Author Topic: Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police - This is crazy.  (Read 761 times)

Soul Crusher

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http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=11179076
Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police
Prosecutions Draw Attention to Influence of Witness Videos
By RAY SANCHEZ
July 19, 2010—


________________________ ________________________ ________



That Anthony Graber broke the law in early March is indisputable. He raced his Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95 in Maryland at 80 mph, popping a wheelie, roaring past cars and swerving across traffic lanes.

But it wasn't his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the possibility of 16 years in prison. For that, he was issued a speeding ticket. It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later -- taken with his helmet camera -- of a plainclothes state trooper cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore.

In early April, state police officers raided Graber's parents' home in Abingdon, Md. They confiscated his camera, computers and external hard drives. Graber was indicted for allegedly violating state wiretap laws by recording the trooper without his consent.

Arrests such as Graber's are becoming more common along with the proliferation of portable video cameras and cell-phone recorders. Videos of alleged police misconduct have become hot items on the Internet. YouTube still features Graber's encounter along with numerous other witness videos. "The message is clearly, 'Don't criticize the police,'" said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who is part of Graber's defense team. "With these charges, anyone who would even think to record the police is now justifiably in fear that they will also be criminally charged."

Carlos Miller, a Miami journalist who runs the blog "Photography Is Not a Crime," said he has documented about 10 arrests since he started keeping track in 2007. Miller himself has been arrested twice for photographing the police. He won one case on appeal, he said, while the other was thrown out after the officer twice failed to appear in court.

"They're just regular citizens with a cell-phone camera who happen to come upon a situation," Miller said. "If cops are doing their jobs, they shouldn't worry."

The ACLU of Florida filed a First Amendment lawsuit last month on behalf of a model who was arrested February 2009 in Boynton Beach. Fla. Her crime: videotaping an encounter between police officers and her teenage son at a movie theater. Prosecutors refused to file charges against Sharron Tasha Ford and her son.

Videotaping as a Tool for Citizens

"The police have cameras in their cars. I watch cops on TV," Ford said. "I'm very hurt by what happened. A lot of people are being abused by police in the same way."

Ford's lawyer, James Green, called videotaping "probably the most effective way to protect citizens against police officers who exaggerate or lie."

"Judges and juries want to believe law enforcement," he said. "They want to believe police officers and unless you have credible evidence to contradict police officers, it's often very difficult to get judges or juries to believe the word of a citizen over a police officer."

In Palm Beach County, Fla., Greenacres resident Peter Ballance, 63, who has Asperger's syndrome and has to record conversations to help his memory, settled a civil lawsuit for $100,000 last year. In August 2005, police officers tackled and arrested Ballance for refusing to turn off his tape recorder.

"You know what," said the officer, according to court documents, "I still don't want that recording device on."

"Well, it's on," Ballance replied.

"It is a third-degree felony," the cop said. "If you want to push it, you can go to jail for it."

"Well, I'm pushing it now," Ballance said.

Ballance snapped pictures of the officers. One of the cops delivered a blindside tackle. Ballance had to be treated for injuries and cardiac symptoms at a hospital on the way to the county jail. At the hospital, officers refused to let Ballance use his recorders to communicate with doctors, court papers said.

In Portsmouth, N.H., earlier this month, Adam Whitman, 20, and his brother were charged with wiretapping, a felony in the state for videotaping police on the Fourth of July when they were called to a party and ended up arresting 20 people, many for underage drinking.

A police spokesman told ABCNews.com that the wiretapping charges were being dropped.

Witness Videos on the Rise

Across the country, arrests such as these highlight the growing role of witness video in law enforcement. A dozen states require all parties to consent before a recording is made if there is a "reasonable expectation of privacy." Virginia and New York require one-party consent. Only in Massachusetts and Illinois is it illegal for people to make an audio recording of people without their consent.

"The argument is, 'Well, can a police officer beside the highway have a private conversation with somebody that they pull over?'" said Joseph Cassilly, the Harford County prosecutor handling Graber's case.

Cassilly added, "Suppose a police officer pulled you over and he wanted to have a talk with you. 'Sir, I smell alcohol on your breath. Can you talk to me about how much you've had to drink? Would you want somebody else to stop by and record that and put it on the Internet?"

Rocah of the ACLU disagreed. "It's not that recording any conversation is illegal without consent. It's that recording a private conversation is illegal without consent," he said. "So then the question is, 'Are the words of a police officer spoken on duty, in uniform, in public a 'private conversation.' And every court that has ever considered that question has said that they are not."

Rocah said actual wiretapping prosecutions, though rare, are happening more frequently. But intimidation with the threat of arrest for taping the police is much more common.

"Prosecution is only the most extreme end of a continuum of police and official intimidation and there's a lot of intimidation that goes on and has been going on short of prosecution," he said. "It's far more frequent for an officer to just say, 'You can't record or give me your camera or give me your cell phone and if you don't I'm going to arrest you. Very few people want to test the veracity of that threat and so comply. It's much more difficult to document, much more prevalent and equally improper."


New Video, Old Debate

In many jurisdictions, the police themselves record encounters with the public with dashboard cameras in their cars.

