Stout, Stout, Get it Worked Out!
Box Office Review: American Teens Are Morons
'Kick a Ginger Day' Spawned At Least 5 Attacks on Redheaded Kids
Intrepid L.A. Foodies Tackle 11-in-11 Nocturnal Challenge
Cool, Crafy, Community Event: Unique LA's Holiday Show
Photo by discarted via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
Today, the Daily News looks into one of the internet's latest fascinations -- RateMyCop.com, a site, which happens to be based locally in Culver City, that gives people the opportunity to review an officer they've had an interaction with. Of course, concerns over officer safety and privacy are at the top of the opponents' lists to the site. "Law enforcement should never be trivialized, and this appears to do just that," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told the paper. "The concern is for the safety of law enforcement personnel. If that can be compromised in any way, this shouldn't be done."
Another opponent is looking to get legislation to block the site. "The California Police Chiefs Association is totally opposed to the Web site RateMyCop.com," Jerry Dyer, president of the association, said in a statement. "The CPCA's first and biggest concern is the safety of our officers: publishing the names of officers and their agency could allow anyone to access personal information, via the Internet, about that officer and/or their family, without their knowledge, placing the officer or their family in grave danger. Secondly, officers who are rated face unfair maligning without any opportunity to defend themselves."
On the positive end of things, reporter Rachel Uranga points to LAist's video of Sgt. Wayne Guillary that turned him into an internet sensation (when she says "somebody" below, that would be LAist, wink, wink):
But others praise officers like Sgt. Wayne Guillary of the LAPD's Northwest Division: "Proud to be a citizen of Los Angeles with a police force like officer Guillary."Guillary had been tasked with crowd control at a Scientology protest when somebody caught him on video giving instructions and posted it on YouTube.com.
The 20-second video - in which he tells protesters it's their right to be out there and encourages them to stay on the sidewalk - prompted more than 25,000 hits to his name on RateMyCop.com.
"I was a little surprised because that is just me every day," Guillary said. "But people are always going to be able to look at you and access you. We live in a technological society."
His motto is to always be professional. That way there is nothing to worry about.
"People see you doing a good thing, it's positive," he said, noting he has no objection to RateMyCop.com. "And it brings a positive note to the agency."
Still, despite the good press it can bring to a department, it will be fought and the aforementioned legislation will end up debated somewhere with an outcome unknown for now. But in the words of Mashable, "RateMyCop will end up showing the truth of the situation, and a cultural misconception will be corrected, or the greater ills in the system will be shown for what they are so that we may better work to remedy them."
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Too bad Rachel Uranga didn't mention Laist, it would have been a nice plug for this blog.
So I'd like to understand what these safety issues that the opponents of RateMyCop are.
Are they giving out the cop's addresses? Where their children go to school? Or are these just cops that they who don't like the idea of letting citizens have some input?
From the little I've read into this, it doesn't seem like any opponents of RateMyCop have a legitimate privacy/safety issue worth shutting the site down.
When GoDaddy shut down RateMyCop.com a couple weeks ago it was most likely another hasty knee jerk reaction by the deep-discount domain registrar and ISP. In other words, receiving a C&D or string of complaints and shutting down the site before bothering to investigate the complaints/issues at hand.
But, hey, we're all guilty until proven innocent in today's with-us-or-against-us society.
How about using just the badge #?
They are public employees given huge amounts of power.
They should get over it.
I don't know if anyone has ever asked a cop who was hassling them for their badge number, but they don't seem to like it very much. It's almost as bad as asking them what their probable cause for stopping you was.
The internet is a powerful thing, and can be used for good or for evil. I do support the police department more and more as I encounter emergency situations on the job. I wouldn't want to put officers at risk.
But I still remember the days when my funny haircut got me into a lot of trouble, and I watched cops beating kids with clubs as they ran from parties and punk gigs.
If we had a place where we could have said "I am 14 and Officer Friendly just maced me as I peacefully walked out of a concert" (Dancing Waters, 1992) or "An officer on horseback almost stomped a 4-year old when they declared a street fair an "unlawful gathering" and stampeded through the crowd with no warning" (The LA Street Scene, 1995) some things might have changed faster.
"But I still remember the days when my funny haircut got me into a lot of trouble, and I watched cops beating kids with clubs as they ran from parties and punk gigs."
Well geeze Elise! Those cops were just doing their jobs! They were probably on the "kids with funny haircuts task force", and let's face it, anyone who listens to punk rock needs a good wack upside the head!
(j/k of course)
I saw a lot of heavy handed crowd control at the Democratic National Convention 2000, and again at an anti-police brutality demonstration that same year, (I guess they don't like being called brutal).
Thank god the police attacked the main stream media at the May Day Rally last year. It seems to have forced them to take a much more humane approach to crowd control.
I'd like a website called Corrupt/brutal or not? Lorenzo Llamas* could host the TV version.
*intentional spelling.