You are free to video police

Well, well, well. The blindingly obvious has been confirmed by the courts in the US of A …..over and over again.

Consider for a moment that video cameras capture your every move on the roads, in stores and on the sidewalks as you go about your PRIVATE business (or is it private????).

BUT the police in MANY jurisdictions threaten, abuse and arrest private citizens who happen to video record the police in action while they publicly abuse a private citizen’s body and rights.

Whether a punch, or kick to the head , or multiple tasers shots to their innocent victim or the ultimate in disgusting police brutality… a fatal shot in the back of man laying on the ground, video recording of police in action has helped bring to light the MASSIVE amount of violence against unarmed, non-violent citizens by “law enforcement” personnel.

I HIGHLY support honest, responsible officers performing their public duty in a responsible manner. As far as I’m concerned that is the LEAST we should be able to expect from any public officer.

Many people have been physically abused and falsely charged with a crime for video recording a police officer on duty.

This FALSE attitude of “you can’t and it’s illegal” is nothing more than “criminals with badges” not wanting to get their corrupt and violent behavior recorded for the world to see.

To quote the often misapplied and false claim by authoritarians everywhere against innocent, private citizens “if you haven’t got anything to hide it should be no a problem” when they want to video us everywhere its OK but when we video them its not. hmmmmm

Guess what? That claim is valid against a public servant on duty but is invalid against a private citizen because we have a right to privacy and a claim of innocence until proven guilty that a public officer does not.

The bottom line is….VIDEO and AUDIO RECORD to your hearts content.

It is everyone’s best defence against public officials criminal actions and not only your right to record but YOUR DUTY when you see a crime being committed, no matter who is committing the crime.

But expect to be harassed for your proper, lawful, responsible actions. Stay strong, stand tall and don’t let them bully you.

“The Attorney General’s Office is determined to make an example out of Allison in a bid to intimidate the public against filming the actions of police. In brazenly disregarding the law as well as legal precedent (every single charge against people for filming police, including a recent case in Illinois, has been thrown out of court), authorities are clearly using official oppression in their vendetta against Allison.

“Despite innumerable cases where charges have been dropped against citizens arrested for filming police, the mass media still constantly invokes the misnomer that it is illegal to record cops in public.

“The fact that arrests are still occurring on a regular basis nationwide also underscores how police are being trained to enforce a law that doesn’t exist, before hitting victims of this hoax with charges more severe than those a murderer would expect to receive and expecting them to back down and plea bargain, a startling reflection of the cancerous criminality that has set the United States well on course to becoming a police state.”

http://www.prisonplanet.com/appeals-court-rules-it-is-not-illegal-to-film-police.html

This is a coordinated action of suppression of your rights by the police and Attorney Generals.

“The “eavesdropping” charge was also dismissed by Frankland as completely inappropriate.

“Judge Frankland ruled that Allison had a First Amendment right to record the police officers and court employees. And while a ban on recording devices in the courtroom might be justified, he said, the eavesdropping charge was inappropriate,” reports Reason. “As applied in this case, Frankland said, the eavesdropping law “includes conduct that is unrelated to the statute’s purpose and is not rationally related to the evil the legislation sought to prohibit. For example, a defendant recording his case in a courtroom has nothing to do with an intrusion into a citizen’s privacy but with distraction.”

“Frankland’s decision followed a First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which found that, “The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles [of protected First Amendment activity].”

“Indeed, every similar case nationwide has concluded in all charges being dropped against the defendant. It is not illegal to film police officers in public. And yet cops up and down the country are still using intimidation tactics against citizens by threatening them with arrest for using a video camera.

“Despite the clear legal precedent of such cases being thrown out, the state was determined to incarcerate Allison and throw away the key, even sending an assistant from the Attorney General’s Office to speak against him during a hearing.

“Perhaps there needs to be a national activist day solely devoted to filming police officers in public to get the message across that documenting the performance of public servants is a completely natural and lawful expression of the First Amendment.

“Let’s call it “Film a Cop Day” – a reminder that the First Amendment is more powerful than the threats and intimidation that victims of a law being enforced that isn’t even on the books have had to endure repeatedly for years on end.

http://www.infowars.com/charges-dropped-against-man-who-faced-life-in-jail-for-recording-cops/

I like it. Break out the cameras and lets always be video recording them like they are video recording us. WE have a CLEAR AND LAWFUL right to do so, they have a very weak and limited legal right to do so, that if properly challenged they would lose.

Only officers with something to hide don’t want to be recorded….remember that.

For those of you not living in the US and wonder about the fact that you don’t have a “First Amendment” right, consider this.

The First Amendment does not create the right. It only expresses in writing the right that is possessed by every common law jurisdiction private person. If you are in a common law jurisdiction you have the same right inherently.