I strongly encourage everyone interested in this topic (and you should be!) to read the article because this shit runs deep and they see absolutely no problem approaching the law in this fashion. Absolutely disgusting erosion of liberty and privacy, though it’s not the least bit surprising. Here’s an excerpt i found particularly chilling–this cop is fully convinced (or acting as if he were) about the validity of this minimal-effort investigation they apparently were ready to arrest someone over. Note that weeks later it was fully disproven and ended with a terse email acknowledging that she provided enough proof to absolve herself as the suspect. No accountability for their mistake, just: “you can go now”
“You know we have cameras in that town. You can’t get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing,” Milliman said to Elser, according to Ring doorbell footage of the Sept. 27 encounter viewed by The Colorado Sun.
“Just as an example, you’ve driven there about 20 times in the last month,” he added.
Along with the Flock footage, the sergeant told Elser he also had a video from the theft victim that allegedly showed Elser ringing the doorbell before grabbing a package and running away.
My favorite part
“I guess this is a shock to you, but I am telling you, this is a lock. One hundred percent. No doubt,” Milliman said.
😳
But Elser, a financial advisor, told the sergeant she had no idea what he was talking about. She asked several times to watch the video that Milliman insisted proved her guilt, but he refused to show her. And when Elser offered up footage from her Rivian’s onboard cameras to prove her innocence, Milliman said she could bring it to court.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll be giving this all to you. If you are going to deny it to me, I am not going to help you with any courtesy,” Milliman said.
“It’s kind of funny because we have cameras on our truck, so we could show you exactly where we were,” Elser said.
We are really fucked here. No accountability on their end, while foisting 200% accountability on ours.
Yeah, been like this for quite a while. They can drag you for a while, lose their case, shrug it off, and continue as normal.
Meanwhile, you lost your job after your arrest, maybe even were denied bail and had to stay ~2 years in jail waiting for trial, and spent $100k on legal expenses. Winning at trial gives you no restitution for those massive losses. You’re expected to also shrug it off and continue life.
This reminds me of how police abuse any new tool they’re given.
Like how while trained dogs can actually sniff out drugs, when they’re given to police, they get retrained to simply alert whenever the police want them to, and essentially become a flimsy reason to let police violate your rights and search anybody they want to.
And the police suffer zero repercussions for their actions. If they don’t find drugs, there’s nobody who’s going to take them to court and force them to retrain their dogs or to disallow drug dogs from being used as reasonable suspicion.
Worth noting that Ring has announced a partnership with Flock.
So if you’re in the Ring ecosystem, maybe time to re-consider.
lol it’s literally an Amazon business. Should have been time to reconsider when Bezos loudly said that Ring footage can be used for anything they want.
Everyone freaking out has forgotten: Do not talk to the police. Guilt is determined in court and anything you say, drumroll please, can be used against you. You will not talk your way out of getting arrested, shut the fuck up, and sort it out in court. The only person there to help you is your lawyer, the police are not there to help you.
Damn I use to love these guys videos. Taught me a lot over the years. Shut the fuck up when cops ask questions!
She feared the impact a theft charge, though small, would have on her financial career.
Wild that a false accusation, after being proven as false at the court of law, can still impact one’s career.
because when they run a background check on you they see you were charged. and that’s all that matters. you are untouchable to most employers.
Yeah, that’s something that absolutely has to change. I don’t care if “career criminals get out of charges all the time”. A false charge should not follow you for the rest of your life.
Then again, I also believe that if you serve your time in prison and are released, you should not have a publicly searchable record that can be used to deny you opportunities. So take my opinion as you will
In my country, employers have low trust and expectations on their new hires (and therefore low wages and high turnover) so they ask anyone applying for work to show up with what’s called a “police clearance” and a “NBI clearance” (NBI = National Bureau of Investigation, a less-sophisticated developing country equivalent of the FBI) documents to make sure they’re not felons.
deleted by creator
No different to cancel culture
So because she is better off financially and is not worried about google tracking, she had all the cameras, GPS tracking, and everything set up to prove her innocence.
I decline all of that stuff and i would have a MUCH tougher time proving my innocence when wrongly accused like she was.
This is just another step towards fascism where police are charging people for crimes they never committed, based on AI and computers screwing up.
Important for those who don’t know: police can legally lie to you. Happens all the time when they’re trying to get a confession. In a discussion, they’ll be like “we have your fingerprints matched and we have video of you, so it’s better if you’re just honest with us.” But they often don’t have anything which is why they’re desperate for a confession.
Weird to me that people are taking issue with the cameras more than the police work.
The problem here is charges being made with weak evidence and officers legally allowed to lie. I had a similar experience, but she was smarter than me. I was 22 and naive, thinking I didn’t need to prove my innocence because they have to prove my guilt in court (logically seemed impossible when I wasn’t guilty). The presumption of innocence is a lie. And juries and judges don’t operate with pure logic and reason. I had to learn the hard way, losing many years of my life.
they came to my door to arrest me on false pretenses. they ask me to leave my house because my children died. they kept making shit up until they left.
This is exactly the tactic the officer was employing here (for a sub $25 theft), not showing the accused the evidence so they don’t know what the police might or might not know.
At some point in the process, there is “discovery” where both sides share their evidence before trial to avoid going to trial for stupid stuff (like this.) But you usually have to engage thousands of dollars of legal services before discovery is available, again over a sub $25 theft allegation.
The officer sweating her for driving through his town on the day somebody porch pirated somebody else is really ridiculous.
The root of the issue is allowing officer to lie in order to deprive people of thier rights.
He knew he had nothing, he was just trying to get a confession by saying it was a 100% lock. The cameras wouldn’t matter as much if lieing like that was illegal.
no matter the tools, cops remain as stupid and malicious as ever
I know she was acting to protect herself, but its too bad we couldn’t see this played out in court.
Everything about this is so messed up that the incompetent, lazy cop is the least surprising part.
In many instances, they are “rogue installations” aka trash left on the side of the road that no one owns now. Check with your municipality if they have an agreement for them. If they don’t, feel free to put them in the bin where they belong.
Time to get a high power laser pointer and start taking out these cameras
Welcome to the United States of America!
Lies, injustice and the North Korean way!
All hail Dear Leader!
/s
At this point I need a shrine saying “hail to the GDPR” soon.
