Slashdot | Recording Police Misconduct is Illegal
Matthew Gaylor
freematt at coil.com
Mon Jul 16 13:13:17 PDT 2001
"Aimee Farr" <aimee.farr at 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-
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