Raleigh cops call release of body camera footage "dangerous" (when they raided the wrong family).

BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 511 points –
Raleigh cops call release of body camera footage "dangerous"
indyweek.com
67

The RPD pointed out that an attorney for the Abbouds had released home security footage of the raid online, which the police said made releasing the body camera footage redundant. At the same time, the RPD claimed that releasing the body camera footage might expose confidential information about search warrant execution or damage officers’ reputations.

You busted in a door and pointed an AR-15 at a baby. Your reputation should be fucking damaged.

Raleigh police “wrongfully executed a ‘Quick Knock’ warrant”—meaning they kicked in the door before the Abbouds had a chance to open it[...]

This is just a no-knock raid. Let's not pretend knocking on a door a half second before pulling out the battering ram is some magical third category of warrant: no-knock raids should be banned, and whatever the fuck these cops did should be considered a no-knock.

Somehow the "your honor, the evidence will damage my reputation" seems to be work quite well when you're a cop or millionaire.

I went to their Facebook page and nobody in Raleigh seems to even know this happened.

Can confirm. I live in Raleigh, and this is the first I'm hearing about this.

Every time we make a rule they make up some new bullshit to keep doing the things we banned.

Blame the Supreme Court. THEY are the dudes making up rules that let cops (and government officials) off the hook. Rules that don't apply to you.

"If you don't have anything to hide, what are you afraid of?" ;)

Man, the world has gotten to the point where obvious logical inconsistencies don't even register as surprising anymore. Somewhere in my brain I still know that they should but I'm so desensitized to them that I can't even laugh about how absurd they are.

Hate to break it to you, but the world has always been full of logical inconsistencies and you are just more aware of them as more information has become available.

I'm well aware of that. That doesn't change the fact that I was raised to expect them to be dealt with rationally once recognized. Most of us were.

Being told that anything will be dealt with rationally is actually one of the logical inconsistencies.

OK Mr. Contrarian. You're right and I'm wrong. Now that we've established that please find something interesting to contribute to the discussion or move on.

I didn't spend 7 years on my doctorate in contrarian studies to be called mister!

My response was supposed to be agreement. Maybe it needed to be phrased differently, but I was agreeing that it was yet another thing that we are told that doesn't match reality to anyone paying attention.

lol fair enough. This response was funny either way so all is forgiven. Apologies if I misunderstood your intent.

"We can't release the footage, it would be dangerous."
But the family agreed to release it.
"Not dangerous for them, dangerous for me!"

Whole thing seems like a poorly written SNL skit.

And how the fuck can this judge decide “it has no public interest?” That shouldn’t be something one person gets to decide.

Nobody has written a hit song called "Fuck the Fire Department!"

They did, but - if you listen to it, you'll find that your point still stands. :D

https://youtu.be/7JkrJUAg8aI

(I suspect the song is ^not^ actually about the Fire Department.)

Heh. There's been case studies of that literally happening, but it's always been one member likes fire too much, not systemic.

"This is fine..." absolutely killed me.

Thanks for this. It's on spotify too :)

I said a "hit song".

If you'd listen to it, you'd find I wasn't disagreeing with you.

It's very dangerous for them to expose their complete and repeated incompetence to the public. One of these days the public might even think that cops might be capable of doing something wrong.

Serves no interest to the public who pays for these bodycams. Yeah right.

the RPD claimed that releasing the body camera footage might damage officers’ reputations.

RPD attorney Sherita Walton said that the raid was “valid on its face” and insisted that none of the officers did anything wrong.

State Bureau of Investigation agents confused Abboud with a neighbor who is also of Arab descent—the police refused to pay for the damage

abolish the police. We don't need these gangsters breaking down our doors like that in our community

It's one step from abolishing the police to opening up your door to thieves and asking them to shoot up your house

I think you've confused abolishing the police with calling the police.

You people look at a post and automatically apply it to every station around the country. Sorry to break it to you bud, but most cops train long and hard to protect the people they love, and have spouses and kids of their own. After defunding them all to the state of being mall cops, who is gonna come and save you from being shot the local rapist, mugger, or crackhead?

