Cruiser cams -- the good and the bad

While no one would claim that the addition of so-called "cruiser cams" to Providence police vehicles is any sort of panacea, Providence taxpayers probably expect a few modest results from this initiative. Videotaping arrests, traffic stops, searches, and a variety of other encounters between Providence police officers and civilians, should reveal much about the behavior of all those involved. Ideally, the taping should act as protection against false accusations, by both those accused of crimes and the police. And wouldn't that be helpful?

But after hearing in what a number of law enforcement sources had to say about the devices, in the front-page BeloJo story of Sunday, July 22, one one might feel a bit uneasy about the potential for uncovering the truth. While local FOP president Michael Marcoccio "wholeheartedly" supports the concept of taping incidents involving police stops, he also notes that many law enforcement officers believe the cameras are meant to catch wrongdoing by the police. Says Marcoccio, "There's a concern . . . that Big Brother is watching."

Well, this is, and should be, one of the functions of the cameras, unless, of course, you believe that those humans in policing are somehow more honest and more perfect than their civilian counterparts. At the same time, the cameras should provide evidence if officers are falsely accused of brutality, overstepping their bounds, or exhibiting just plain loutish behavior.

As with so many attempts to reform and improve public policy, the devil is in the details. Police say the tapes will be treated like internal documents and "won't be routinely available to the public." So the question becomes, if you challenge an officer's version of events that have been captured on tape, how difficult will it be to wrest the tape from the police to support your claim? Will it take expensive and time-consuming legal action? (Remember the difficulty that so many people have had in getting their hands on public records denied them by various police agencies?)

Then there's the "Nixon/Rosemary Woods bungle" scenario to consider. Although the tape system in use supposedly doesn't allow the erasure of tapes, one could imagine cameras swiveling in the wrong direction, capturing a close-up of a stately telephone pole while the real action is taking place three feet to the left. For some reason or other, P&J get the distinct feeling that a police officer like the currently suspended Peter Flynn would have a really difficult time getting the camera to work if he was in an altercation with some civilians.

And while your superior correspondents have been duly impressed with the new head ramrod of the Providence police, Colonel Richard T. Sullivan, we still have a few questions. Why, for instance, is the police department trumpeting the fact that the tapes will be controlled and handled "outside the police department" when it's "the department of communications, a separate department overseen by the department of public safety" that will be assigned responsibility for the tapes? Is not the police department part of the department of public safety? Where's the big separation?

It also does not inspire a great deal of confidence when one hears Major Dennis Simoneau, head of the uniformed division, tell the Other Paper that he foresees using some of the video clips "to promote the department's interests." If the taping is done properly and the results used judiciously, the system may prove to be beneficial for all. If, however, access to tapes showing alleged police misconduct become extremely difficult to pry out of the paws of the "department of communications," while heroic tapes are regularly thrown at Jack White and Jim Taricani for public consumption, the system becomes nothing more than a PR vehicle. Our gut tells us that Chief Sullivan will do his best to make this work, but the set-up is fraught with danger.

Just another night in Downcity

You may recall the attempt a few months back by a loose confederation of citizens to craft a new liquor-license classification that would have effectively ended 18-plus music nights at Providence clubs. The Phoenix (as well as P&J) came out swinging against the proposal. Among the problems we had with this was the propaganda put out by the anti-18-plus crowd, and their assumption that much of the trouble experienced by clubs in the Jewelry District and downtown core is being caused just by folks in the 18- to-20-year-old group. While this story from Monday's Other Paper is merely anecdotal, indicating no sense of statistical weight one way or the other, it is interesting to note that boneheaded behavior is not confined to the 'utes:

A woman who allegedly bit another woman outside a bar on Richmond Street at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday was taken to Rhode Island Hospital after claiming that she had a miscarriage while in police custody.

The police say that the woman, identified as Jade Tedeschi, 35, of Providence, was arrested after a patrol car had been flagged down outside of Club Hell by another woman, who said that Tedeschi had bitten her on the forehead and scalp after she had refused Tedeschi's sexual advances.

