Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / April 3, 2018, edition 1 / Page 2
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■ ■ LARINA KARR -■'.laPSi.s^cAfe-oj ■ A;.' A MliSEDiTOR MAGGIE HADDOCK ' ■„ DC"'''' ' jnC-A cSlf . ASFEOITOR SARAH SHADBURNE ftSSISISNTlSF ElllTOR .'■sZ ^'3w a. OPINIOilOITSR SAMAI^THA SAVERY c.;S?ORTS'EOITOB‘^'EWlt?sili|:|ig;iA ■ , PH|fQSRSPHYEOIIOR BRYCE ALBERGHfHI : ' MULTlMEDlft lOiTOR SARAH FORSHEY Sf •i’J ' COPY DESM CHIEF REBECCA ANDREWS: soy' •#, AOI/ERTISIH0 MANA8ER PHILLIP YAYATT DISTRlBUTiOH MANAGER ELIZABETH WALKER ■' »C".„Cft«Ur4CA LOli FACIiLTY ADVISER MICHAEL GOUGE ?/»''OS'CC':‘'J\CA E The Blue Banner is UNC Asheville’s student newspaper. We publish each Tuesday except during summer sessions, finals week and holiday breaks. Our office is located in Karpen Hall 019. The Blue Banner \s a designated forum for free speech and welcomes letters to the editor, considering them on basis of interest, space and timeliness. Letters and articles should be emailed to the ed!tGr-in''Ghief or the appropriate section editor. Letters should include the writer’s name. year in school, and major or other relatidnship to UNCA, include a phone number to aid in verification. All articles are subject to editing'. Body camera footage should be public record In March, footage of former Asheville Po lice Department officer Chris Hickman beating, choking and stunning Johnnie Jermaine Rush was leaked to the pub lic. The footage of the incident dated back to last August, but sur faced seven months later. Additionally, the footage was leaked, not released, to the public. APD remains under investigation for the incident, but cases in which blatantly unjust footage of police brutal ity surface and precede substantial investigation are an anomaly. Body- worn camera footage is not often leaked, in stances of injustice are not brought to light and the system of oppres sive behaviors by police continues. Body-worn camera footage should be ac cessible through public records. The current process to access body- worn camera footage remains tedious and in some states is not at all accessible to the public. Asheville requires a written request to the police chief, according to Reporters Commit tee, but in other cities in North Carolina, laws vary as to who can ac cess the footage. Some cities, including Char lotte consider body- worn camera footage showing any violation of the law to be filed under criminal investi gation and therefore not accessible as a public record, as deemed by NCOS 132-1. These inconsistent laws make the basic understanding of these regulations murky for those who want to ac cess this footage. By making all footage — aside from that which classifies under open investigation — legal to attain, these laws would serve several cru cial purposes to society. The accessibility to this footage gives the public more opportunity to cri tique law enforcement and to hold their lo cal police departments more accountable. More accountability could lead to, potentially, less brutality from police. As growing reports and documentation of police brutality surface, police accountability becomes a growing and urgent need. No longer should civilians be sub jected to unearned pun ishment from a corrupt system that basks in un checked power. Clarification: In a previous edition of The Blue Banner, we ran a story on UNC Asheville’s new Healthy Campus Initiative. We would like to clarify that the national framework of this initiative is known as Healthy Campus 2020 while UNCA’s iteration of it is known simply as the Healthy Campus Initiative, with a sub-program known as the Food Equity Initiative.
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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April 3, 2018, edition 1
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