Videotape the cops, go to jail

[Adios]

You elect judges?  Not as in a vote of no confidence, but they have to campaign and everything?

Dear God.

CA is certainly not the only state to do so.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The more I hear about CA's political system, the more I wonder why people live there in the first place.

[Jenne]

The more I hear about CA's political system, the more I wonder why people live there in the first place.

  It's not as bad as all that, but it's probably no worse or better than most states.  My dad got a good deal, actually, all told, considering the damned county he got arrested BY (not *in* by the way, Riverside DAs and cops came INTO downtown San Diego (what is that?  like a 160mi roundtrip?) to get him).  ~7 years seems fucking light at this point.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The more I hear about CA's political system, the more I wonder why people live there in the first place.

  It's not as bad as all that, but it's probably no worse or better than most states.  My dad got a good deal, actually, all told, considering the damned county he got arrested BY (not *in* by the way, Riverside DAs and cops came INTO downtown San Diego (what is that?  like a 160mi roundtrip?) to get him).  ~7 years seems fucking light at this point.

Different states have their good bits and bad bits. For example, California is the most democratic system in the United States. On the other hand though, it's the most democratic system in the United States.

[Jenne]

The more I hear about CA's political system, the more I wonder why people live there in the first place.

  It's not as bad as all that, but it's probably no worse or better than most states.  My dad got a good deal, actually, all told, considering the damned county he got arrested BY (not *in* by the way, Riverside DAs and cops came INTO downtown San Diego (what is that?  like a 160mi roundtrip?) to get him).  ~7 years seems fucking light at this point.

Different states have their good bits and bad bits. For example, California is the most democratic system in the United States. On the other hand though, it's the most democratic system in the United States.

But we're also a small country in size and population.  We have an enormous amount of ESL students, more than any other state, and we also have a very variegated economy.  We have to be RUN like a small country--something that baffles others who've never been here.

There's also a strange mixture of right-wing local politics with left-wing state/federal politics.  It creates confusion instead of harmony for many.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

You elect judges?  Not as in a vote of no confidence, but they have to campaign and everything?

Dear God.

CA is certainly not the only state to do so.

We elect judges here in NC also.  They are supposedly "nonpartisan" elections, but the local political parties always hand out voter guides that list which judges have the correct values.

[BadBeast]

Some of you may recall the news item last summer in which some county in CA (?) started having their cops wear cameras which have to be switched on before they interact with somebody. Accountability and all that. I was talking to a cop a while back and he presented an interesting objection to higher surveillance on cops. He mentioned how cops will often "look the other way" - sometimes it's because they don't think the guy deserves the punishment, sometimes because they don't want to fill out the paper work. (he says that a DUI involves 11 hours of police work, most of which is paper work. As long as you didn't hit anybody, most cops in his city have better things to do)

He felt that if he was under constant surveillance, he'd be under pressure to be making a lot more asshole calls. If it came up in court that you gave a speeding ticket when you should have given a drug possession charge, you could lose your job.

Funnily enough, I do remember that. It was a take that I certainly hadn't considered before, and our lot are camera equipped too. But the main thing I remember about it was, that this was an intelligent, articulate, and affable man speaking, and if you were his Boss, you would feel quite happy to let him go out every day, and make judgement calls like this. But compared to the average British Bobby, he was a towering giant of compassion, and intellect! I think we must grow our Police Force in some specially isolated Cave somewhere, on an Island well away from any nefarious influence that might socialise them, or make them think, or waken a scrap of Humanity in them. Not all of them, obviously, but a good 8 out of 10 of our lot, are thick as pigshit, and give nary a flaccid fuck about what they do. Follow proceedure like it was their only source of breath. You couldn't give Police like that, a job involving Judgement calls like this. It would be back to the bad old days of Black Squads, SPG Units, disappearing witnesses, fitting up the most likely candidate for christ knows what, custody deaths, and random beatings.In fact, it's getting a bit like that now, somebody heeeelp!

[Telarus]

I'm no "Constitutional Scholar", but I do remember reading that the Government cannot delegate any powers to it's Agents that the population does not hold (individually and in association). This was specifically tested by the Supreme Court in the issue of Armed Militias, and it was decided that the Constitution can grant that right because each person had the individual rights to Bear Arms, and to Free Association.

Public officials also have no expectation of privacy WHEN ACTING IN AN OFFICIAL CAPACITY.

I did find a very interesting comment here:

That's not true for police officers in two party notification states; I'm not sure whether this applies to private citizens or not.

In Illinois and other two party notification states, you can't record audio of police officers in public places [1]. Video is fine, but since all video cameras record audio, it's a bit of a Catch-22. People get arrested all the time in two party notification states for video taping law enforcement and it's because of the audio function of their device.

[1] http://www.aclu-il.org/featured/2010/Complaint-ACLUvAlvarez.pdf

[Don Coyote]

The more I hear about CA's political system, the more I wonder why people live there in the first place.

It has a fucking kick ass climate. And will fucking all your Eastern States for a snack.

[BadBeast]

The more I hear about CA's political system, the more I wonder why people live there in the first place.

It has a fucking kick ass climate. And will fucking all your Eastern States for a snack.

Because of yuor mighty King?

Because, really, someone should have a word with him.

[Jenne]

He GONE, BB.  Gone baby gone. 

Is now JERRY BROWN's turn to fuck shit up.

Woohoo!

[BadBeast]

I hope he's no relation to Gordon Brown, cuz on the "Let's fuck everything right up" scale of 1 to 10, he scored a remarkable 48. (But he probably cheated, so it could be higher than that)

[Jenne]

None that I know of, but he DOES have a previous "record" with CA b/c he was governor here back in the 70's and 80's.

[BadBeast]

He must have got in on the "Nostalgia" vote then, from all the Electorate who would have retired by now, if they could afford to.
I swear the British public would put Margaret Thatcher back into No10, if she picked her moment properly.
Cameron eats puppy dog's dicks. 

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Jello Biafra wrote a song about it way back when.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlvUz6phquo