Radley Balko on videotaping the police:
There’s been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it’s a disturbing development…
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As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they’re given extraordinary power and authority we don’t give to other public servants: They’re armed; they can make arrests; they’re allowed to break the very laws they’re paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us without our consent.
It’s critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they’re on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you’re treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses.
There’s a deep inconsistancy when the police who have such a broad mission to observe and investigate everyone else are attempting to avoid being watched and investigated themselves.
It’s absurd for the police to assert the power to pull people over for a traffic violation, detain them, question them, insist on identification, have a dog sniff around, search people, vehicles, and buildings, and then get upset and vindictive when someone videotapes their own activities.
Police might well argue that it interferes with their job when people make a recording. Even ignoring the implied violation of the laws of physics, this is just special pleading. The rest of us are routinely observed by police and sometimes stopped and questioned. It’s no fun, but if we can to put up with it, they can too. After all, somebody has to watch the watchers.
Be sure to read the rest of Radley Balko’s article.
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