The widespread use of body cameras neutered anti-police sentiment and the Black Lives Matter movement. It should be a top priority of the Trump administration to fit all Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with body cameras quickly, so as to do the same to the “Abolish ICE” movement.
The ICE shooting in Houston was quickly followed by an ICE shooting in Maine. Few details are clear about either, with both being “he said, ICE said” situations. In a battle of credibility, it is more likely that ICE is telling the truth about these incidents (that the drivers who were shot were weaponizing their vehicles against officers and/or putting the public at risk) than the rabidly anti-ICE activists and Democratic politicians who quickly push these stories out with no details. ICE should get the benefit of the doubt, given that video evidence proved the activist narratives wrong about the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
MAINE DEMOCRATS VYING TO REPLACE GRAHAM PLATNER LASH OUT AFTER FATAL ICE SHOOTING
But, since public sentiment is against ICE, it is clear that body cameras are the best tool at the agency’s disposal. The widespread adoption of body cameras among police officers proved that the trained professionals tasked with keeping people safe more often than not handle their job exceptionally well. Body cameras on police officers have shown that officers deal with ridiculous and dangerous situations far more often than anyone could have imagined. A few bad police officers have been exposed by body camera footage, but the positive effects for police officers have been so resolute that anti-police activists now complain that the public can see everything police have to deal with.
ICE HALTS ALL VEHICLE STOPS FOLLOWING OFFICER-INVOLVED FATAL SHOOTINGS IN MAINE AND TEXAS
ICE officers need the same thing. Activists can spin whatever tale they want, but it makes a difference when the public can see video of Renee Good being told to get out of her car before she attempts to run over an ICE officer, or when video shows Alex Pretti, with a gun in his waistband, physically fighting with Border Patrol agents. Both of those videos, courtesy of cellphone recordings, came out late in the narratives. ICE officers equipped with body cameras would have been able to neuter those narratives before they got rolling, and likely would have done the same in Houston and Maine as these latest incidents (with no concrete details) catch fire in liberal media.
ICE is certainly more often in the right than not (and you cannot trust a single narrative that is rapidly spun by pro-amnesty, anti-deportation Democrats). Now, the agency just needs to prove it. Body cameras backfired spectacularly on the anti-police Black Lives Matter movement and vindicated police officers, and they would surely do the same for anti-ICE activists and ICE officers, respectively.