If you don’t have your own body cam – get one!
By Jeff Koopersmith, Editor Emeritus – American Politics Journal
I’ve been writing an essay on technology and how it impacts my life. As I thought about it I came rapidly to the conclusion that we must all wear body-cams when leaving our houses – and even when we answer the door.
Today, the truth is that if you live anywhere but the Iowa hog plain you are photographed several times a minute in most American cities and two of three hundred times a minute if you live in London.
So, business, and many police and fire departments are far more intelligent than we. They wear their tiny cameras and get us on memory cards for all time. And – with corporate help they film us driving everywhere. They film us in almost all shops and gas stations. The even film us in elevators and some men’s and women’s rooms – which I hear is still illegal – except in New Jersey and Utah.
But we are all naked – I mean really and virtually nude without our body-cams.
For instance. We walk down the hallway in our five star hotel and a guy dressed as a bell captain holds us up and takes our cash and Rolex watch. We have no record of this! Thus the hotel can deny it and call the police saying we are “upsetting the other guests” by complaining – and our insurance company tells us “Prove it!”
Of course I am jesting a bit here – but if you think about it – clearly you will soon realize that I am right even if I am left.
If you have your body camera on at all times when not at home you can prove almost anything – and if you are good at Photoshop or some more sophisticated software you can prove anything you want to prove – especially if you are a criminal.
You see – that’s the trouble. Some few police who are corrupt and malicious can find someone to alter their memory sticks to make it look like every Black person tries to kill or maim them – just in case they decide to kill a Black person on a whim. Yet if that Black person was wearing his or her own body cam there is at least a slight chance that his or her memory stick would prove the cop was a maniacal murderer. And visa versa of course.
A bank teller could have her body cam altered to make it appear like YOU slipped her a note to give you all her cash. She could then take it herself.
On the other hand, you could walk into Tiffany and ask to see a few two carat wedding rights. You could take one but a little work on the memory would show you had no chance to do so – and moreover a little CGI could show the clerk putting the ring in her brassier.
By the way – there is no way, if done properly, that the FBI can tell the video was altered – that a trick.
I guess my point is this: If THEY (Defined as anyone but you) are wearing body cams and have expert video techs then you must wear a body cam and have an expert video tech on call.
That’s all.
I am sure you can find both using Google.