President Barack Obama asked federal agencies on Monday for concrete recommendations to ensure the U.S. isn’t building a “militarized culture” within police departments, as he promoted the use of body cameras by police in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri.
Obama spoke after meeting with mayors, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials at the White House to discuss a recently completed review of federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local police departments — such as the kind used to dispel racially charged protests in Ferguson after Michael Brown was shot dead. Although Obama didn’t call for those programs to be pulled back, he said there was a need to create accountability, transparency and trust between police and the communities they serve.
“This is not a problem just of Ferguson, Missouri. This is a national problem,” Obama said.
In tandem with the meeting, the White House announced it wants more police to wear cameras that capture their interactions with civilians. The cameras are part of a $263 million spending package to help police departments improve their community relations. Of the total, $74 million would be used to help pay for 50,000 of the small, lapel-mounted cameras to record police on the job, with state and local governments paying half the cost
Pushing back on concerns the task force would be all talk and no action, Obama said this situation was different because he was personally invested in ensuring results. He said young people attending the meeting had relayed stories about being marginalized in society and said those stories violate “my idea of who we are as a nation.
“In the two years I have remaining as president,” Obama said, “I’m going to make sure we follow through.”
(AP)
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2 Responses
If obama says “Don’t Want ‘Militarized’ Police Culture” Does that mean that he “does” want militarized police culture? I don’t understand, does anyone have their lie algorithm decoder? The best I’ve figured is that it means a 50% chance he doesn’t want militarized police culture with a 90 degree lie diversion deviating from the narrative.
If police are wearing camera’s it simply wont do any good, especially for someone in my situation, they’ll just use other technology to make sure the camera’s recording exactly what they want it to record. It’ll only lead to the evidence appearing more indisputable in my opinion. They’ll only improve their high-tech orchestration skills as a result; they’ll magically pop right into the scene at the perfect time aiming the body camera at you… case closed. it’ll allow for uncontested extraction of “another” 5 specific percent of the population.
#1. He doesn’t want a ‘Militarized Police Culture’ that he doesn’t control. Remember, when he was first running, he said he wanted a civilian police force that is equipped like the military, one that he controls.