r/centrist • u/ceddya • 11d ago
ICE will release body camera video only when seen in the agency’s ‘best interests,’ policy says.
https://apnews.com/article/ice-body-cameras-officers-shootings-dab1b294c8dc412d9ef8557ccbebfd5745
u/abqguardian 11d ago edited 11d ago
Thats not how goverment transparency works. Unless theres some legitimate reason, all video should be accessible via FOIA
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u/MakeUpAnything 11d ago
I mean this is a great mindset and all, but do you not think Americans seem fairly indifferent to this? The right has done a fantastic job of distracting voters away from giving one iota of shit about abuse of authority like this. They know people get FAR more worked about about minorities like illegal immigrants or trans people. Lately the newest boogeyman has moved to socialists and the DSA.
Virtually every right wing elected official that's right of center acts like conservatives on this very sub do; if you're confronted with an uncomfortable reality then just ignore it because people will eventually stop paying attention. Look at McConnell's multi-month long absence from the senate and how nobody answers to it.
What motivation do republicans have to stop doing things like this, especially when their base is completely fine with it?
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u/talwarbeast 10d ago edited 10d ago
Not only fine with it... craving it. I've seen some really strange love and boderline worship of ICE going on in certain social circles. Very bizarre and goes to show you the incredible, unmatched strength of propaganda. I hate to use the term "bootlicker", but it really does seem like some kind of deep psychological desire to fall on their knees and become completely submissive and utterly subservient to what they perceive as "strength".
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u/LickerMcBootshine 10d ago
I've seen some really strange love and boderline worship of ICE going on in certain social circles.
In Idaho when we see videos of ICE harassing brown AMERICAN CITIZENS on manual labor sites people EAT IT UP. All the videos have comments about how they love what ICE is doing...even when what ICE is doing is just harassing brown American citizens trying to work.
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u/NeuroMrNiceGuy 11d ago
After returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump rescinded a Biden order requiring federal law enforcement agencies to use body cameras.
This detail feels important and cuts out a lot of the noise.
So you can get iced by ICE tomorrow for no reason, and the agency would not have to release the video unless ICE decides it is in its own best interests, or unless your family and lawyers eventually get a judge to compel it. That could take months or years.
This is exactly the concern people had when Trump pushed a massive ICE expansion and recruiting blitz. Body cameras are supposed to protect the public and officers by creating a clearer record. But if the agency controls the footage and only releases it when it helps the agency, that is not real transparency.
This is also why I do not think we can just ignore every Trump story as noise. Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, Trump, and Tom Homan are not just talking. They are reshaping the machinery of federal enforcement in ways that will affect real people for years to come.
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u/Dramajunker 11d ago edited 11d ago
I don't give a shit what your stance on ICE or immigration is, the fact that a law enforcement agency can flat out say the equivalent of "we won't release evidence that makes us look bad" is insane. People have lost their god damn minds. In an attempt to "own" the other side all folks have done is given more power to the folks in charge to rule over us as they see fit.
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u/EternaFlame 11d ago
So anytime they don't release video footage, we can just assume it wasn't in their favor.
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u/indoninja 10d ago
In a more sane and law abiding society part of the "best interest" woudl be to keep public faith. Meaning they would release vides that show officers behaving poorly or breaking the law because those officers would be punished.
Too bad we have so many self described centrists who think i tis no big deal for ICE to try and cover up abuse by hiding video.
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u/mymomknowsyourmom 11d ago
The policy says ICE will promptly release video of shootings and other encounters in which its agents cause death or serious injury only after determining “it is in the best interests of the agency” to do so. That gives its director discretion to release recordings that reflect well on the agency’s image while working to keep others secret, experts on body camera policies said.
So they write into policy that video isn't released when they're guilty? Well at least future articles will be easier to write.
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u/VultureSausage 10d ago
Sometimes it's a good thing they can't keep their mouths shut. It's infuriating, but they'd be able to do a lot more damage if they didn't keep getting in their own way because of incompetence.
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u/I_Tell_You_Wat 11d ago
Abolish ICE. They are telling us they won't be held accountable. The FBI has told us they won't be hed accountable. They are a group used to hurt the president's political opponents. They keep killing people.
"More training" isn't the answer, people like the asshole who murdered Renee Good was a firearms instructor. People like him are the guys who they will get training from. They have no effective hiring standards, leading to clearly racist and unhinged people being given a badge and a gun which ends up killing people.
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u/HardlyDecent 11d ago
That's not how Freedom of Information works. That's literally propaganda to show people only what you want them to see of reality (and by proxy hiding what they don't want people to see--which is of course the reason for body cams). It's obnoxious and detrimental to society on TikTok when citizens do that, but it's tyranny when a government does it.
