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Facing 16 Years In Prison For Videotaping Police

krou sends this snip from the Maine Civil Liberties Union: "The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who faces as much as sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. ... Once [the Maryland State Police] learned of the video on YouTube, Graber's parents' house was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated. Graber was arrested, booked, and jailed. Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation. Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute. The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties. According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber's case, 'To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist.'" Here are a factsheet (PDF) on the case from the ACLU of Maryland, and the video at issue.

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  1. Re:Any big-gov't apologists care to weigh in? by jafiwam · · Score: 0, Troll

    And this is a perfect example of what the Tea Party movement is sick and tired of - a government that at all levels has forgotten that it exists solely at the pleasure of the citizens it rules. "Government is good - trust us" liberals have been telling us for years, ignoring the weight of all of human history that testifies loudly to the contrary. You twits forgot that liberty is the exception in the history of the world, and that oppression is the rule. And now you have the nerve to bitch about the size of the cage that you build around your own goddamned self? Fuck all you big-government apologist asshats.

    That and negros winning elections.