So here's the thing: why do the police automatically close ranks and protect these abuses? Police unions, and even just regular PDs in small towns and big cities alike, will almost always close ranks around any sort of investigation into officers that abuse their power, or are accused of bad behavior. Why? If they really wanna "protect their loved ones", shouldn't they instead NOT tolerate abuses? Should they not, instead, strive to bring abuses to light, so the remaining officers can all hold each other accountable to that higher standard?

Additionally, I really take umbrage with the use of the word "defunded", because what we usually mean is a little more complex - however, "the police in Millville, OH don't need an armored personnel carrier and a crate of rifles and level IV plates all the time to protect their town of less than a thousand" doesn't quite fit on a protest sign, and neither does "we shouldn't be sending the police in to do things like wellness and mental health checks which they're ill-equipped and ill-trained for", or even "maybe not every situation should be immediately met with deadly force at the slightest inconvenience." Moreover, if we do agree with your "protect and serve" mindset, shouldn't the police WELCOME the help of a trained wing of people to deal specifically with things like suicidal tendencies, wellness checks on the elderly or the mentally unwell, and other situations that might escalate with the presence of an armed person shouting instructions at them?

Six months training is long and hard?

who is gonna come and save you from being shot the local rapist, mugger, or crackhead?

The police are not obligated to protect and serve.

Again, with all of the assumptions that the whole system is corrupt

Well I am assuming like myself many of us have first hand experience with the police doing us harm instead of good.

Please elaborate

I was stalked and harassed (like 100s of emails, txts, in person, etc) and when reported to the police they asked if "I have tried throwing it in, I might just like it". Another was when they pulled a gun on me in front of my store because some one reported a bunch of cars that got robbed (it was me I made that report). Another was when a year after the stalker had a warrant out for their arrest proceeded to preform multiple "wellness" checks on the stalkers behalf (thereby doing the harassment for the stalker), and when asked if they knew who called the checks in they said they did know, but even if the other party is stalking/harassing you they still think they need to do the check.

Want more? When I was a child I was run over by a cop who ran a stop sign while on my bike, I was about to be arrested before another cop showed up, not to help me but to "stop the first from doing something stupid".

I am not even 40 yet and I have at least a dozen stories where a cop made things much worse, and I am not even in a higher risk demographic.

That is some pretty terrible shit. I would recommend to consider taking legal action against whichever station that has caused you this trouble, but it seems to me that they will just be able to cover it all up and slide it under the pile of money that they put on the scale. The government should really put some effort into stoping acts like this, instead of giving all the money to the military so they can play with planes.

Oh I am on my town counsel, so in a very small way in government. The real piss off is that the cost for the town to have police (we can not say no) has tripled in the last two years.

(Oh and I am not in the states so my government does not spend it on the military, but I get the point)

Funny thing is that cops have told people to give into thieves making an already shitty argument even more moot.

https://globalnews.ca/news/10359055/leave-car-keys-the-front-door-to-avoid-home-invasion-toronto-police/

So if one dude in Toronto recommends that having your car stolen is better than having your house trashed, it means that cops in general tell you to give in to all the thieving?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/10364143/toronto-home-invasion-victim-police-advice-reaction/amp/

It's more a systemic thing, where they refuse to do their jobs but try charge you if you do it for them, they act more like a protection racket than a police force.

And when has police prevented thieving? At best they come after the fact.

They show up four days after the crime is committed, then blame it on you.

Yea, but there's gonna be a lot more of them if cops are out of the question.

My town is a frequent target of ne'er do wells, as the police do not have any real coverage here. My car was pilfered again just 2 days ago and the police do nothing as of now. I know at least two of my neighbours who would take shots at these thieves if not for the police. As it stands people here don't fear the criminals but the police, the ones stealing know they are more likely to be protected by the police then their victims.

We live in clown world, and the cops are holding up the big top.

If enough "dangerous" body camera footage got out, someone might finally do something about it.

I don't know anything about this, so forgive me if I'm being ignorant, but is there some way to hack the footage and post it online?

There's always a way. It'd likely be through social engineering rather than technical means. All comes down to having a Snowden-like person willing to put themselves at risk of prosecution to pull it off.

Man, these cameras sure sound dangerous.

I mean, what are the poor police supposed to do? Not be a bunch of cunts? That's not why they got into this job!

"Releasing the footage might harm their reputations."

Don't you just station your troops in a different district and call it a day?

it will be fucking dangerous, yes. Professional suicide, even! And I like being the law, cuz it means you ain't.