"Aimee Farr" <aimee.farr@pobox.com> wrote:
BTW, Mass. has always been "funny" about electronic surveillance. State history is very interesting, and so is the law. (Early on, their police wouldn't wiretap, it was not "gentlemanly." Ahem.)
In Ohio curiously enough, it is legal to record as long as one of the parties involved know that there is a recording being made. So in Ohio recording the police would be OK as long as you personally do the recording. However, this spring near the Ohio State University, there had been an on going problem with out of control drinking parties that spawned setting fires, turning over cars, and tossing bottles and rocks at the police. Over the years the police have responded with riot tactics, liberal use of pepper spray and giving students and residents free civic lessons on what happens when you're on the wrong side of a PR-24 or ASP baton. Which in turn has caused a plethora of civil rights lawsuits many being settled out of court and the city routinely hands out millions each year to settle claims. What I did find surprising this year was watching a TV news video of the police spraying pepper spray from a fire extinguisher size sprayer at residents filming the police in action. The police spokesperson said something to the effect that "The public has got to understand that it is just unacceptable to videotape the police from a porch in a riot situation." The resident got sprayed on his own porch, not doing anything more violent than filming the Police. This must be the latest technique to minimize another Rodney King episode from happening in the first place...Just think what might have happened if the King chronicler got peppered with a few large bursts. So I guess the moral of the story is that if you must record the police you should do so clandestinely. Regards, Matt- ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************