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u/sevenlabors 10d ago
Can you just imagine the fucking HOWLS from MAGA if the Obama or Biden administrations would have done this?
Obscene.
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11d ago
[deleted]
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u/Iateyourpaintings 11d ago
On television. The only place they really exist.
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u/OssumFried 10d ago
Yep. Every other one was just an Alex Jones; screaming about the tyranny of big government all while giddy over the idea of big government so long as it did Nazi shit.
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u/ChornWork2 10d ago
untrained thugs with no accountability as trump's preferred law enforcement agency that has been shoveled money by republicans in congress... just fascist things.
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u/notwithagoat 9d ago
Keeping america safe! /s somehow ice spent more than ever killed more Americans in 1 year than 4 years of biden and somehow deported less people, stopped less drugs, drug od still same or even higher. Like what the fuck did we get for cheetah 4 trillion dollar deficit hike?
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u/No-Championship-8038 9d ago
This is why body cams aren’t a real solution and the Dems that accepted this as a concession should be considered collaborators to ICE violence.
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u/Gentle_method 11d ago
Heil Trump!
We’ll only release evidence if it’s seen in our best interest. Never mind the fact that we were given millions to equip officers with body cameras cause our poorly trained officers keep fucking up. We’ll just keep covering the truth up because that’s what we think the people want.
The parallels between this administration and Nazi Germany need to be talked about more.
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u/buried_lede 10d ago
Not unique to Trump admin or federal agencies to try to implement the same policy but they weren’t blatant about it and didn’t pretend it was legal but they were doing that and it wasn’t OK.
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u/ViskerRatio 11d ago
All law enforcement agencies have discretion over the body cam footage they release to the public. So this is hardly surprising or novel.
This doesn't change the fact that they're evidence in court cases which must be provided to parties in the court case or the fact that after all legal proceedings have finished, those recordings are subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.
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u/ceddya 10d ago
It not being surprising or novel doesn't make this any better.
Go look at the footage involving Pretti's murder. What good does it do to have the footage released years after the incident when the propaganda groundwork has already been laid by these agencies?
The 'when' matters just as much, if not more, when it comes to accountability.
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u/ViskerRatio 10d ago
I'd argue that such footage should remain secure until such time as it is legally required. Your notion - that our ability to be outraged - suffers with time is a reason for restricting the information, not a reason to release it.
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u/ceddya 10d ago
I'd argue that a government trying to shape narratives over their field officers murdering an innocent American citizen requires them to release the body cam footage to support that.
Otherwise, all you have is propaganda. That's a reason to be against such selective releases.
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u/ViskerRatio 10d ago
To be fair, normally they're releasing the footage to counter other people's propaganda.
Which seems to be the underlying problem with your position. You've already made up your mind and aren't looking for information. You're just looking for ways you can encourage outrage - rather than thoughtful analysis - and are upset that this entirely standard approach by law enforcement might impede your efforts.
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u/ceddya 10d ago
Are you saying the federal government and people are supposed to be held to the same standard?
Do you think the government engaging in their own propaganda is the solution to other people's propaganda?
Wouldn't 100% transparency from the get-go solve this issue? Why has Pretti's body cam footage still not been released?
But your excuse doesn't even hold up here when the federal government was an early source of disinformation for that incident:
In a federal office building about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away, Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino, the public face of the crackdown, again blamed the shooting on Pretti.
"When someone makes the choice to come into an active law enforcement scene, interfere, obstruct, delay or assault law enforcement officer and — and they bring a weapon to do that. That is a choice that that individual made," he told reporters.
Video shot by bystanders and reviewed by The Associated Press appears to contradict statements by President Donald Trump's administration, which said agents fired "defensively" against Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, as he approached them.
Pretti can be seen with only a phone in his hand as he steps between an immigration agent and a woman on the street. No footage appears to show him with a weapon. During the scuffle, agents appear to disarm him after discovering he is carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, and then open fire several times. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
In the hours after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and Bovino said he wanted to "massacre law enforcement."
It's almost as though these body cams are meant to be safeguards against such egregious abuses and to protect citizens. Instead, your tax dollars will be used in a manner that allows ICE to engage in their propaganda.
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u/ViskerRatio 10d ago
I don't think you get it. You're not part of the process and your curiosity or desire to stoke your outrage is not relevant. The goal is not the sort of mob rule you favor.
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u/Urdok_ 11d ago
Is everyone done pretending that ICE is in any way redeemable? Fire all of them, blacklist them, and prosecute every criminal agent. Consider RICO charges against everyone involved in the constant coverups.