How Eavesdropping Laws Are Taking Away Our Best Defense Against Police Brutality

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Rania Khalek

15 Years in Prison For Taping the Cops? How Eavesdropping Laws Are Taking Away Our Best Defense Against Police Brutality
More and more people use their smartphones to record police misconduct. But laws against wiretapping are being used to intimidate and stop them.

July 27, 2011 |


Over Memorial Day weekend this past May, residents of Miami Beach witnessed a horrific display of police brutality as 12 cops sprayed Raymond Herisse's car with 100 bullets, killing him. The shooting provoked outrage in the surrounding community, not only because of the murder, but because of what the police did afterward.

Officers on the scene confiscated and smashed witnesses' cell phones; later, when they were confronted by the media, the police denied trying to destroy videos of the incident.

But 35-year-old Narces Benoit removed his HTC EVO’s SIM card and hid it in his mouth. He later sold the video to CNN, placing the police in the awkward position of explaining why they lied about allegations of cell phone destruction. More importantly, the video showed at least two officers pointing guns at Benoit, demanding that he stop filming.

Police brutality takes many forms around the country on a regular basis, particularly in poor and minority neighborhoods. Sometimes, the only method of accountability is a victim’s word (if they are still alive) against that of an officer. Unsurprisingly, the police officer’s version of the story is often adequate for a judge to dismiss allegations of wrongdoing, unless there is hard evidence of misconduct, such as a video or audio recording, which can be useful to unravel conflicting versions of police-citizen encounters. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151806/15_years_in_prison_for_taping_the_cops_how_eavesdropping_laws_are_taking_away_our_best_defense_against_police_brutality/

[Wilms]

1. "...laws against wiretapping..."

How quaint.

[Lasher]

2. Gag rules like these are more sinister than the brutality itself.

They want to beat and kill us with impunity.

[spin]

3. We are rapidly becoming a police state. (n/t)

[ZombieHorde]

4. Are outdoor security cameras legal?

What about reporters? Are they still allowed to film public areas? "Eye in the Sky" traffic reports?

[JoeyT]

6. From what I understand, it isn't the video itself that's a problem.

They're claiming the audio is what makes it illegal. Of course that explanation is completely full of crap as anyone with the ability to record video but not audio that uses it to film a cop going berserk would find out fairly quickly.

Perhaps the solution is to have video/audio recorders in our cars that once switched on automatically record everything for about an hour and transmit it to a remote server. Recorders that can't be switched off for an hour after the button is pressed, I mean.

[ZombieHorde]

7. Then how do reporters operate? They often have sound.

Jay Leno has that "Jay-walking" skit with camera and sound.

Families filming their beach vacation with sound?

Seems like pro-cop-violence bullshit to me.

[JoeyT]

8. I have no idea.

That's just the most common thing I've heard used as the reason. Of course the second that reason didn't work they'll just use a different one. Yeah, I agree it's just bullshit.

If all else fails they'll just be arrested for resisting arrest.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[saras]

9. Personally, I think we need an expedited death sentence for rogue cops

The whole process based on physical data, not "eyewitness" testimony, and supervised by civilians only.

And the cell phones need to start streaming the video directly to the Internet, or to servers located outside the USA, instead of keeping the video in the phone's local memory.