One recent incident: “After a horrific shootout on the streets of Miami, Narces Benoit and his girlfriend witnessed the finale: police firing a barrage of rounds into a man’s car. Narces recorded it. The police smashed his phone. But first? He stuck the SD memory card into his mouth and saved the footage.”

And another horrific example. “Woman could get 15 years for recording cops after one of them allegedly assaulted her.”

I’ve been writing about this for decades. Some very prescient passages in The Transparent Society, describe exactly this kind of tension, between citizens armed with new tools of vision and accountability, and tens of thousands of cops who – from day to day – see themselves as doing a harsh, difficult and under-appreciated job.

Look, I appreciate it. Not only the skill and professionalism that has played a big part in decreased crime rates in the United States, but also the daily fight that every officer must wage, to maintain that professionalism, under circumstances that might send any of us into uncontrollable rage. We all carry hormonal and neuronal and psychological baggage from the million year Stone Age… and ten thousand years of urban life in which the king’s thugs patrolled the streets without having to think twice before slinging their truncheons at the heads of punks.

Nevertheless, we’re asking more of you, now. It is our civilization — and the rules have changed.

In fact, the glass is far more than half full. The men and women in most modern American police forces are adapting to the the new standards of behavior. Clenching their teeth and calling “sir” even the most outrageously abusive drunks. I am proud to know some of these folks. Moreover, I can understand why they might worry about that one time they lose their cool, coming back to haunt them, because some putz on the nearby street corner decides to record that momentary lapse on a cell cam.

I sympathize. I do. Yet I refuse to accept the arguments that good cops need “privacy” to perform their jobs. It doesn’t wash. It is a ridiculous argument, aimed at achieving convenience and evasion of accountability, and we will not allow it. Technology will not allow it.

Technology will not allow it. For — according to “Brin’s corollary to Moore’s Law” — the cameras will get smaller, cheaper, more numerous and more mobile every year. So figures of authority might as well get used to it now.

This is the new world. It will be watching — assume it at any given moment. And I promise you this…juries and citizen review boards will bear in mind that we’re all human. When you suffer that inevitable, occasional, not-too-awful over-reaction, there will often be a second chance. We’re human too and we want our cities patrolled. When all of this equilibrates, we will have to make some allowances for good people, caught making a rare mistake.

What’s the alternative? Are you really going to push this “never record us” lunacy? Do you really want the law to deny us the ONLY recourse that a citizen has ever had, against bullying and abuse of power? Really? The only thing that we have on our side?

It is called the Truth. And if you fear it, then we do… not…want you as our hired protector. Please. Get another job. We are changing the rules. And from now on, only adults need apply.