Six years smoke free

Six years ago today, I quit smoking. Smoking never really seemed to fit with me. I like the outdoors and fresh air. I like flavorful food. I've regularly exercised my entire adult life. None of those things go well with smoking. Yet, smoke I did. Like many people, I made numerous attempts to quit. Sometimes seemingly successful—a year or two, here or there—but none seemed to stick until this time.

If you smoke and want to quit, you can. I used the quit smoking drug Chantix to get me started and it worked for me. If you find a way that works for you, I can promise you this: Life is better without cigarettes. I know this is the exact opposite of how it feels when you contemplate quiting which has you thinking life without cigarettes is going to be misery. It's not. Quiting might be, for a little while, but after, life is better.

While you are a smoker, the consequences of smoking seem normal; unnoticed. Not until you quit will you understand -- no, that's the wrong word because it's more than mental -- not until you quit will you feel that your body and mind are capable of more energy, more stamina, better concentration, less anxiety and more serenity. It is ironic that, when I smoked, these were often the reasons I lit up: for a boost, to concentrate, to relax. But trust me, those effects are not only fleeting when achieved with tobacco, they are nowhere near as deep or sustained than your body is capable of without cigarettes. In other words, the very reasons you smoke will be better fulfilled by quitting. The reasons you smoke will not be left wanting if you quit. You will not be left to suffer a void. Quite the opposite. Your body will fill in the gap, naturally and more satisfyingly, if you give it a chance. If you give it time.

Incongruous

GREENSBORO, NC -- Downtown Greensboro, Inc. is floating a proposal to add more places for people to sit, read a book or just people watch, according to the News & Record. They are calling them "parkletts." They sound like a great idea to me.

It is unclear how well this idea would work with downtown's city council representative Zack Matheny's ideas for surveillance cameras and his desire "for people that are loitering to know that we’re watching them."

Councilman: Militarize downtown

GREENSBORO, NC -- The News & Record reports district 3 councilman Zack Matheny's ideas for public safety downtown:

“I want there to be an army down here,” he said. “Because I want people who are coming from Winston-Salem, from High Point, from Siler City to know that we mean business. I want cameras downtown. I want people that are loitering to know that we’re watching them.”

Think about a downtown policed by militarized patrols where the city "wants you to know" that lingering a little too long will have you subject to closer secret and remote observation, where all of your movements are subject to being covertly tracked and monitored.

These ideas, were they to come to fruition, would be costly, oppressive, hostile and, worst of all, they would kill downtown.

Thanks Brown Summit Middle School

I had the great pleasure of conducting two sessions on "coding for the modern web" during Brown Summit Middle School's Fall Conference this morning. The students were great and the staff and parent volunteers were very friendly. My hope was that these sixth, seventh and eighth graders would garner some insight into what code is and to comprehend the basic concepts enough to be confident to continue with some independent study if they are interested. I think we succeeded.

Greensboro votes to fund P. R. B. S. while cutting city services

GREENSBORO, NC -- It was sadly ironic that, on a night when Greensboro city council approved a plan to cut city services, they voted to give $35,000 to WFMY for a "marketing initiative." (Story)

Greensboro too often grasps at shortcuts. Rather than doing things, we think we can just manage appearances. To seem, rather than to be is the motto we live by. It's a shame and a fat check to a local TV station for what councilwoman Nancy Hoffman called a great opportunity to "brand" the area is a sign that we remain a city lacking ideas and motivated by desperation. In this case, the desperation is compounded by sloppy thinking.

Even if $35,000 of "branding" has the possibility to net some return on investment, it is not going to happen by marketing on a local TV station to the people who already live here. (Forget too the issue of a news organization accepting money from a government it should cover objectively, that's not something I'd expect to cause a blip on WFMY's ethics radar.)

I could see, maybe, some benefit of marketing the city to people and businesses elsewhere, but how in the world does Greensboro benefit from promoting a brand to itself?

In voting to cut city services, councilman Zack Matheny said it would help the city run more like a business. Where was that business sense on this waste of money to WFMY that passed by a vote of 9 to 0?

