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Is Videotaping the Police a Felony?

Posted by kdawson on from the turnabout-is-fair-play dept.

AtomicSnarl writes "When Carlisle, PA, police noticed their traffic stop was being videotaped, they arrested the fellow with the camera for felony wiretapping. From the story: 'Kelly is charged under a state law that bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone's oral conversation without their consent... An exception to the wiretapping law allows police to film people during traffic stops.. [An assistant DA] said case law is in flux as to whether police can expect not to be recorded while performing their duties.'"

21 of 622 comments (clear)

  1. I love laws like this... by Derekloffin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nothing better than a law which let's a public entity have legal protection from public oversight.

    1. Re:I love laws like this... by pizpot · · Score: 2, Funny

      Take your pick, 50 good countries or one big united mess.

    2. Re:I love laws like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Public oversight? What are you, some kind of freedom-loving hippie?

      We citizens of the Homeland are in constant danger. Terrorists brazenly roam the countryside, nuking preschools when we least expect it.

      How do you expect the police to do their job when they are constantly hogtied with red tape, unable to perform a little simple extrajudicial torture without spending huge amounts of time and money to ship the detainee overseas?

      The answer: they cannot.

      We should cheer when a terrorist-sympathizer photographer is arrested. That's one less evildoer threatening our benevolent overseers' iron hand, and one less distraction from our nation's righteous course.

    3. Re:I love laws like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      How about a law that enables me to lethally shock people who think there's an apostrophe in lets? What's the apostrophe for? Is there a letter missing? Let us? Let is? Is it a possessive form of let? There's something that belongs to "let" in that sentence?

    4. Re:I love laws like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      Let us = Let's

      So yeah, there is a letter missing. :)

    5. Re:I love laws like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      God, I'm a moron. Ignore the parent post.

  2. Re:If they have nothing to hide .... by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's wrong with filming the cops? I think either FOX owns the patent on videotaping the police or the RIAA owns a copyright on videos of 'the Police'.
  3. And what would you call such a show? by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pigs on taaaaaaape...

  4. The bad argument... by Aminion · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Hey, if the police have nothing to hide, why do they object to being videotaped?"

    1. Re:The bad argument... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Quite simply because they want to make money selling the DVDs after the show. Seriously, they split up for 23 years and /. repays them by demanding bootleg videos of the reunion tour?

  5. Sure, videotaping The Police is illegal by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just ask MPAA and RIAA.

    Oh, you meant actual cops? Never mind.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  6. Re:Why not? by zotz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ah, google? Aren't they taking pictures of people's cats in their windows?

    The news, don't they film crowds in public places?

    Traffic Cams?

    Is it only the audio part that is supposed to be illegal?

    Mute your video camera I guess.

    all the best,

    drew

    --
    FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
  7. Re:What a Power Trip! by aztektum · · Score: 1, Funny

    Arrested for illegal wiretapping. Sounds like a case of the officer going with what he knows. Shady fuck.

    --
    :: aztek ::
    No sig for you!!
  8. Re:What a Power Trip! by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2, Funny

    he cut out fifteen minutes of him jumping up and down swearing at the top of his lungs, and flinging shit all over the place. Do you have a link for that video on YouTube? That sounds a lot more entertaining.
  9. In other news from the same blog... by martinX · · Score: 3, Funny

    Camp Hill is to buy a street-sweeper. You heard it here first. I mean, second. Maybe third.

    http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnews/2007/06/camp_ hill_to_buy_street_sweepi.html

    --
    When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
  10. Re:What a Power Trip! by bombshelter13 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just out of curiosity, would your opinion differ if Person B is a stinking, filthy corrupt cop and I instead said "Don't you fucking dare give this to any stinking, filthy corrupt cops."*?

    * this is what I write in the memo field of any check I write for the purpose of paying taxes.

  11. Re:If they have nothing to hide .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    > I can't tell a random person on the street to move along. I can't ask people for their ID's. I can't hit or shoot people because they fail to comply with my instructions.

    I can, but Im' not a cop. I am an asshole though, and that probably helps. =-D

  12. Re:What a Power Trip! by polymath69 · · Score: 3, Funny

    When a public citizen on public land is told to turn off her or his camera, it is called cohesion, and is illegal.

    Cohesion? <Inigo>I do not think that word means what you think it means.</Inigo>

    Cohesion is how much stuff tends to stick to other stuff of the same type. Unless there's a meaning of which I am unaware, it's not remotely illegal.

    --

    --
    I don't want to rule the world... I just want to be in charge of mayonnaise.
  13. Re:What a Power Trip! by heinousjay · · Score: 2, Funny

    Come clean - you bought your law degree from a spammer, didn't you?

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  14. Re:Are you that stupid? It is a figure of speech. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Give him a break. He probably has a short attention span. ;p

  15. Aw, poor babies... by mythandros · · Score: 2, Funny

    So the police don't like being filmed? Well, it's high time to use their own logic against them. If you're not doing anything wrong, you won't mind being recorded.