Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Consistently wrong since 2002

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

So many bastards, so little time.

This really is a full service blog.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

He really is that stupid.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

In after Baud. Damn.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

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Reader Interactions

13Comments

  4. 4.

    Dave Fud

    I like what Balko did here. Hopefully he will do more work like this – which seemed likely as I read his bio and it looked like a solid libertarian vitae, not a glibertarian one. How refreshing for a libertarian to be concerned about civil liberties.

  6. 6.

    Linda Featheringill

    Interesting article. I am not a very technical person but I thought there was some good information there.

    I liked it so much, and I placed a link for the articl on twitter.

    Maybe we should all invest in some of this before the Repugs take over everything?

  7. 7.

    New Yorker

    How long before Balko strikes out on his own? He really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the crew at Reason, as he seems genuinely concerned with civil liberties and issues other than overtaxing “producers” like Dick Fuld.

  8. 8.

    Joey Maloney

    His key suggestion is finding an organizational/technical solution that will get the video streamed and saved in the cloud as it’s shot, so that it’s not vulnerable to having the camera confiscated and, oops, accidentally damaged.

  9. 9.

    daveNYC

    I know there’s nothing that can be done about cops that arrest and confiscate people’s tech using the usual BS charges of ‘public disturbance’ or ‘obstruction of something or other’. If cops want to arrest you, they will. It’s messed up, but it’s the way it is. What I don’t understand is how the hell laws that prevent the videotaping or whatnot of cops on duty are even remotely constitutional. It’s not even nuanced, it’s just a blanket ‘thou shalt not film the police’.

    Sputter.

  10. 10.

    Dr. Morpheus

    So assuming that you could successfully upload a video of police malfeasance to the cloud as it was happening without the risk of getting it deleted my question is this.

    Is it wise to let the offending officer(s) know that their actions are being recorded off-site in order to stop them from beating/tazing/shooting someone or yourself?

    Or is it better to let them finish and then use the video in later prosecution?

    I can see arguments for either.

  11. 11.

    Dr. Morpheus

    @daveNYC:

    What I don’t understand is how the hell laws that prevent the videotaping or whatnot of cops on duty are even remotely constitutional. It’s not even nuanced, it’s just a blanket ‘thou shalt not film the police’.

    Well here in Illinois it’s a supposed violation of the Illinois law against wiretapping.

    My question is, o.k., if that’s true what about all those stores, like Walmart, that have every nook and cranny being video taped as well as their parking lots?

    Do the owners/management get arrested or fined?

    Somehow I think they can get away with it but private citizens will get slammed.

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    Interesting article, even if it is typical fairy tale level stuff from the Reason people. I particularly liked this:

    And it’s a pretty powerful check on government, as shown by the Iran demonstrations…

    Shit, not only were the Iranian video feeds largely ineffectual, but I also recall a sizeable contingent of Juicers turning their backs on even wanting to be informed about what was happening in Iran, and deriding the fools who believed it important to publicize what was happening there. But also, at one point it became so dangerous to be caught with a cellphone in Iran that demonstration organizers suggested the following:

    It suggests demonstrators leave cellphones and jewelry at home and carry only an identification card and relatives’ phone numbers.

    It would also be interesting to see what would happen if an attorney attempted to use this kind of recorded feed at a trial. If past practice is any indicator, pro-cop juries tend to jump through all kinds of hoops to vindicate the police, and video evidence which “obviously” shows a civilian defendant doing dirty deeds is magically interpreted as “not telling the entire story” if the defendant is a cop.

    I’m also curious to know what police forces are doing to deal with the fact that more people are carrying cell phones with cameras. Ah, here we go. Apparently, turnabout is fair play:

    The Los Angeles Police Department calls them “scouts,” and
    they are so good at their job that, during this week’s protests, some were shot at and others were arrested–by their own colleagues. The LAPD undercover officers assigned to join the crowds of demonstrators drawn by
    the Democratic National Convention are a young, purposefully rag-tag group that has blended easily and invisibly into the sea of young protesters….
    __
    LAPD officials say the information gathered this week was invaluable. And the use of technology such as cell phones has vastly improved the undercover operation.

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