P. R. B. S. is what this is and council fell for it in a night of mixed up priorities.

Malpractice: News & Record prints Anthony Bundros' plagiarized falsehoods

GREENSBORO, NC -- Allen Johnson, editorial editor of the News & Record, when recently called on the carpet by Ed Cone for publishing falsehoods on the editorial page (previously and previously), responded with:

"The News & Record’s policy is to screen and edit letters for factual errors."

He's not doing a very good job. Today, he publishes a letter that is both false in its assertions and plagiarized. The News & Record gives it credibility by adding the title: "Our inept president has changed the U.S.."

The letter is signed by Anthony Bundros of Greensboro. It offers what the author suggests is insight into the thinking of Barack Obama, which he advises can come from understanding the "the eight levels of control to create a socialists state," from, Bundros says, Sal Alinsky.

Two problems: Bundros did not write the bulk of his letter and the "eight levels of control" are not from Alinksky.

Plagiarism
Descriptions of the "eight levels of control" Bundros includes in his letter, can be found word-for-word from other sources. The earliest I could find was in an unedited public forum on the Beaufort Observer's website on January 13, 2014 by a Joseph Leary. Bundros did not write what he represented as his own.

Falsehoods
Although Bundros describes what he says are Sal Alinsky's "levels of control," fact-checking Snopes says these are not from Alinsky and Snopes can identify no source beyond chain emails. Snopes rates as "false" an email circulating since January of 2104 that attributes these to Alinsky and which includes, nearly word-for-word, the "eight levels of control" cited by Bundros. Snopes discredits it as:

"[A]nother example of a political linking of the names of Saul Alinsky and Barack Obama. It's not something taken from the actual writings of Saul Alinsky, though, and to those familiar with his background it doesn't even sound like something he would have written.  

When the needle on my (amateur) B.S. meter is jumping off the scale, one would expect the seasoned professionals at the News & Record to have been at least a little curious. Curious enough to take two minutes for a web search. It's what they get paid for, right? Editing. It's what distinguishes them as professionals, right?


Anthony Bundros was hoodwinked to mistakenly believe, we assume, the falsehoods he read. Who knows what motives he had for signing his name to something he did not write? But for the News & Record to publish this claptrap, for it to escape their notice that the piece was not only plagiarized but that it also asserted demonstrable falsehoods, is nothing short of malpractice. For them to slap a headline on it that gives the fabrications credence is egregious. Greensboro deserves better.

Cityfi would inspire inventions like this

GREENSBORO, NC -- In our entry to Greensboro's Strong Cities, Strong Communities Challenge, my partner Andrew Brod and I discuss the numerous benefits of city-wide public Wi-Fi. We are calling it Cityfi.

One of the things we suggest is that a city blanketed with public Wi-Fi would make Greensboro a hotbed for innovation and invention, especially for wearables (fitness bands, smart watches, etc.) and for the Internet of Things.

In describing the Internet of Things, we wrote this:

"The Internet of Things generally describes connecting ordinary things to the Internet so that they can convey information about their location or condition. A smoke detector might alert the fire department, for example, or a refrigerator might text to its owner a reminder that it’s out of milk. A municipal environment in which there is pervasive wireless Internet will be an attractive place for the innovators and inventors of such devices."

Today there is news of a company inventing a battery that uses Wi-Fi to bring smoke detectors online. From MIT Technology Review:

"A startup has come up with a simple way to make smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors more useful: a nine-volt battery with built-in Wi-Fi. The battery can alert you on your smartphone if the alarm goes off or the battery itself is about to die."

Nineteen years ago, I made the rounds in Greensboro talking to anybody who would listen about this great thing that was about to explode called the Internet. It is going to revolutionize just about everything, I'd explain to anybody willing to listen. Some people got it.* Some people were way ahead of me, kindly patient with how little I actually knew.

Others, doubtful and not to be convinced, said things like "Why would I need email when I have a fax machine." Really. An important man, rocking back in his big chair behind his polished oak desk actually said that to me.

Sometimes technologies reach a tipping point — a point where it is not hard to see that a significant leap forward—better yet, a wave—is coming. I see the same thing with the new generation of Wi-Fi and I'm hopeful our entry into the SC2 Challenge will do well so that Greensboro will take notice of this: There is a transformative opportunity here. We should prove ourselves vibrant and progressive and take it.



