Advocacy group plans to videotape cops to monitor for police brutality

[struggle4progress]

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. A watchdog group armed with video cameras and police scanners plan to monitor officers in Springfield and Holyoke.

The teams of four or five volunteers from the group Copwatch want to make sure all dealings with police in those areas are handled in a professional manner.

A spokeswoman for the group says it's not about rooting out "bad cops." Justine Johnson said it's about a community keeping an eye on what police are doing. <snip>

A spokesman for the Springfield Police Department said all that Copwatch will see is professionalism. He said he's not concerned about them taping, as long as they don't get in the way of police business.

http://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3747436

[wli]

1. I say go after catching bad cops.

Odds are, they'll probably be hired Blackwater thugs or similar. The publicly-stated numbers for staffing from the police departments the riot police were supposedly staffed from at WTO/FTAA demonstrations don't add up to enough to account for numbers on the ground.

ON EDIT: fixed typo