After seeing too many videos like this, I'm starting to interpret police shouts of "stop resisting" as an indication that some kind of law enforcement abuse is happening. Here, it's seems like strong evidence of mes rea.
This varies by region. In my region, the 70's and 80's were a time of pretty great policing. "Protect and serve" along with deescalation techniques were the norm.
In the 90's a new chief changed all of that. It's on a return back, but the damage done will take a decade or two to undo, if it can all even be undone.
It is generally true that the rise of social media and citizen reporting and sharing has improved visibility. In many places, this has been going on a long time. Many people are shamed or harmed to the point where they won't talk about it.
A better title wound be "Police reposition bodycam in vain attempt to limit evidence of police brutality that got one convicted and the rest lost their badges"
The key takeaway from the article (at least IMO) is that police bodycams can be fooled/sabotaged in this manner to hide/alter evidence. Think about the countless cases out there, where there is no 3rd party footage to corroborate the story told by the bodycams.
Without the 3rd party CCTV footage to expose this, the suspect would probably be facing additional penalties for "resisting arrest".
"Interfering with a peace officer" and "resisting arrest" are nearly always bundled. The two together are hard to defend against in many scenarios, unless there is a record, or a very strong witness.
The arrest is often structured in a way, such as shouting "stop resisting!" almost no matter what, to make it difficult for observers to understand what they are seeing. It's liability management. They lose nothing by doing this and gain a very serious personal and department risk reduction.
It's frightening to think of the tens of thousands (or more) of suspects treated in this way in the eras before bodycams. Only the rarest cases (e.g. Rodney King) were documented in any way.
This "stop resisting" scenario can often be a set piece. I see a few comments in this thread hinting at that.
I have some direct, personal experience with this. Short story is the police came to my home over an erroneous domestic violence report. The truth is my wife and daughter were having one of those moments and did a lot of yelling, and it sounded bad. Nothing criminal, just a really smart and pissed off 14 year old saying vile things.
I come home, see the mess, send everyone off to their corners in order to start the cool down so I can help sort it out. Decide maybe I'll take a step outside and drink my coffee, and there they are. Three very annoyed officers who very clearly believe I did something.
We had a chat, they wanted in the home, I denied that, and they were not going to deal with that AT ALL. My reason was adopted foster kids and how that can play out when cops end up in the home. They worry, as they should. But, I could not get this explanation in, due to the fact that the police were more interested in "running their script" than they were policing.
They ended up touching me, saying, "you are under arrest" and at that point, I completely relaxed. Not to the point where they would have to carry me, just very obviously non-confrontational. I had no issue with getting cuffed, questioned, etc... part of a crappy process.
They, however, wanted more. So I got a knee in my back and slammed into the driveway hard. Really hard, like "jesus, this is happening to me, an ordinary, geeky, non threatening white guy?" hard. (and I'm not a racist, my son is black, and I think in these terms having had a lot of experiences with said son, just saying...)
I remained limp, and they started working me over, clearly intending to teach me a lesson; namely, they get to do what they want to do, rights or not, due process or not. There was a witness, which was a good thing, and that witness is important for this next bit too:
So, there I am, not doing anything. Notably, the moment they assaulted me, they started shouting, "stop resisting", which was puzzling to me. There never was any resisting. When I didn't deliver, they grabbed my arms, yanking me back and forth. To an observer, who didn't know me, this looks a whole lot like somebody fighting arrest!
Of course, nobody in the family had any idea prior to this mess.
They did the yanking around, then when it was time to cuff me, they tried pain holds on my hands. Why? Punitive is my guess, because I did nothing, until those. And the only thing I did was maintain my body position to avoid pain and damage. (My wife worked as an outreach worker and I had been the training dummy for these holds and knew them cold, able to avoid them without doing anything hostile.)
This cycle happened a couple times, and during it, I responded to most of the "stop resisting" directives with something snarky like, "are you gentlemen done?", or "make sure you get all the anger out so we can talk like adults", etc...
Yes, I know. This did not do me any favors, but to be frank, I was so angry, hurting, and shocked at this game playing out that the snark was coping. I really didn't want to do anything to lash out, nor anything dangerous, so snark it was.
Eventually, they wrapped it up. The whole "rag doll" act was maybe a minute? Two tops?
My brother in law was observing, and they wanted him gone. Thankfully, he simply observed and did not "take a walk over here to talk", quietly affirming his intent to comply with their request once the action was over. He made it clear he was watching, and only watching.
Once it was done, I was in the car, hurt, bleeding from a head slam or two in response to the snark, looking around in wonder over how what should have been a rational conversation ended up such a mess!
Well, maybe this isn't so short. Sorry.
Anyway, my wife comes out, they get all their questions answered, but they had done what they did to me. So, they really couldn't just drop it. I had to go downtown, and they more or less were obligated to justify doing what they did, leaving me with a trip to the intake wing of the jail and a quick, very late night release. (that was not fun either)
Interestingly, she called them on it, basically saying they could drop it, let me go, and we can just all go our own way, or they will be in court explaining the whole thing...
So, it's a set piece when they want it to be. And in my case, it was punitive. I simply didn't comply with an order they gave me, which was to allow entry into my home. And they wanted me to understand doing that was expensive. No joke.
When we got the police report copies, it was like bizarro world! When I could, after walking home late that night, I typed up the whole thing. 11 pages, no sugar coating, just memory dump to capture all that had happened.