* I continue to have a special fondness for Ed Mathews, the meteorologist from WFMY, because he was one of the early "visionaries" -- one of the first people of influence to say yes in my search for collaborators. I am certain it sounds like no big deal now, but at the time, around 1996, when Ed and I arranged for him to email me the weather forecast twice a day, which I copied, added some graphics to, and pasted "by hand" onto The Wire's local weather web page, it was a pretty damn big deal. Even Ed's employer wasn't online yet, much less with twice-a-day weather.

There were plenty of other people who saw the future too. But not enough of them among the movers and shakers to put us in the fast lane of the nascent Internet industry. On the eve of what would prove to be the decimation of of our textile and furniture industries, there was simply a lack of enthusiasm among the powerful and entrenched economic forces to kickstart Internet related business. I imagine, sometimes, how different things might be now for Greensboro if we had diversified some of our capital and tried to lead in technological innovation.

I hope we do things differently this time. I hope we can see that there is something coming and that it is our chance to reach for something better than the status quo. Better than our fax machines.

.

On Greensboro's next police chief

GREENSBORO, NC -- The City of Greensboro is searching for a new police chief and is soliciting public comments about the traits and qualities they should look for. You can offer your two cents worth with this online form.

Here are parts of my suggestions:

A chief who is sensitive to the problems of technological encroachment on citizens. One who is not enamored with the capabilities of technology to identify, track, monitor and store information about law abiding citizens as they go about their business. One who is confident he or she can provide a high level of public safety while letting law abiding citizens live their lives in obscurity, if that's what they choose. 

and

Transparent. A better understanding of public records law than the previous chief and a sincere willingness to default towards openness on matters where police have discretion on whether or not to make information public. A willingness to be forthcoming with citizens about how they are being policed. 

This chart about Greensboro will shock you

GREENSBORO, NC -- It is common knowledge that pay for women lags that of men in the United States. Nationally, women earn about 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. There are various guesses about why that may be, from gender bias to other possible factors.

Overall, women in Greensboro earn about 83 percent of what men do, but that hides a shocking disparity. Break it down by education, and things look worse — for those with the greatest and the least educational attainment. The chart below illustrates the pay gap between men and women over 25 in Greensboro with information from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Fact Finder. 

Women with a bachelor's degree earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns while the most educated, those with a graduate or professional degree, earn just 60 percent of what men with equivalent educational attainment earn in Greensboro.

The pay disparity for women in Greensboro is the worst though for those who do not finish high school, with those women earning 59 percent of what their male counterparts are paid.

The Data

MEDIAN EARNINGS IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS
(IN 2013 INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS)

Population 25 years and over with earnings, all 
Male: 34,771
Female: 29,056
Female percentage of male:  84%

Less than high school graduate
Male: 23,317
Female: 13,717
Female percentage of male: 59%

High school graduate (includes equivalency)
Male: 26,143
Female: 21,287
Female percentage of male: 81% 

Some college or associate's degree
Male: 29,596
Female: 25,599
Female percentage of male: 86% 

Bachelor's degree
Male: 45,902
Female: 35,754
Female percentage of male: 78% 

Graduate or professional degree
Male: 72,211
Female: 43,178
Female percentage of male: 60% 

You may want to think twice before working for Jimmy Johns

From the Huffington Post:

As Huffington Post reported on Monday, many workers at Jimmy John's sandwich shops have been asked to sign the sort of strict noncompete agreement usually reserved for high-level executives. According to the clause, the worker agrees not to take a job at a competing sandwich shop for a period of two years following employment at Jimmy John's.

The company's definition of "competitor" is rather broad: any business that derives 10 percent or more of its revenue from the sale of sandwiches, and that resides within 3 miles of a Jimmy John's location.

[snip]

 Using the addresses of Jimmy John's roughly 2,000 locations, [Sean] Maday created a map that reveals the effective blackout areas under the restaurant chain's noncompete clause. The red circles indicate zones in which a worker who signed the agreement would technically be forbidden to pursue sandwich-related work:

"We have seen a really flawed campaign from the Fjeld folks"

I have to agree with this assessment from Matthew DeSantis, an assistant professor of political science at GTCC, when he says of Congressional candidate Laura Fjeld:

"We have seen a really flawed campaign from the Fjeld folks."

