officer, which he has every right to do, and the officer, not liking that, decided to let him know just exactly who swings the big nightstick around there. Notice in the first few seconds of the recording how Darrow did use his turn signal while entering the commuter lot, contrary to what Sgt. Kuehnlein bellows while he's cursing out Darrow and threatening to come up with "9 different charges", including resisting an officer, in order to throw him in jail as a lesson in how to properly lick an officer's jackboots when ordered.

"I think I just want to take you to jail to prove you were wrong".

That's an abuse of authority if I ever heard one.

My favorite part of the tape happens at 4:06, when Sergeant Kuehnlein realizes that he is being taped, and that since the recording is going out live over the Web, he has absolutely no way to stop or control the taping. We see an immediate 180 in the good officer's attitude, and he magically turns into a fatherly figure who only wants to make sure the driver isn't going to kill himself, or be a victim of car thieves.

Does anyone believe this situation wouldn't have turned out differently if the cops hadn't realized that their actions were going to be evaluated by their bosses, the citizens that they serve?

The peasantry are subject to video and audio surveillance just about everwhere they go these days, from convenience stores, to the local gym, to cameras in the squad car that just pulled them over. We're told that "If you have nothing to hide, what do you have to worry about?" The same should go for the public employees that work for us. If we can be taped in public, they can be taped in public.