If the purpose of President Obama's request for $75 million tohelp local police departments buy body cameras is to make it easier to prosecute officers who use excessive force against civilians, then the grand jury's decision not to indict an officer in the death of Eric Garner on Wednesday suggests that the proposal might not achieve that goal.
Video
recorded on Staten Island in July shows Officer Daniel Pantaleo
executing an apparent chokehold on Garner. Pantaleo told the grand jury
that he did not intend to harm Garner.
Ever
since a jury acquitted the policemen who killed Rodney King in 1991 in
spite footage of officers beating him to death, it's been clear that
even video evidence isn't necessarily proof beyond a reasonable
doubt in a criminal proceeding against an officer. They can't
always show what officers are thinking and feeling, the Supreme Court
has ruled that juries must generally respect police officers' judgment about when force is necessary to protect themselves and the public. Body cameras wouldn't change that.
That
said, if the goal is not simply to prosecute officers, but to help them
do their job better and to improve their relationships with civilians,
then cameras just might help.
The preliminary evidence is
promising, if still incomplete. One study in Rialto, Calif. found that
officers who did not wear body cameras were twice as likely to use force
as those who were. Initial results from another study in Mesa, Ariz.,
suggest that 65 percent fewer complaints were filed against officers who
wore cameras.
There are still real questions about
how body cameras should be used and what to do with all of the data
they generate. The hardware won't remove the decades of mistrust that
have accumulated between the police and the people they're sworn to
protect. Also, the cameras are unaffordable for many local police
departments.
Yet $75
million is a rounding error in the federal budget. If police chiefs are
interested in purchasing cameras, it would be the least Congress could
do to chip in.
What's in Wonkbook: 1) No charges in Garner's death 2) Opinions: Free trade, measles, water, the torture report, U.VA. 3) G.O.P. immigration suit 4) Takata recall standoff 5) Prescription painkillers, and more
Number of the day: $2.9 trillion. That's
how much Americans spent on health care in 2013 -- almost the same
amount as the previous year. Spending increased by only 3.6 percent, the
smallest increase since 1960. The question is whether that leveling off
is due to the weak economy or more efficient treatment. Jason Millman in The Washington Post.
Chart of the day:
The New
York Police Department began instructing its officers never to use
chokeholds in 1993. Still, officers use chokeholds hundreds of times
every year -- and that's only counting the incidents in which the
department received a formal complaint. Roberto Ferdman in The Washington Post.
1. 'I can't breathe': No charges in New York police case
Pantaleo will not be indicted. He
was one of a group of officers arresting Garner for selling loose
cigarettes on the sidewalk. He was suspended during the grand jury
proceeding, and it is not clear if he will be reinstated. J. David Goodman and Al Baker in The New York Times.
The officer told the grand jury he did not realize Garner was in danger.Pantaleo narrated
the videos in front of the grand jury, explaining his thoughts and
actions. He said that when he heard Garner saying, "I can't breathe," he
tried to let go, but couldn't do so fast enough. Goodman and Michael Wilson in The New York Times.
Protesters in New York voiced their frustration peacefully. "
The Department of Justice is opening a civil-rights probe. Legal
experts suggested that because of the video evidence, the case could be
easier for federal prosecutors than either the Michael Brown or the
Trayvon Martin cases, neither of which are expected to result in federal
charges. Timothy M. Phelps in the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, violent crime in New York is becoming rare. City officials announced another decline in crime statistics on Wednesday.
Only 290 people have been killed in New York so far this year, which
would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. The decline in crime has
continued as the police department has moved away from marijuana arrests
and stop and frisks. The city is also beginning a pilot program to
equip some officers with body cameras. Goodman inThe New York Times.
BLOW: Michael Brown's and Eric Garner's death were not isolated cases. This
society has denied people of color the opportunities of whites for
generations. There were plenty of factors other than Garner's skin that
led to his death, but focusing on any one of them in particular ignores
the largest and most important. The New York Times.
SIEGEL: The police made no effort to help Garner. As
he lay dying on the sidewalk, they ignored his distress, eventually
manhandling him onto a gurney. His life might have been saved in those
few minutes. New York Daily News.