The demographics of this, the 6th Congressional district (in which I live), make it ideal for a grassroots campaign, but the advantage there goes to Fjeld's opponent, Mark Walker, by a mile.

Fjeld's website invites people to sign up for an email newsletter or to donate money. That is the limited extent of the doors it opens to potential supporters. There is nothing specifically related to volunteering or getting a yard sign. Inquiries sent through the limited generic contact form go unanswered.

Walker's site, by comparison, has a panel on the main page that offers five ways of engaging the campaign. There is a prominent link to volunteer, click it and it suggests numerous possibilities to become involved with the campaign, from going door-to-door to distributing yard signs.

The differences are more than esoteric. I suspect they reveal a difference in approach: Fjeld's as tightly (if not poorly) managed and unapproachable, Walker's as accessible and responsive.

I'm not sure how Fjeld thinks she's going to win, but it's pretty clear she is not doing much to maximize or even enable the efforts of potential supporters. Walker, on the other hand, is clearly interested in leveraging the enthusiasm of supporters to the fullest extent.

My guess is that will be the difference-maker and Fjeld will lose a race she could have won.

Cold fusion?

GREENSBORO, NC -- Let me just say up front, I know it sounds far out. But let us also acknowledge that the history of human kind is of one far out discovery after another, so we shouldn't be surprised by something mind blowing coming along that challenges our understanding of the world. It happens. Just imagine how impossible these discoveries must have seen to their contemporaries:

• That the earth is not the center of the universe.
• That unseen microbes cause disease.
• That a motor can be powered by electric current.
• That matter is made of unseen particles.
• That unseen signals can be transmitted over vast distances through the air.
• That atoms can be split to release huge amounts of energy.

All of these surely seemed crazy or at least hard to believe at the time. Put yourself in the time of those discoveries and it's not hard to imagine a reaction of "Impossible!"

So it will be for us and the next mind-blowing discovery. Which isn't to say that just because something seems crazy or hard to believe it just might be legitimate. Logic doesn't get turned on its head. Things that seem crazy and hard to believe mostly end up being fantasies and hoaxes at their worst or otherwise explainable with current knowledge upon closer inspection. On the other hand, our conventional wisdom is bound to be challenged, really challenged, uncomfortably challenged, sooner or later: Such will be keeping with our story.

So is this seemingly independent verification of what appears to be successful cold fusion—a promise of an energy source beyond anything we have ever known—crazy because it's crazy or crazy because it's a mind-blowing discovery?

N&R Plagiarism

GREENSBORO, NC -- Although they've seemed to avoid it for a little while, the News & Record has resorted, yet again, to publishing the writings of others, word for word, under the byline of News & Record "staff reports." (Previously)

The News & Record did not "report" this. They, like a bunch of others, received the press release from the City of Greensboro. Then they copied it, pasted it and claimed it as their own—and they didn't fact check it, as is evident by them repeating an error of fact that appeared in the press release but that would have been discovered by the most cursory of fact checking.

Here's the "report" as it appeared on the News & Record. The highlighted portions were copied word-for-word from the press release.   
------------------

Vickeé Armstrong new general manager of Greensboro ABC

Staff Reports

GREENSBORO — Vickeé Armstrong has been appointed the new general manager of the Greensboro's Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Board, according to a news release from the city.

Armstrong is a seasoned senior executive with over 25 years of diverse experience in all sectors of commercial property operations, retail/mixed-use management and development, the release states.

During her career, Armstrong has spearheaded the grand opening of the Mall at Stonecrest, a 1200-acre mixed-use district near Atlanta; was a regional director for Tanger Outlet Centers; general manager at Oak Hollow Mall; and district general manager/development officer with the Virgin Islands Port Authority at Crown Bay Center, a deep water cruise ship port in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, the release states.

While with the Virgin Islands Port Authority, she improved occupancy from 60 to 100 percent, and initiated a $200 million joint venture development project, while launching numerous other economic impact models throughout the territory, the release states.

ABC Board Members cited Armstrong’s diverse and extensive retail experience, senior level management skills, and familiarity with North Carolina’s ABC industry as important factors in their decision to offer her the position.

