Fearing citizens with cameras, police in the United States have resorted to shielding themselves from the public, resulting in a sharp spike in murders throughout the country.
That is what FBI Director James Comey calls the “Ferguson effect.”
Never mind the fact that had witnesses recorded the police shooting death of Michael Brown, we would have seen exactly what had taken place that day in Ferguson, Missouri during the summer of 2014, which was one of several catalysts that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
Comey made those remarks at a press conference Wednesday, reiterating what he said last fall, even though he came under much ridicule and scorn the first time around.
Even now, more than six months later, he has yet to produce any evidence that citizens trying to hold police accountable with their cameras has led to an increase in the country’s murder rate.
Not only does the Department of Justice disagree with him –which happens to administer the FBI – but even a national police union leader said he is clueless.
And those guys never miss an opportunity to claim cops are in constant fear for their lives.
According to the New York Times:
James Comey, the director, said that while he could offer no statistical proof, he believed after speaking with a number of police officials that a “viral video effect” — with officers wary of confronting suspects for fear of ending up on a video — “could well be at the heart” of a spike in violent crime in some cities.
“There’s a perception that police are less likely to do the marginal additional policing that suppresses crime — the getting out of your car at 2 in the morning and saying to a group of guys, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’” he told reporters.
Mr. Comey was wading back into a dispute from last fall that pitted him against some of his bosses at the White House and the Justice Department and one that roiled racial tensions over confrontations between police officers and minorities.
“He ought to stick to what he knows,” James O. Pasco Jr., executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said in a telephone interview. The organization has more than 330,000 members.
“He’s basically saying that police officers are afraid to do their jobs with absolutely no proof,” Mr. Pasco said.
Thanks to citizens with smartphones, we know that police are not afraid to do their jobs, even if it means going above and beyond their sworn duties to arrest, beat and even kill those citizens with recording devices, later claiming they simply confused the phone for a gun.
And speaking of police killing citizens, what does Comey have to say about that?
Nothing, because the FBI has not bothered collecting statistics on those incidents, so they are the last people to tell us what is happening on the streets between citizens and police.
