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Is Videotaping the Police a Felony?

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.'"

10 of 622 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I love laws like this... by Dunbal · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm surprised no one has said it yet: If you film the police, you are probably a terrorist.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  2. Re:What a Power Trip! by Score+Whore · · Score: -1, Troll

    OK. If you want to swap vulgarities, perhaps your post should be moderated "-1, stupid cunt." Anytime there is a break in the film we have no way of knowing what could have been cut. For all you know each time there was a little cut where he inserted his pearls of wisdom, 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. The video is clearly cut to show the specific items he wants to present. For example there's not a single bit of audio or video of when he was approached by the first officer (who is never on camera but is referred to by the officer that is seen driving up in the video.)

    Secondly, I watched both clips and when he is on camera he appears to have dyed hair. I'm from a family of redheads. I know what it looks like.

    Again your retardedness is kicking in if you think that news coverage was live. How absolutely stupid are you that you can't comprehend that the video being on youtube and being included in the news report guarantees that it's not a live story. So clearly his appearance and demeanor in the news clip have nothing whatsoever to do with how he was acting or what he was wearing at the time of the original event.

    Face it, the original video shows that he's more interested in retaliating and seeming profound than in conveying accurate information.

  3. Re:What a Power Trip! by Score+Whore · · Score: -1, Troll

    No. Other than failing to obey the orders of a police officer, I don't see that he did anything wrong. He has two choices, obey the officer and then sue later or disobey and be detained. He should be glad they only detained him for an hour. They could have detained him for three days and released him without charges.

    As a hypothetical (because we don't really know, his video is pointedly cut to present only what he wants to present) if he was there recording protests, it seems pretty odd that there are no protesters in his video. Perhaps the protesters were behind him. Which would put the police between him and the protesters. From the police's perspective you'd have to consider what exactly could be in this guys camera bag before you turned your back on him. It'd sure suck to be over trying to maintain order in the face of a bunch of hooligan protesters and have some schmuck pull a club out of his camera bag and cold cock you from behind.

    And allowing the regular media to stay and sending self proclaimed citizen journalists packing may be perfectly appropriate for the situation. The police have the authority to send everybody down the road, but they allow well known media to stay in place because the police are pretty sure of the MSM's identity. When some chowderhead comes along with "independant journalist", well good luck convincing them you're not a threat.

  4. Re:If they have nothing to hide .... by c6gunner · · Score: 0, Troll

    Nonsense. Putting on a badge doesn't mean you suddenly stop being human. The day that we can replace human police officers with androids, I will agree to your proposition. Until then, they have the same rights that we do.

    In fact, the only "power" that the police have which YOU don't is the ability to affect an arrest based on testimony or inference, as opposed to your right to affect an arrest only if you have physically witnessed a crime taking place. Because of this one difference, you propose that we take away their human rights?

    I think not.

  5. Re:I find this offensive. I work with PD frequentl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    So, cops are people, but short people aren't? Fuck you, asshole. You're every bit as bad as the cop-haters. Actually, you're worse... cops choose to be cops, short people don't choose to not be tall.

  6. Re:What a Power Trip! by JrOldPhart · · Score: 1, Troll

    If they make this charge stick, I recommend a shooting war.

    If they pull you over they must be up to no good.
    Defend yourself.
    They are armed with guns so shoot them.

    Kill a few hundred cops they will finally get the message.

    --
    Nothing is foolproof, fools are too ingenious. - Murphy
  7. yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    oooooh conspiracy conspiracy ...

    what sounds more likely?

    1. police have infiltrated a vast number of groups and during large gatherings they try to stir up the groups through a number of methods with the end function being a propaganda coup and blow to the image of these groups or;

    2. there are violent arseholes among protestors and so-called progressives e.g. the black bloc or "the terror" during revolutionary france.

  8. Re:get set, point, fire by Phragmen-Lindelof · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes, Mr. Cheney, it is all a big conspiracy.

  9. Re:We need more people filming the police by qeveren · · Score: 0, Troll

    No, it's illegal to use most controlled substances due to institutionalized racism.

    --
    Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
  10. Re:We need more people filming the police by wolfgang_spangler · · Score: -1, Troll

    Either that or you just had a bad acid trip.

    Hippie.