Tedeschi refused to identify herself and became belligerent while being booked at the police station, the police said. After being placed in a cell, the police said, she complained that she had suffered a miscarriage and that her neck hurt [a major technical mistake on Tedeschi's part; someone should have told her that miscarriage pain is generally not centered in the neck].

At the time of her arrest, Tedeschi kicked a patrolman in the chest after the police used pepper spray on a man who had tried to intervene and refused to move from the scene. The police identified the man as Giani Tedeschi, 40.

The Jeane Dixon School of Gossip

As enthusiastic consumers of show biz gossip, Phillipe & Jorge must say that we've been caught a bit off guard with what seems to be the latest trend in the tattle trade. We call it the Jeane Dixon Method.

You may recall that the late "clairvoyant" Dixon made her entire reputation on the basis of her prediction that President Kennedy would be assassinated. That she was half-right about this (she didn't name JFK, and actually predicted that Nixon would win in 1960, and that the assassination would occur, "but not necessarily in the first term.") seemed to obscure the fact that she was wrong about just about everything else. For instance, World War III did not begin in 1958, and the cure for cancer was not discovered in 1967. But it says here that if you make enough ridiculous predictions (and Dixon made thousands annually), a few have got to actually come true and, chances are, the old psychic friends network will conveniently forget about the inaccurate predictions (all 90-plus percent).

And so, apparently, the new gossip writers have adopted the Jeane Dixon formula: throw a bunch of claims at the wall and see if one sticks. This appears to be the method favored over at London's Mail, where an "exclusive interview" with former Beatles producer George Martin revealed over the weekend that George Harrison had accepted that he would soon die and was at peace with the idea.

Unfortunately, George wasn't at peace with the Mail when he furiously denied the story the next day. For his part, Martin said that he never gave an exclusive interview with the paper and had no idea where the quotes came from.

Meanwhile it was "mistranslation" that caused the German-language Marie Claire magazine to print that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were expecting a child, according to the story's author, Elisa Leonelli. P&J say that it will be quite obvious when and if Ms. Aniston becomes pregnant. It will be at that point when she won't seem to disappear when she stands sideways.

Studio executives and publicists at Warner Bros. also say that all those entertainment reporters just made up the story when they claimed they were told not to approach, speak to, or "to even look at" John Travolta while visiting the set of Swordfish. (Of course, since the film quickly smelled of week-old uncooked swordfish at the box office, the studio quickly experienced a change of heart and Travolta was magically available for one-on-one interviews.)

Your superior correspondents have a lot to catching up to do with the rest of the pack, and we apologize for not being more aggressive in making up stories. So here, for those who have been anxiously awaiting some really sensational news, and don't mind the fact that there's no evidence whatsoever to back it up, is P&J's great new made-up news:

* Belo will soon be selling the Urinal to the New York Times Company

* Patrick Kennedy didn't really swim that Save the Bay event the other day. He was riding on a porpoise which was on daddy Ted's payroll

* In a move vaguely connected to his (smoke and mirrors) criminal defense, the Bud-I will suggest that the Masonic Temple be altered into a replica of the Parthenon and that the old Farmers' Market become a model of the Colosseum, where chariot races, and contests pitting wild animals against Urinal editorial writers, can alternate with WaterFire nights.

* Linc Almond will indeed run for Patrick Kennedy's First Congressional District seat. In a gesture of utter self-confidence, Almond will conduct what will be called "The Casual Campaign" from a reclining position.

* Meanwhile, the Republican Party will announce that their candidate for governor in 2002 will be the first "virtual" candidate in history, Pokémon Furby III, a creation of Hasbro Inc. Whitehouse, Fogarty, and Pires will prove no contest for the GOP challenger's cute fur body and the extensive lexicon of slogans recited when his string is pulled.

Send cooling breezes, startling truths, and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j[a]phx.com.

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