You can be arrested for videotaping the police
http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns
Apparently in an attempt to prevent citizens from protecting themselves against police abuse, some states are intentionally misinterpreting wiretapping laws intended to protect citizens from police abuse as justification for convicting them with a felony. Ironic, sad, and troubling.
What I wonder is how the police can justify using their cruiser-cams as evidence when, according to their logic, they're committing a felony. Anyway, I thought this story my be of interest.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
That is called the Stanford Prison Experiment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
wow, this speaks volumes about the professionalism of the police involved in these cases. Or rather the lack of it. This is a clear abuse of power. In most of the cases listed, the officer in question was clearly out of line.
If the photographer is directly interfering with the law enforcement officer in the execution of their lawful duties, then I could see an issue. If the photographer is secretly recording officers and setting up deliberate situations (i.e. entrapment) and then trying to discredit or prosecute based on said recordings, then I would see an issue.
If the photographer sees a cop abusing his power, records it, and then posts it on Youtube, then the cop should be summarily fired. The cop was in the wrong, not the citizen. Yes, there are 'heightened circumstances', and a recording may not tell the whole picture (i.e. the events leading up to the incident), but this is absolute insanity.
Piece by piece they strip the people of their constitutional rights.
This is one of many reasons why I don't see any good reason to go back to the US.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone.
~The Zen of Sarcasm
What irks me the most isn't the police themselves. Any moron can be a traffic cop. It's that the courts have taken their side when wiretapping laws obviously are to protect citizens from the police rather than vice versa. Hopefully some higher courts rule on this issue b/c the state level courts seem to either be corrupt or incompetent. I just don't understand how judges who have spent their entire lives studying law would allow something like this to happen.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury
The supreme courts should overturn this decision. But in the meantime the potential for abuse is staggering.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone.
~The Zen of Sarcasm
Step back. Evaluate. Recognize.
But then again not all cops are crooked.
It's the few rotten million that ruin it for the other eleven.
If this sort of thing can be upheld... wouldn't this mean any surveillance camera is illegal? Like a bank security camera for example?
How about if you are taking pictures or shooting film of something completely unrelated in a public place, and the cops just fall into your lense frame with a situation? If you don't stop filming then is that illegal evidence?
This is very ridiculous and seems a grave abuse of power.
How app-r'poe. Here's what I've been up to lately.
The full story is logged here:
http://forum.freekeene.com/index.php?topic=3404.0
"They sold you hippies grunge, hip hop, now liberty activism."
very, very interesting, man. i'm hooked. make sure you keep us updated on what happens next.
Sure it's messed up and unfair. But most things pertaining to the police are. It's funny because there are more of us than there are of them. Also, it always seems to me that if someone is getting murdered or raped the cops are never there in time, but if there is a drug bust they are there in like twenty seconds.
I don't know. It just seems like some police officers are on power trips.
I read this article where there was an experiment where some people in the group were put into a fake prison, and the others were assigned the role of guards. In a matter of days some of the volunteers that were guards started to become sadistic. I'm just saying that some people can't handle authority. But really that can be in many aspects besides law enforcement.
But then again not all cops are crooked.
I just have a lot of mixed feelings on this subject.
Man is the cruelest animal.