Armstong [LOL! They even copied a spelling error.] is a multi international MAXI winner, International SASI winner, a recipient of letters of commendation from both the President of the United States and the Department of the Army for marketing/public relations and support of military personnel and their families during Operation Desert Storm. She holds three ICSC, (International Council of Shopping Centers) designations -- CRX, (Senior Certified Retail Executive) CSM (Senior Certified Shopping Center Manager) CMD (Senior Certified Marketing Director).

She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, attended the International Theological Center in Atlanta, and the John Wesley School of Management in High Point, NC (now Laurel University).

Armstrong assumed her new role on September 29, 2014.

--------------
Here is the original sent by the City of Greensboro:

Vickee’ Armstrong Tapped as General Manager of Greensboro ABC Board

GREENSBORO, NC (October 9, 2014) -- The City of Greensboro Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Board has appointed Vickeé Armstrong, CRX, CSM, CMD as its new general manager. Armstrong is a seasoned senior executive with over 25 years of diverse experience in all sectors of commercial property operations, retail/mixed-use management and development.

During her career, Armstrong has spearheaded the grand opening of the Mall at Stonecrest, a 1200 acre mixed use district near Atlanta, GA, was a regional director for Tanger Outlet Centers, general manager at Oak Hollow Mall, and district general manager/development officer with the Virgin Islands Port Authority at Crown Bay Center, a deep water cruise ship port in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. While with the Virgin Islands Port Authority, she improved occupancy from 60 to 100 percent, and initiated a $200 million joint venture development project, while launching numerous other economic impact models throughout the territory.

ABC Board Members cited Armstrong’s diverse and extensive retail experience, senior level management skills, and familiarity with North Carolina’s ABC industry as important factors in their decision to offer her the position. The Board conducted a lengthy public search and interview process for the general manager position.

Armstong is a multi international MAXI winner, International SASI winner, a recipient of letters of commendation from both the President of the United States and the Department of the Army for marketing/public relations and support of military personnel and their families during Operation Desert Storm. She holds three ICSC, (International Council of Shopping Centers) designations -- CRX, (Senior Certified Retail Executive) CSM (Senior Certified Shopping Center Manager) CMD (Senior Certified Marketing Director). She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, attended the International Theological Center in Atlanta, and the John Wesley School of Management in High Point, NC (now Laurel University). Armstrong assumed her new role on September 29, 2014.

Cityfi: City-wide public Wi-Fi for Greensboro

GREENSBORO, NC -- Andrew Brod and I have entered the City of Greensboro's Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Challenge, the federally sponsored contest soliciting ideas to improve Greensboro's economy. Our proposal is for Greensboro to build on its existing web of municipal fiber optic cables and Wi-Fi hot spots to provide public Wi-Fi throughout the city.

We believe recent advancements in Wi-Fi technologies and this year's approval by the FCC of new radio spectrum for Wi-Fi make this idea a real possibility.

We suggest that the benefits will include:

• Providing internet access to underserved populations.
• Lowering the cost of starting and running a business.
• Inspiring homegrown innovation in wearables, mobile and the Internet of Things.
• Supporting the efforts of Guilford County Schools to better connect students to the educational resources of the Internet.

You can learn more about our proposal at Cityfi.org

N&R flubs take on public records law

GREENSBORO, NC -- News & Record editorial editor Allen Johnson is on the right side of the argument over public access to video recorded by Greensboro Police body-worn cameras. The police are wrong to keep them from public view is his take. I agree. For his devotion to the matter, you would expect Allen to have a degree of familiarity with applicable state law that would keep him from publishing a mistake like this:

"Police records that are considered part of a criminal or internal investigation, or that are placed in an officer’s personnel file, can be concealed."

Although that excuse has been frequently deployed by the police as a reason for denying public access to records, it is not what state law says, which is this:

"The use of a public record in connection with a criminal investigation or the gathering of criminal intelligence shall not affect its status as a public record." [§ 132-1.4(f)]  

That makes perfect sense, of course. Public employees do not get special treatment that would allow their actions to be shielded from the same public documentation other citizens endure. If you or I get arrested, the arrest report is public—the same for public employees. An arrest report doesn't become confidential just because it gets put in a public employee's personnel file. Public records remain public records.

