[Vision2020] The Right to Record

Art Deco art.deco.studios at gmail.com
Mon May 21 08:02:15 PDT 2012


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May 20, 2012
The Right to Record

The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department took an important stand
last week, declaring<http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/05/united_states_letter_re_photography_5_14_2012_0.pdf>that
citizens have a First Amendment right to videotape the actions of
police officers in public places and that seizure or destruction of such
recordings violates constitutional rights.

The Justice Department made the statement in a federal lawsuit brought
against the Baltimore Police Department by Christopher Sharp, who used his
cellphone to take video of the police arresting and beating a friend at
Pimlico on the day of the 2010 Preakness. The officers took Mr. Sharp’s
cellphone while he was recording and wiped the phone clean of all videos
before returning it to him.

The Courts of Appeals for the
First<http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/10-1764P-01A.pdf>and
Seventh<http://blogs.nppa.org/advocacy/files/2012/05/SB-1808-ACLU-7th-Circuit-Opinion.pdf>Circuits
have wisely found that the Constitution protects the right to
videotape police officers while they perform official duties. The
video<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWF3Ddr7vdc>taken by another
witness of the beating at Pimlico shows that the right to
record is crucial to holding police accountable for their actions.

Mr. Sharp sued for damages to his personal property and for injunctive
relief in the form of a clear policy on videotaping consistent with the
Constitution and also training for the police. The judge hearing the case
arranged a settlement conference for May 30, though the case is far from
being settled.

Last November, the Police Department issued an
order<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-public-photographs-a-crime-scenes-document,0,4003580.htmlpage>paying
lip service to the right of citizens to make “video recording of
police activity.” But the day after that order became public, as The
Baltimore Sun<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bal-in-federal-hill-citizens-allowed-to-record-police-but-then-theres-loitering-20120211,0,3706866.story>reported,
police officers were caught on video threatening to arrest for
loitering a man who was recording them as they surrounded and held someone
on the ground.

It is essential that the Justice Department and federal courts make clear
that police departments will be held liable for violating this
constitutionally protected right.




-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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