Cops are concerned about people shooting in the citys streets. The trouble is, theyre concerned about people who shoot with cameras.
Photographer Jerome Vorus writes on his blog that he was recently detained for photography by D.C. police after taking pictures of a traffic stop from a distance far enough not to impede in any police investigation. An officer asked him for security reasons why he was taking pictures and then asked him to produce identification. When Vorus asked if he was being detained, the officer, after dancing around the question, said he was free to go. But as that officer left, another approached, told Vorus he was being detained, and told him to put his camera away, according to the photog.
Vorus says four officers told him it is against the law to take pictures of people on a public street, or to take any pictures of police officers, without prior authorization. This, of course, is nonsense. As DCist observes, If this were the case, you could pretty much close your eyes, point to any tourist and call the cops on them.
The District has no law against recording on-duty police officers. Whats troubling is, three states do. Gizmodos Wendy McElroy says these laws apply even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.
In Illinois, a man who recorded his own arrest on a misdemeanor charge -- later dropped -- is facing prosecution for illegal recording, a Class I felony that could get him 15 years in prison.
Maryland also has such a law, which was recently used against motorcyclist Anthony Graber. As I wrote last month, that 1970s-era law was intended to protect citizens against secret recording, but is now being used by those in positions of power to avoid accountability.
Since 9/11, there have been more and more cases across the U.S. of police arresting citizen photographers without cause. Though some of these citizens, like YouTubes Jimmy Justice, are trying to document police wrongdoing, others have less political motives.
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4 comments:
Isn't time to start posting names and pictures of law enforcement personnel who violate the civil rights of photographers, especially the goons who actually arrest photographers.
Sooner or later the cops are going to encounter someone who isn't going to take their bullying and unlawfull orders. The jackbooted thugs cops will find themselves outnumbered and surrounded.
yet there are surveillance cameras everywhere you go now recording everything
Public MASTERS.....NOT public SERVANTS.....in this country, citizens should be free to photograph and record ANY government official acting in ANY capacity in a public setting ---after all,they ARE supposedly working for us) but our public servants (LOL! and I'm sorry for using that description of these Nazi thugs) no longer believe they need to obey the law, know the law, respect the law, or serve --- SERVE! -- the citizens. They use the power of arrest to intimidate and, as is well known in law enforcement, whether or not the arrest will stand up to scrutiny, it STILL puts someone in jail. The defendant can hire a lawyer to sort it out later, but the arrestee STILL gets handcuffed and taken to jail, because RESISTING arrest (for ANY reason, even WRONGFUL arrest) is a serious crime. So, even if the officer KNOWS he has no right to arrest, there are so many charges that can be applied in ANY given situation, i.e. "disturbing the peace", "obstructing justice" (a GREAT ONE that is used as much as cuss words at a card game), "hindering" or "interfering" with a police officer", that whenever a cop wants to arrest someone, well, its as easy as breathing. And NO cop I ever saw EVER got into trouble for arresting someone, no matter how bogus the circumstances...that gun and badge goes a long way in stifling public dissent. Jefferson is crying. The government can FORCE you to submit to photographs, which are then stored in 'facial recognition' programs at several levels of government law enforcement (forever), FORCE you to submit DNA samples, but then get mad enough to prosecute YOU for a FELONY for taking their picture in a PUBLIC venue??? And there are people who think this is OK??? God help us all against this law-breaking, Nazi, storm trooping thuggery.
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