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NH Man Arrested For Videotaping Police.. Again

Posted by Soulskill on from the at-least-he's-consistent dept.

OhPlz writes "Back in 2006, a resident of New Hampshire's second largest city was arrested while at the police station attempting to file a complaint against officers. His crime? He had video tape evidence of the officers' wrongdoings. According to the police, that's wiretapping. After world wide attention, the police dropped the charges. His complaint was found to be valid, but the evidence never saw the light of day. Well, guess what? Round two. There are differing reports, but again the police arrested Mr. Gannon and again, they seized his video camera. This time it's 'falsifying evidence' because he tried to hand off the camera, most likely to protect its contents. If there's the potential of police wrongdoing, how is it that the law permits the police to seize the evidence?"

2 of 666 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I've learned not to yell anything at cops by c6gunner · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    That's the wrong lesson. What you should have learned is that people with power tend to abuse it, even for the most trivial of things.

    Yeah, it's funny, when I was in school, every time I stood up in class and yelled "FUCK YOU AND YOUR FASCIST IMPERIALIST BRAINWASHING OF YOUNG IMPRESSIONABLE MINDS MRS. B!!!", I'd get sent to the principals office and otherwise punished.

    Fuckers. Abusing their authority to punish me for such a trivial thing.

  2. Re:What are these words? by Moryath · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    If you read the OP's post, the judge appears to have disallowed that line of questioning. Which, to me, would be a clear indication that the judge is trying to tilt things and just wants to get the money from the victims.

    Yes, you could appeal the conviction, but you're talking about traffic court, and it's already an uphill battle to fight a judge's decision on what evidence should or shouldn't be allowable. Appeals courts regularly reject cases that small as being beneath their notice.

    Remember, in Ohio (a Republican stronghold), the police don't even have to have a measurement of your speed: they can just tell the judge they "estimated" your speed and that's good enough for their Supreme Court judges. This even after the corrupt cop in the case couldn't prove he was certified to operate a radar gun, and that revelation got the radar gun reading thrown out of court.

    Republicans love rigging the system it seems. In the absence of sane levels of taxation, they get their revenue by turning the cops into the Badged Highwaymen, shaking down random citizens for money.