The reason you need to record police action (above).
Several Marylanders face felony charges for recording their arrests on camera, and others have been intimidated to shut their cameras off. That’s touched off a legal controversy.
Mike Hellgren explains the fierce debate and what you should do to protect yourself.
A man whose arrest was caught on video faces felony charges from Maryland State Police for recording it on camera.
“We are enforcing the law, and we don’t make any apologies for that,” said Greg Shipley, Maryland State Police.
“For the government to be saying it has the power to prevent citizens from doing that is profoundly shocking, troubling, and particularly in the case of Maryland, simply flat-out wrong,” said David Roach, ACLU.
Heaven forbid the cameras are turned on the apparently corrupt Maryland police. And ask yourself who ultimately pays the bill on the lawsuits the police lose in these matters.
found by Aric Mackey
things like this are just terrible… just terrible. but you know what would really be cool is if eideard or uncle dave or even cooler if they together in the same video got to star in their own police beating video… now that i would pay to see. academy awards would be due to the police 4sure… well one can only dream…
#1 Because Debate is the American way. It’s called “Rights” Right or wrong. “I may not agree with your opinion, but I defend your right to express it.” get over it
# 7 Improbus:
“What are the cops going to do when the public turns on them? No one likes a bully.”
Haven’t you been paying attention? The answer is easy: beat the crap out of them!
Bobbo –
You ask two questions, I’ll answer them from what I’ve seen so far.
“Police can charge anyone with anything–what are the DA’s actually taking forward?”
There’s a set of charges that we’ve come to call “the Trifecta.” When you see someone charged with ABPO (assault & battery on a police officer), Disorderly Conduct, and Resisting Arrest, it’s a damn good bet that when you see your client, his face will look like a catcher’s mitt. It’s more or less code for “old fashioned beat down”, and the cases almost never go to trial, because cops are fantastically good at lying on the stand. Now I’m not suggesting that cops are trained to lie under oath… but (and this depends on the jurisdiction) they do generally have several days of training on how to testify. Why would you need so much training if it amounts to “Tell the truth, and don’t sweat it” (which is the advice I give my clients if/when they choose to take the stand.)
“Has anyone actually been CONVICTED of wiretapping in such circumstances?”
Not to my knowledge. They usually cover it under the guise of resisting arrest, or use the fact that they’re being recorded as a pretense to escalate the situation by confronting the guy with the video and usually forcing a reaction. Although I think a colleague of mine is currently handling such a case where the individual *was* charged with a wiretapping offense, that hasn’t been resolved yet I don’t think.
Some advice I’ve heard on libertarian talk shows: if you’re going to record an arrest, make sure you don’t do it alone. Make sure to have someone else there, recording the arrest, and someone else recording the recorder. The more recordings you have the better. Get audio, video, stream directly to the internet (using qik or a similar type service) just in case they confiscate. There is power in numbers!
“Get audio, video, stream directly to the internet (using qik or a similar type service) just in case they confiscate.”
This part is key, IMO.
This actually answered my drawback, thanks!