“Chappelle’s Show” co-creator Neal Brennan says he’d be willing to kick in to have police officers wear cameras to make sure they don’t shoot people without cause.
The subject came up during Brennan’s latest “Champs” podcast with fellow comedian Moshe Kasher and guest Seaton Smith, one of the stars of Fox’s “Mulaney.”
Also read: ‘Approval Matrix’ Host Neal Brennan on Twitter Scolds, Reparations and the W-Word
One of the proposals to emerge from the Ferguson, Mo. protests over the police shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown was one to outfit all police officers with small cameras that could monitor their interactions. The idea is to help eliminate some of the conflicting stories and flawed eyewitness accounts that hinder shooting investigations.
“I personally will donate ten GoPros tonight. I would start that,” said Brennan, who also hosts the new “Approval Matrix” on Sundance. “Someone should start a Kickstarter… ‘I’m willing to pay.’”
Also read: CNN’s Don Lemon: National Guardsman Used N-Word to Describe Ferguson Protestors (Video)
He said it amidst jokes about how the practice would work, but there already is a social media groundswell for such a policy: By Friday, a White House petition calling for police to wear cameras had received more than 143,000 signatures — surpassing the threshold required for the Obama Administration to formally respond to it.
CNN’s Don Lemon suggested this week that requiring officers to wear cameras could limit the types of people who choose to become police. He said a National Guardsman last week used the N-word to describe Ferguson protestors to one of his white producers — and said officers wouldn’t do things like that if they were monitored.
The new “Champs” podcast includes lots of proposals for dealing with police abuses, some comical, some radical — like stripping officers of their guns. It’s an entertaining listen.