The same goes for records used in criminal investigations. A recording of a call to 911 doesn't lose its status as a public record just because it is also used in a criminal investigation. Those are not just examples of good public policy regarding transparency, they are examples of how the law applies.

The News & Record has the law on its side in these matters, it should get it right when it describes what the law requires, even though—or especially because—it is at odd with what officials assert when withholding these public records.

City panel on cameras informative, but ignores citizen questions

Frayda S. Bluestein

GREENSBORO, NC -- The City of Greensboro sponsored a panel discussion today regarding public access to video recorded by police body-worn cameras, which the City maintains are not public records. It was an informative discussion, but it fell short of its full potential. Despite having previously announced that it would include "time allotted during the panel discussion for questions from the in-person and online audience," according to the City's publicity, the forum was brought to a close without a single citizen's question asked. The City got to ask its questions, but citizen questions were not addressed.

Jan Pritchett

That was a big disappointment, especially since the last half hour or more of the discussion was given over to panelists largely repeating points they'd already made. Nonetheless, there was some very interesting and thought provoking discussion and the video is worth watching if you weren't in attendance and have an interest in these matters. View it here.

Here are the questions submitted by citizens, as provided by the City. Some are just statements and some are off topic, but there are some good questions that, had they been asked, would have made the panel discussion more beneficial.
-------------------------------------

Online questions/comments submitted via e-mail regarding panel discussion on video footage:

Why not put the cameras up and make them public access except in emergencies. The resolution could be easily degraded for public access and enhanced for official business. This could be a draw for downtown.

I believe this is a case of BIG BROTHER watching over us and can easily be miss-used for political control. This threatens to be a gross invasion of personal privacy.

Worst idea I ever heard of. "The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions".
We don't need someone making everyone a suspect in a surveillance state

1) Does an actual written policy exist within the GPD and/or City of Greensboro, re: release of body cam video? If there is, what is it? If there is not one, why not?

2) The lack of a concrete written policy and/or guidelines seems to create the impression that any release of video to the public is arbitrary, depending on whether or not the GPD wishes to raise the issue of personnel laws or not. The presumption should be to always release absent a specifically cited exception, not never release unless no loopholes are found.

What is the purpose for this open forum? Are decisions being made or simply discussed? Lastly, what is the potential impact on me as a civilian? Thank you.

Why in the world would you do this? Thank you Mayor Vaughn. If these cameras go up it will be the LAST time I go down town. You will NEVER create a perfectly safe environment. Downtown Greensboro can forget my business coming there if this goes through.period. More reason for malls and outlets to move their business out of the cities.

Please cite for me EXACTLY WHERE in the enumerated powers of the U.S. Constitution, you are given the authority to spy on citizens. We are CITIZENS, not subjects, and the government rules with the CONSENT of the governed. We do not consent to this. If you don't believe it, give us a chance to vote on it!

You would better serve the citizens by providing this panel at a time when most people could attend. That the panelists could not attend at another time tells me you didn't try hard enough to find panelists who could. As for me, I won't be going downtown if the cameras are installed. I view it as a gross invasion of privacy and agree with Mayor Vaughan, I don't want to live in a police state. Thank you, Nancy

Questions/Comments collected during the discussion to be answered by the panelists:

The City records calls to its help line, creating a record that, like body cameras, records interactions between city personnel and the public. The City advises callers that these recordings are public records and has, in fact, released them in response to records requests. How is it that the personnel records exception is applied to body camera recordings, but not help line recordings? Isn’t it just a policy position? (This one was submitted by this blog's author.)

Question for the City Attorney: Has the officer involved in the March shooting of the knife wielding woman, the video of which is being withheld under the guise of personnel records, been asked if he would consent to release of the video?  (This one was submitted by this blog's author.)

If all video is released, how do you prevent a rush to judgment and lynch mob mentality before a full investigation can be completed?

Why should we have to pay or help pay for something we don’t have access to?

Why has the City Council been hesitant on voting for authority over cameras and subsequent footage?

If GPD is adamant about cameras being personnel property, then we must have a citizen review panel.

