Story by Noor Alahmadi, reporter<\/p>\n
More police departments around the country have started implementing the use of body cameras.<\/p>\n
When Eric Garner\u2019s death was caught on camera, massive public outcry spread across the nation calling for the use of body cameras as a solution for police brutality incidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just received about $3,000,000 worth of funding that we will be able to start using,\u201d Art Acevedo, Austin Police Department Chief, said. \u201cWe plan on rolling out 500 cameras this next fiscal year. Hopefully next year we will get the remainder of the funds so everybody will have a body camera.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linguistics major Zac Conard likes the idea of police body cameras.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that they are being held accountable for what they do,\u201d Conard said. \u201cThe fact that we can monitor them and see what they\u2019re doing I find reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another student, Emily Hoelscher, wasn\u2019t as enthusiastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so so,\u201d Hoelscher said. \u201cHonestly it depends on the people and how they use it. I feel iffy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoelscher says that body cameras can be easily manipulated in favor of the police, a view mirrored by Nelson Linder, president of Austin\u2019s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not enough,\u201d Linder said. \u201cPolice brutality is a symptom of a much larger problem in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Linder, the deep rooted racism in the U.S. must be addressed if any sort of change is to be made. \u201cThe viable lessons of social progress need to be learned and the citizens need to fight the battles locally,\u2019 Linder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to change things from within,\u201d Linder said.<\/p>\n
Black Lives Matter gathered at the Capitol September 19 to protest the multiple police brutality incidents against members of the black community. Conversely, a rally consisting of police supporters,calling themselves Blue Lives Matter, had a rally that same day in support of the police officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty. Acevedo asked that any APD in attendance to not wear their uniform.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I support Black Lives Matter doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t believe the vast majority of police officers are good people,\u201d Acevedo said. \u201cJoin us in holding the bad apples accountable and help lift up the good ones. Don\u2019t believe the false narrative that the community of color doesn\u2019t support police. They not only support good policing, they demand and deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acevedo\u2019s public support of both rallies has been viewed as controversial to some in the black community.<\/p>\n
Margaret Haule, founder of the Austin chapter of Black Lives Matter, considered Blue Lives Matter to be counterproductive to the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hijacking of the Black Lives Matter rally by the Blue Lives Matter rally wasn\u2019t created to foster dialogue,\u201d Haule said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Acevedo] cannot support the efforts of both Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, while also expecting any sort of positive change for the black community,\u201d Linder said.<\/p>\n
His main complaint about the Blue Lives Matter rally was that the organizer, Robert Chody, a former APD officer whose use of force in the form of a choke hold, caused a 15 year old African-American boy to go into a seizure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told [Acevedo] not to do it,\u201d said Linder. \u201cRobert Chody worked for APD and choked a kid, yet he still organized [the rally] with Art\u2019s approval.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acevedo has yet to respond to Linder\u2019s accusations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think that people understand that the police are getting a lot of bad press and it\u2019s deserved,\u201d said Lee Aidman, who\u2019s studying Game Development. \u201cBut they understand that the police are good in general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Story by Noor Alahmadi, reporter More police departments around the country have started implementing the use of body cameras. When Eric Garner\u2019s death was caught on camera, massive public outcry spread across the nation calling for the use of body cameras as a solution for police brutality incidents. \u201cWe just received about $3,000,000 worth of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4015,"featured_media":3429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[91,100,242,394,452,598],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-art-acevedo","tag-austin-community-college","tag-eric-garner","tag-margaret-haule","tag-noor-alahmadi","tag-the-accent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}