Their report didn't compare at all. It was hard to see it was the same event! Claims I had a gun. Claims I was using profanity and disparaging them. (the latter was true, but not even laced with disrespect, more like, "really? you should be ashamed" at worst, and only while I was being assaulted), and it went on and on...
Here's the thing: I had a witness and was in good standing with my community. Coaching kid sports, model adoptive parent, employed, no record, the works. They had the three of them present, and could write anything they wanted.
And they fabricated all of it, fabricated what onlookers may see, fabricated their testimony in court, the works. (and that still galls me having to watch them lie in my trial with impunity)
My attorney explained it this way:
Most people won't fight it. They won't have the money for an attorney, they will feel deep shame over having to go to work looking like a prize fighter who lost big, and it's just a hassle all around.
On their end, they work out a quick and dirty process they can use every time. It's quick, and most importantly, is structured to maximize the pain of others involved, and minimize their liability. Most of the time, it works great. One person's word against three fine officers? Who wins?
Exactly.
So I did the trial, and the entire time they were trying to get it moved to Federal Court (WTF is it with that?), delaying proceedings, making me appear say 20 times at least, offering bench probation, offering community court, and raising the ante to be sure I took the max risk with a trial.
95 percent of people fold on all of that. I didn't, and was found not-guilty, had to file a tort to get my expenses back, and after about 8 months, it was over. Painful financially, painful physically, and annoying as hell having to structure work around so many legal entanglements they came up with.
The other thing my attorney explained was the difference between well trained professionals and thugs.
Pros will use deescalation techniques to manage the scenario down and have that rational conversation. Most likely result is paperwork and everybody moves on. The thugs are all about compliance and thuggery.
The thugs are cheap and effective. All they need to do is teach them liability managed means and methods and set 'em loose as bruisers to keep the peace.
My incident was in the early '00's Today, cell phone cameras, social media, etc... have changed the game and we are seeing so many more incidents play out. These incidents have been going on (attorney told me that too), but we just didn't hear about all that many. Now we do.
The body cams are a direct threat to the thugs. The liability management goes out the window, and those set piece tricks they use do too. Expect them to resist this to the maximum degree.
But also expect to have to understand how they got to be thugs! It's the training and the overall culture and directives they get from their superiors. It's not OK to just blame the street cops. What they are doing, if they are doing thuggery, is wrong. Make no mistake. But, they are being TOLD to do that, and it's that we need to face head on.
In my town, thuggery got started when a new police chief took over. That person is gone, lots of damage done, and the current chief is doing good, but a damaged department is a really tough problem. It will take a decade to clean it up and get the people to trust them to do policing again.
Those costs are huge! And that's what cheap thuggery costs us, IMHO.
I'm fine. So many other people are not. They have records, were damaged physically, or worse.
Just know there are good policing efforts out there too. They use deescalation, they train professionals, they pay them, and they have the trust of the community they protect and serve. They are no longer the norm.
If you ask me, all this recording of events is necessary. There will be a lot of pain resulting from doing it too, but we need to feel that pain, if we are to muster the political will to return our police to the "protect and serve" doctrine, not the "escalation of force to compliance" doctrine doing so much harm today.
On that last note, "escalation of force to compliance" is the majority standard in policing today. It means do what you are told, or you will be punished. It also means not doing what you are told can result in death[1], and that's BY DESIGN too. Remember that.
Now, perhaps you may see these events in a new light. Why those cops are corrupting the monitoring tech is driven by more than just their own character issues. A lot more.
[1]...if that seems over the top, I agree. However, what I put here comes from my case and a few good, frank and open conversations with an experienced criminal attorney.
In my case, they presented that doctrine, and it contained levels of force, up through deadly force, constrained only by compliance. If they don't get their way, they continue to use more force, until they do, or it's moot. No joke.
Wow. That's one hell of a story (long one, but it was worth it). Glad to see you turned out okay, and was fortunate enough to have the financial capabilities to fight it off. Most people don't. Especially the whole appear-20-times-in-court, a lot of people (especially lower class working people), would probably get fired.
When people see prosecutors rack up huge bogus charges that can get you sentenced to years if not life in prison, they fold.
I agree completely on the body cam issue. I think constant monitoring of public servants is the best way to move us from them from "escalation of force to compliance" stage to the "protect and serve".
It was expensive. I had to call all my notes and favors in. One thing that did help was that document I made the morning after. That was just brain dump, good, bad, ugly.
When qualifying attorneys, I asked if I did anything wrong. If I did, my thought was to take the hit and do the community court to limit my obligations. The attorney I selected said I needed a trial, and she was pissed.
The discussions we had were worth every penny, and she basically said this whole mess was going to be "civics 101" and was right. I learned a ton and I got well informed, "school of hard knocks" style.
We are currently, in most places, nowhere near a policing doctrine we can believe in. Social norms, our petty "blame those other people" polutics, and money lie at the roots of this problem.
Thuggery is cheap. Actual policing is more expensive, until externalities are considered.
In addition to the monitoring, we really do need to find ways for people to understand the external costs and risks.
Most interestingly, people appear to be driven by their own safety. Makes sense. Who isn't? However, the reality is counterintuitive, in that thuggery replacing real policing actually raises our cost and risk exposure, both if which drive more petty crimes, and can contribute to real crime too.
This problem hurts everyone, including the thugs, who are often capable of policing, despite their lower overall education and background.
http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/mens-rea