Policing the Police: Here’s Al Sharpton and Ronan Farrow’s Proposal for Nannying the Cops

08.18.2014 | News | Matt Fox |

Hey, look! There’s nothing quite like kicking off a Monday with a hearty round of jumping to conclusions, am I right, guys?

With the independent Michael Brown autopsy results having only been available for a very short time, MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow and Al Sharpton have decided that they have got the solution to everyone’s problems: since it’s always the cops’ fault, why not mandate that all police officers should have to wear body cameras?

You heard that right. Ronan Farrow has started a White House petition in order to force cops to have to document everything they do with video evidence, and he’s using MSNBC’s airwaves to try and convince viewers to sign it. Never mind how that might impede a cop’s ability to actually do his or her job — imagine the upkeep for constant video equipment and its inevitable paper trail — because it’s clearly a proposal intended to embarrass officers of the law. But Reverend Sharpton insists otherwise, as he quite patronizingly suggested today that “It will increase good cops not being falsely accused. Who give good cops a bad name are bad cops. I don’t think most cops are bad.” You could have fooled me, Al. It seems to me this is an attempt to paint a Scarlet Letter on good policemen and women, almost like a twisted form of reparations for the cops who may have behaved badly or demonstrated poor judgment.

It’s one thing if individual police departments decide that the use of body cameras is in their best interest. But MANDATING it across the board? No thanks, Michael Bloomberg-lovers.

What if we applied this to other forms of government? I don’t hear Al Sharpton or Ronan Farrow pushing to impose cameras on corrupt I.R.S. officials or NSA workers. If Al truly believes his own words when he asserts that “I don’t think most cops are bad,” he should just leave it at that. We don’t castigate entire agencies and departments simply because of a bad egg here or there. Heck, Lois Lerner hasn’t even been punished and that’s an example of actual widespread corruption. In this case, there hasn’t even been any trial that would determine yet whether a “bad egg” is the issue here…so I say it again:

Can we please stop jumping to conclusions?

Matt Fox

Senior Editor

Fox has history in broadcasting that spans two decades. From his early days as an FM host and club DJ in the mid-90′s to his later experiences in political talk radio, he has always had a knack for combining topical news with his love for popular culture. Those experiences culminated in his position as executive producer for several radio shows featured in the TALKERS Heavy 100. Originally from New York, Fox has made the great pilgrimage down to sunny south Florida.

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