DC Cops Clashing with Protesters Outside Trump event [Beware: Bodycams Are Turned Off for the Inauguration]

From [HERE] and [HERE] and [MORE] D.C. police officers working Friday’s inauguration and Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington will have their body cameras turned off but must switch them on if they witness criminal behavior or interact with the public, according to already established department directives. [sounds like a liar cop's paradise]. 

The reiteration of the policy by a department spokesman on Thursday eased some concerns on both sides of the lenses: among civil rights groups worried that cameras would be used to surveil demonstrators and among police who saw inaccurate reports that officers had been ordered to keep their body cameras turned off at all times.

In anticipation of demonstrations, several Washington law groups on Thursday said they will offer free legal assistance to demonstrators arrested during the events. Organizations including the National Lawyers Guild, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, D.C. Law Students in Court, and Law for Black Lives, D.C., plan to have lawyers, paralegals and other staff members on call and have established a hotline.

“We are going by what our policy says,” said Dustin Sternbeck, chief D.C. police spokesman, said about the use of body cameras. “We’re not running around to capture demonstrators on tape. We're not going around doing surveillance of demonstrations.”

Monica Hopkins-Maxwell, executive director of the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, said earlier confusion about the directives had her concerned about a “dragnet-type of surveillance.” But after Sternbeck’s comments, she said it appears her group and the police are in agreement.

The ACLU and other groups are encouraging demonstrators to record police. Hopkins-Maxwell said there is no contradiction. “On one side, we have a government actor who has surveillance tools but has restrictions on their use. On the other side, we have citizens who have First Amendment rights to record police.”

[so-called civil liberties are mostly conceptual things to white folks - who love the theoretical speech protections of the 1st Amendment. The ACLU wanted bodycams off to prevent cops from creating a database of images of protestors. As opposed to non-whites who are more concerned with practical, reality based supposed Constitutional protections such as the the 4th Amendment rights to be free from cops putting their hands on you, freedom from unlawful detentions, seizures and searches. In reality these "rights" are just words on paper. Bodycams also provide theoretical protections from cops.  Awareness is the only "tool" for dealing with a maniac cop.]