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Man who Videotapes Police Could Get 16 Years in Prison

Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
"A twenty-five-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard is facing up to sixteen years in prison for uploading a video on YouTube that showed an undercover police officer pulling a gun on him during a traffic stop. Anthony Graber was initially ticketed for speeding, but once he posted the video, the state charged him with four felonies, including violating Maryland’s wiretap law. State police officers also raided Graber’s parents’ home and confiscated his camera, computers and external hard drives. Graber is one of many Americans facing possible jail time for videotaping police activity. Last week Democratic Congressman Edolphus Towns of New York introduced a non-binding resolution calling for the protection of citizens who videotape cops in public from getting arrested on state wiretapping charges."

From Democracy Now!
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Kilgore Trout said:
Considering how many sociopathic nutjobs going into law enforcement, every citizen should have the right to have their interactions with cops recorded.
Click to expand...

Even if sociopathic nutjobs did not sometimes go into law enforcement, that should still be a right. It's only reasonable to allow citizens to record their interactions with law enforcement.
 
Shadow Wolf

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
We should very much be allowed to video tape them. I see no reason to not allow it.

Agreed - what do law enforcement officers, lawfully upholding the law, have to hide?
Click to expand...
Very good point. A good number of piggies out there like to say "well if your not breaking the law what do you have to hide?" I'm not hiding anything, it's called my rights! If you aren't breaking the law, like you have sworn to uphold and protect, then why do you not want to be video taped?
 
Revoltingest

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Thanx for posting the thread. I saw this on Drudge & thought it postworthy.
*%(!#$* cops & the prosecutors who let'm get away with this!
 
Engyo

Engyo

Prince of Dorkness!
Yeah, can't have that. Think how expensive it would get if everybody were always videotaping all the cops all the time. Just the few videos that surface now cause lots of trouble, get people canned, ruin political careers and cost their jurisdictions lots and lots of money already. We gotta legislate this problem out of existence.......
 
Smoke

Smoke

Done here.
What's the fun of being a cop if you're accountable to the law or the people?

What's the fun of being a district attorney if you can't fabricate evidence?
 
Reverend Rick

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
I'm glad I live in a small town where I speak to the mayor casually every month or two. The Chief of police is a great guy, his wife is simply wonderful. The Captain does his job very well and is kind and caring.

Can they hire a cowboy? I'm sure they have and will in the future. Will our town put up with unprofessional police officers? Not for very long.

I'm proud to support my local police department and look at these officers as friends and neighbors.

Like I said, I feel lucky and proud. As a proud American, I should have the right to video tape anything I damn well please IN PUBLIC. Businesses have surveillance cameras everywhere now a days. It's normal.

Now, if you have a reasonable reason to believe you are having a PRIVATE CONVERSATION and some butt wad is secretly taping you, that in my opinion is wrong.

I can't see where the police, (while performing their on the clock duties in public) should have any reason to believe they should not be video taped.
 
Shadow Wolf

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I'm proud to support my local police department and look at these officers as friends and neighbors.
Click to expand...
I technically live between two cities. The one city has a police force that is very corrupt, very abusive, has no regards for civilian rights, has been under investigation numerous times, has made a game out of writing tickets for traffic violations, and the narcotics unit has also been under investigation because evidence kept coming up missing. This police force even tried to have a man retried for a crime that he was found innocent of.
Now the other town, the police there are actually very nice. I actually feel safer in that town knowing the cops aren't taking two hour lunch breaks at the Waffle House, and knowing I don't have to worry about them being abusive. One time I was driving there without my seat belt on, and when a cop caught me all he did was holler at me through his window, motion to his belt and I quickly put mine on. They don't get off on drug busts and keep real criminals off the street.
 
Neo-Logic

Neo-Logic

Reality Checker
Everyone has raised very valid points on citizen rights. Trying real hard to think of the other side of the argument, the only thing I can come up with is that in this instance, I'm not sure if the citizen would gain protection under any exceptions or exemption to the wiretap policy when encountering police, even if it were adopted. If memory serves me right, the citizen in question was using a helmet-cam in an illegal act of speeding in access of 100 mph on his motorcycle? If this were the case, the undercover police officer would have every cause to do what he did and to not be video taped and for this guy to be charged. If he was actually undercover and involved in active on-going investigations, then he could very well argue that a motorcycle speeding past 100mph was an act of public endangerment and a threat to public safety that COMPELLED him to break his cover and act under the color of authority. If the act compelled the officer to act under his obligation as an officer of the peace, then the video tape could've jeopardized the investigations that he was actively involved in through no fault of his own. That seems like a compelling argument to me and one that would make me favor the officer in this instance and go against the individual citizen as an isolated case -- not as a general principle.

Correct me if my facts are wrong.
 
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Father Heathen

Father Heathen

Veteran Member
The pigs are a disgrace to their badges. Law enforcement is rife with corruption, incompetence, misconduct, etc. They abuse their power with impunity. Who polices the police? And it disgusts me how society worships them by default.
 
Joe_Stocks

Joe_Stocks

Back from the Dead
Father,

It's from an episode of The Simpsons where Homer joins a vigilante group. Lisa, of course, has her reservations and asks the question you asked; who policies the police? To which Homer replies, "I dunno, Coast Guard?"
 
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