The personnel argument is weak – just because a record is created with a secondary possible use (officer evaluation) it does not make it a personnel record. How do those advocating this position reconcile that with attempts to apply the exemption in this way completely undermine the transparency objective of wearing cameras?

What is the truth about who funded the camera imitative and whose idea was it to begin with?

The police officers file may not be public information, why not?

GPD wants city-wide surveillance cameras

UPDATE: At the city council meeting, district 3 representative Zack Matheny said, "This is something we should support whole heartedly." District 2 representative Jamal Fox said his only concern was that the program would not be "city-wide" to begin with. Mayor Nancy Vaughan and at-large representative Mike Barber offered the most resistance with other representatives being variably inbetween.

GREENSBORO, NC -- The Greensboro City Council will be asked at its work session today to consider establishing a "city-wide wireless video surveillance camera network" for the Greensboro Police Department. The cameras, described as "patrolling cameras" would have pan, tilt and zoom capabilities and the first proposed locations would include views of single and multi-family residences. Read the proposal.

A proposed location for a GPD "patrolling camera" with pan, tilt and zoom capabilities.

Another proposed location.

Not for the police to decide; city council needs to act

GREENSBORO, NC -- The News & Record is right about video footage captured by the cameras now worn by all Greensboro police officers and for which police policy dictates that every interaction with a citizen is to be recorded: They are the people's property, not the police's.

First, to state the obvious: Based on what police are willing to tell us so far (which isn’t much), the Aug. 4 arrests of two Greensboro men seems petty and excessive.

Less than a block from his home, Rufus Scales, 27, was pinned to the ground and handcuffed for resisting arrest, walking in the middle of a street and “impeding traffic” where there seemed to be none.

Scales’ brother Devin, 22, captured a portion of the incident on camcorder footage that has been posted on the Internet. He pans the camera to show streets with no sidewalks or traffic, then two more police cars arriving.

The camera shakes as a hand suddenly appears in front of the lens and the filming suddenly stops. The officer, T.B. Cole, appears to confirm while on camera why he is arresting Scales: “You cannot just sit there and run your mouth and start cursing in the middle of the street.”

The incident has been seized by police critics as evidence of the mistreatment of some citizens, especially African Americans. It also adds another arrow to the quiver of the mounting argument against the Greensboro Police Department’s insistence on keeping footage shot by officers’ cameras shielded from public view as “a personnel record.”

In a meeting last week with News & Record editors and reporters, Police Chief Ken Miller, interim Chief Anita Holder and the interim city attorney, Tom Carruthers, stood by that interpretation, arguing that to do otherwise would be to break state law. But the footage’s value as a public record should hold greater weight. After all, these are taxpayer-funded recordings of officers’ interaction with the public in public places. Also, we’re talking about a tool that was advertised as a chance to build community trust in police and improve accountability. The city accomplishes neither by keeping such a stubborn grip on the footage, and may, in fact, erode trust in the process.

During the Scales arrests, Cole, a training officer, was not wearing a body camera that is now standard issue for patrol officers. The officers who later arrived on the scene were, but their footage won’t be released to the public or media, either.

State law does allow the city to release such video if city leaders believe doing so is essential to maintaining public confidence in local government. Certainly, in the wake of national tensions following the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo., this seems like such an instance.

Miller did say last week that Rufus and Devin Scales may see the available footage, but no one else. Meanwhile, to her credit, Mayor Nancy Vaughan has expressed concern that the city invokes the personnel-records defense too often. As for the rest of the council, it remains conspicuously silent.

It had nothing to say when an officer fatally shot a knife-wielding woman in March and refused to release that video. And it has said not one syllable so far in the case of the Scales brothers.

Miller insists, “We have nothing to hide in the Scales case.”

Then, by all means, let’s go to the tape.

So sad

GREENSBORO, NC -- Ed Cone on the News & Record::

The news hole is up for sale, and the opinion section is on autopilot. It is what it is. Move on.

He's right.

Thanks Greensborosports.com

Thanks to the guys at Greensborosports.com for the free tickets to an upcoming Grasshoppers baseball game. I won them by entering one of their ticket giveaways. Here's the entry form for today. Check their site for later days.