The killing shows the police department still needs to change. Pantaleo
"used forbidden tactics to brutalize a citizen who was not acting
belligerently, posed no risk of flight, brandished no weapon and was
heavily outnumbered. Any police department that tolerates such conduct,
and whose officers are unable or unwilling to defuse such confrontations
without killing people, needs to be reformed." The New York Times.
2. Top opinions
Free trade forces governments to pay corporations billions in damages. International
agreements allow businesses to sue the countries where they operate for
protecting the public interest, if the policies mean losses
for investors. Manuel Pérez-Rocha in The New York Times.
Is it worth it for the United States to protect free trade? The
cost of a global economy is the military force the United States must
exert to protect shipping lanes. With the boom in shale gas, that
bargain might no longer make sense: the United States can produce
everything it needs domestically. Liam Denning reviews Peter Zeihan's The Accidental Superpower in The Wall Street Journal.
The cheapest way to save water is often to protect forests. Metropolises around
the world pay to build maintain the infrastructure that delivers water
to their residents. As the population grows, a cheaper way to increase
the supply of water will be to shield rivers and lakes from pollution
through planting forests or paying farmers to plant different crops. Giulio Boccaletti at Project Syndicate.
Measles is coming to a town near you. Parents'
refusal to vaccinate their children raises the question of whether
vaccines should be required for everyone, regardless of religious or
personal objections. Haider Javed Warraich in The Wall Street Journal.
ROGIN & LAKE: The Senate's torture investigation will be released shortly.After
a long negotiation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein was able to retain some
important information in the report that the CIA thought should
remain classified. The question now will be how to prevent the abuses
described in the report from happening again. Bloomberg.
We can't leave sexual assault on campus to the police. Whether
or not there is a criminal prosecution, schools have a responsibility
to hep victims of sexual violence in small but crucial ways --
like rearranging schedules or moving students to different dormitories. Alexandra Brodsky and Elizabeth Deutsch in Politico.
SULLIVAN: The federal government issues reactionary guidelines on circumcision. There's
no evidence that circumcision reduces HIV transmission in gay sex,
which accounts for most new infections in the United States. The Dish.
3. States file immigration suit
Texas, Kansas and 16 other states sue the Obama administration over deportations. They argue the president's executive order placed fiscal burdens on local governments. David Montgomery and Julia Preston in The New York Times.
Standing remains a legal obstacle for the states. The plaintiffs will have to show convincingly and concretely how the order harms them in order for a court to intervene. Nathan Koppel and Laura Meckler in The Wall Street Journal.
Obama's action is without precedent in scope. The
White House's claim that 1.5 million immigrants were granted temporary
immunity from deportation under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush
is an exaggeration. At the time, federal officials thought their order
extended to about 100,000 people. The Washington Post.
4. A standoff over Takata's airbags
Takata rejects a federal request to recall its airbags nationwide. Regulators
say defective airbags supplied by Takata are a danger to passengers.
Meanwhile, Honda is taking action on its own, extending a previous
recall across the country. A national recall could apply to several
million cars. Ashley Halsey III in The Washington Post.
Honda's national recall has no immediate effect. There
aren't enough airbags in stock to replace all of the ones that could be
defective, so Honda, like other automakers, will continue to prioritize
customers who live in humid regions. Humidity seems to make the airbags
more likely to malfunction, though the cause is still unclear. Todd Spangler in the Detroit Free Press.
Takata says that a national recall is excessive. The company told the feds that it had tested more than 1,000 airbags from cars in arid regions, and not one had ruptured. Associated Press.
5. In case you missed it
Reports of sexual assault in the military increased 8 percent last year. It's
possible that service members are placing more trust in the military's
procedures for handling these cases, and that victims are more likely to
come forward as a result. Craig Whitlock in The Washington Post.
Fewer people are dying of prescription drug overdoses. The slight decrease is the first in a decade of epidemic painkiller abuse. Christopher Ingraham in The Washington Post.
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