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Tar and feathers

KRCG:

In a free speech ruling that contradicts six other federal circuit courts, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court ruling that says Americans do not have a first amendment right to videotape the police, or any public official, in public.

You can watch the watchmen but not film them.

8 Responses to “Tar and feathers”

  1. Ron W Says:

    But they are our employees.

  2. Paul Koning Says:

    Unfortunately, they believe, and act like, they are our masters.
    Impeachment is the correct remedy for these judges.

  3. Mike V Says:

    I’m a cop and that was a bad decision. I won’t be surprised if it goes to SCOTUS.

  4. Mike Says:

    That one will go to SCOTUS. Some judges get their law degrees from good law schools, others from boxes of Cracker Jack.

  5. Patrick Henry, the 2nd Says:

    It’s amazing how courts will go out of their way to not do their jobs.

  6. mikee Says:

    There is a difference between recording police activities in public and inserting yourself into the interaction between a police officer and a detainee or arrestee. There might be privacy issues for the person under police scrutiny, even.

    But this one man anti-ticketing crusade seems to be somewhere over the border from “recording” to “being really, really intrusive during arrests.” Will be interesting to see the en banc review decision.

  7. DocMerlin Says:

    If they were your employee, @ Ron W, you could fire them for bad behavior. You can’t. They aren’t your employee, it is more accurate to say we are livestock and they are our keepers.

    @mikee said, “There is a difference between recording police activities in public and inserting yourself into the interaction between a police officer and a detainee or arrestee. There might be privacy issues for the person under police scrutiny, even.”
    – not really, its public data, and it happens in public so the first amendment applies.

  8. mikee Says:

    Were I a police officer, I’d argue that things I know as a reasonable person, like the Tueller Distance, might indicate the radius around my interaction with a detainee where public scrutiny changes to participation in my activity.

    But I am not an officer, nor a constitutional lawyer, so I’ll just go with what my Dad told me in the 1970s when I started driving: “Son, you don’t argue with police. You don’t sass them, you don’t fight them, you don’t disobey their orders. You argue, with a lawyer helping, in front of a judge if it comes to that. The police aren’t there for arguing. Police are there for arresting. And they will do so, right or wrong, even harder on you if you give them the chance.”

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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