The Morning Roar: London Cops To Wear Body Cameras, Countries Without Bogus Property Taxes, and a New Song For Liberty
Happy Friday! We all made it through another week (unless a tragedy befalls you sometime today during your workday. So...avoid that), and to ring in the weekend, here is your Friday edition of The Morning Roar!London Police to Wear Body Cameras for 1-Year Trial Period The Brits are notorious for running neck-and-neck with the United States and competing for most comprehensive big brother state surveillance system. Those tea-guzzlers are CC camera crazed, stationing them on every street corner, but this time their generous application of video technology is actually going to help the populace rather than spy on them, in the form of body cameras on bobbies in London.
A total of 500 cameras will routinely collect evidence from public order and domestic abuse incidents in 10 of London's 32 boroughs, as well as potentially contentious "stop and searches", Scotland Yard said.
The force has been testing body-worn cameras for several years but was given new impetus following the police shooting of suspected gang member Mark Duggan in 2011, which sparked days of rioting in the capital and cities across England.
An inquest jury in January found the killing was lawful but the coroner noted the "stark problem" posed by contradictions between the notes from officers at the scene and mobile phone video evidence taken by witnesses.
Exactly right - the truth is a rough sketch when it comes from the mouth (or mouths) of those who wield weapons with a James Bond-esque "license to kill" under certain state-sanctioned circumstances. Without video evidence or witness, who is there to contradict the reports of police who have been documented time and time again as being protective of their brothers in arms to the point of creating outright fiction to allow murderers to escape conviction for their deeds?
"I believe it will also show our officers at their best, dealing with difficult and dangerous situations every day but it will also provide clearer evidence when it's been alleged that we got things wrong," he said.
I'm sure it will show officers on their "best behavior" until a camera glitch coincidentally occurs if things need to get rough or deadly. While I am against more surveillance, I think this should be enacted for all "peace" officers here in the US as well as in the UK and beyond. Studies have shown the effectiveness - you can read up on that study here, which was undertaken domestically. The results of those studies? An 88% drop in complaints against police and a 60% reduction in use of force by police. Those are some telling numbers.Your Future Home: Countries With No Property TaxA contributor over at BenSwann.com has compiled a handy list of the countries that haven't adopted the ridiculous taxation of property that the US and so many European nations levy onto their citizens. As Nick Giambruno correctly points out, this tax is widely accepted despite it having no logic whatsoever. The government taxes property that is theoretically owned by a private citizen. This is despite the property not generating actual revenue (and in many cases where housing bubbles burst, losing mass revenue - where's the refund, Uncle Sam?). If the property taxes aren't paid, or can't be paid, the government then repossesses the property. Huh? So it was never owned at all, but simply leased. I don't think that's what our forefathers had in mind.And to head off any arguments at the pass from the "Who will build the roads/pay for our schools/wipe our bottoms" crowd, I'll allow Nick to preemptively rebut:
Speaking of sloppy thinking, expect Boobus Americanus to say things like “how would we pay for local services like public schools if it weren’t for property taxes?” Of course, these services could be funded in many different ways—or better, they could be provided for in the free market. But don’t expect that to happen.
Without further ado, the list of countries where we may one day be neighbors:
Your New Liberty Anthem! Friend of the site and audio engineer supremo for the Lions of Liberty Podcast, John Daubert and co-writer Buddy Holcombe composed and recorded the new liberty anthem for your 2014 summer antics: Too Little Time - "Just Can't Shake" (This Feeling Of Liberty). Give it a listen below and click through to the song link to download a copy, if the music moves you. Rock on, rockers.
