Example: Police officers raid a [whatever] belonging to an organized crime syndicate. Some dude is standing by with a video camera as the officers carry the evidence to their cars. Two weeks later, every officer involved finds that his house has burned to the ground.
Banning accountability is a big step in the wrong direction.
They also get paid and they are not required to put their life at risk.
Privacy has to be viewed in the context of relative power. For example, the government has a lot more power than the people. So privacy for the government increases their power and increases the power imbalance between government and the people; it decreases liberty ... Privacy for the people increases their power. It also increases liberty, because it reduces the power imbalance between government and the people
It's not only Police. In the local news today it's "ticket inspectors" using unreasonable force: "Brouwer says too much force not the ticket" [0] ~ http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/brouwer-says-too-much-forc...
[0] The Age, Nick McKenzie 2010DEC22
Don't wanna get tackled by a ticket inspector? Buy a ticket. Or if you don't buy a ticket, fess up and accept your fine.
PTAO's (Public Transport Authorised Officers) are pretty much the lowest end of sworn enforcement officer I can think of, certainly not to the level of VicPolice standards ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_officer
For the public this is a problem. The ticketing system the privitised transport system introduced is plauged with trouble ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myki#Criticism The transport company MTR Corp ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR_Corporation (nee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connex_Melbourne) solution is to questionably enforce ticket policing and the (repeated) result can be read in the papers: "Angry commuters hit out at ticket inspectors" (Mex Cooper, TheAge 2009MAY06) ~ http://www.theage.com.au/national/angry-commuters-hit-out-at...
Easier to squeeze patrons than fix the real problem.
This illustrates the need for video evidence perfectly. Without the footage many people would instinctively agree with you, but faced with the footage it's clear that the inspectors are in the wrong.
[Edit - it's more obvious in some of the later scenes]
Bruce is absolutely right: if nobody watches the watchmen, you can only expect trouble... filming police prevents things like this: http://www.gifbin.com/bin/112009/1258398254_police-brutality... and this: http://www.gifbin.com/bin/1238065175_cop-pushes-biker.gif
In todays news.
"Ex-police officers accused of torture" (The Age, Jenna Hand, 2010DEC24) ~ http://www.theage.com.au/national/expolice-officers-accused-...