"Police and governmental recording of citizens is becoming more pervasive and to say that government can record you but you can't record, it speaks volumes about the mentality of people in government," Rocah said. "It's supposed to be the other way around: They work for us; we don't work for them."

Graber's YouTube video, meanwhile, has helped renew the old debate about whether government has a right to keep residents from recording the police. There is even an "I support Anthony Graber and his right to freedom of expression" Facebook page with close to 600 friends.

"Suffice it to say that our client is terrified at the prospect of these criminal charges," Rocah said.


Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

________________________ ________________________ _________

This is total BS.  No way this guy should go to jail for 16 years. 

kcballer

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I agree no way he should go away for any time.

This does pose an interesting question though - what is/isn't right to video and post?  What i mean by that is if you can not make money off someones image without their consent, does that apply to a police officer whose image is posted on a site generating money from ads? 
Abandon every hope...

kcballer

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it also brings up the question - does a police officer have a right to privacy on their job? 
Abandon every hope...

Soul Crusher

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it also brings up the question - does a police officer have a right to privacy on their job? 

I don't think so.  If they cany spy on us, we should spy on them. 

kcballer

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I don't think so.  If they cany spy on us, we should spy on them. 

but what if the police member in question doesn't have a camera on them?  I think they should inform the individual that they are on camera each and every time like pull them over and over a loud speaker inform them that they are on cctv and it will be recorded and could be used against them, almost like an addition to the miranda rights. 
Abandon every hope...

Option D

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I don't think so.  If they cany spy on us, we should spy on them. 

lol...like nicky santino from Casino "the feds gonna watch me, fuck it, im going to watch them righ back"

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A cop is a sworn public officer operating in public, what freaking right to privacy does he have while on duty? The police have gone too far with the wiretapping charges. There are so many cases where a citizen recording a cop has proven police misconduct due to the evidence he had (which obviously the cops denied) so that's why the cops want people to stop recording and threaten them with wiretapping. (not to mention cop shows that record citizens for tv). They usually arrest people for the wiretapping charge (or "disorderly conduct") only for charges to be dropped but still the intimidation and bogus arrest remains.

I heard a Democratic Congressman is trying to pass a resolution that would allow citizens to record cops. It's only a resolution though so I don't think it will actually do anything before there's either a law or a specific court decision for this.

Look at this BS:

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0623/man-arrested-picture-cop-home/

Seems like the cops can even enter one's home without permission, arrest you for "illegal photography" (in your own house) and "public intoxication" (in your house ,while the cop was there illegally) because he saw a beer can... wtf

Soul Crusher

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lol...like nicky santino from Casino "the feds gonna watch me, fuck it, im going to watch them righ back"


Skip8282

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From the article, it doesn't appear that any of these attempted prosecutions have been successful.  Just the cops trying to intimidate people.  Fuck'em.  Hopefully civil rights groups will start suing these shitbags and make them think twice before going after somebody's camera.

Agnostic007

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As a police officer who has recorded many an encounter myself on an in car video, I have no problems with citizens recording my actions and words, with a couple common sense stipulations. If I am arresting/interviewing someone, don't get in my person space. It's a safety issue. Don't make the act of recording such a distraction to the situation that it hampers mine and your ability to conclude our business. Other than that, I am in a public place, performing a function that should be transparent. I record everything I do and say during an encounter to protect myself, and for evidence if needed later, you should have the same right. Most of the cops I work with are used to getting recorded either by our department via in car cameras, or cell phones. I think it helps keep us professional when some citizens are urging us not to be.   

tonymctones

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As a police officer who has recorded many an encounter myself on an in car video, I have no problems with citizens recording my actions and words, with a couple common sense stipulations. If I am arresting/interviewing someone, don't get in my person space. It's a safety issue. Don't make the act of recording such a distraction to the situation that it hampers mine and your ability to conclude our business. Other than that, I am in a public place, performing a function that should be transparent. I record everything I do and say during an encounter to protect myself, and for evidence if needed later, you should have the same right. Most of the cops I work with are used to getting recorded either by our department via in car cameras, or cell phones. I think it helps keep us professional when some citizens are urging us not to be.   
^THIS^

nobody in public really has a to say dont record me...this is like stars getting pissed that paparazzi follow them around taking pictures...YOURE IN PUBLIC!!!!!!!!!!!

as long as youre not interferring with the police officer and their job than they should be able to record anything...

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As a police officer who has recorded many an encounter myself on an in car video, I have no problems with citizens recording my actions and words, with a couple common sense stipulations. If I am arresting/interviewing someone, don't get in my person space. It's a safety issue. Don't make the act of recording such a distraction to the situation that it hampers mine and your ability to conclude our business. Other than that, I am in a public place, performing a function that should be transparent. I record everything I do and say during an encounter to protect myself, and for evidence if needed later, you should have the same right. Most of the cops I work with are used to getting recorded either by our department via in car cameras, or cell phones. I think it helps keep us professional when some citizens are urging us not to be.   

excellent post!!

MM2K

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Its pure crap that this guy is going to jail. Officers argue that videos can put officers in a bad light becuase they can be out of context or incomplete, and that is true. But Its not like this guy was trying to accuse the officer of something. He wasnt filing a complaint against him and then showing an incomplete and out of context video.
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