Mitch Perry
One of the few tangible (if not necessarily positive) events with nearly universal appeal that came out of the entire Michael Brown tragedy was the call for body cameras on police officers. Local police departments in the Tampa Bay area are about to start pilot programs with the cameras. And yesterday Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent wrote in a blog post that even though his force has been using such cameras for about five years, he wants to hear from city residents on several issues involving said cameras.
On Monday, President Obama announced he would call on Congress to support his proposal to spend $75 million to make 50,000 such body cameras available to police departments across the country
And then a grand jury in NYC yesterday declined to indict the police officer whose stranglehold ended up killing 43-year-old Eric Garner in Staten Island this past summer.
Garner’s death by the hands of the police officers was captured in all of its horrifying details on video, and has been shown repeatedly over the past few months, and of course was on an endless loop on the cable news programs last night. Yet somehow it wasn’t enough evidence to convince a grand jury that the officer should be put on trial for what he did.
Is there anyone who doesn’t understand the outrage that broke out in NYC last night? Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Dept. will investigate, and this feels very much like 1992, when the feds jumped in after a Simi Valley jury failed to find the officers who beat up Rodney King were found not guilty.
Certainly those who have been skeptical that body cameras would stop such incidents as what happened in Staten Island look president this morning.
I’m wondering what’s going to happen to President Obama’s proposal now?
In other news…
Another day, another court rejected Rick Scott’s attempts to force Floridians to give the state a urine test.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is holding a meeting this week in Washington D.C. Prepare for some of the bills being discussed there to be introduced in the Florida Legislature in 2015.
And the new documentary, Citizenfour, is a dazzling look back at the week that Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the National Security Agency.
Tom Atchison is the new pastor at New Beginnings, a homeless shelter program in Tampa. In front of the Board of County Commission on Wednesday, he blasted stories published this week by the Tampa Bay Times that some critics say show that he’s been doing a version of indentured servitude with some of his members.
And the County Commission authorized up to $250,000 in incentives for a Hollywood production that will only be coming to Tampa for a few scenes.
And Wengay Newton is running for the state Legislature in 2016.
