From: Ross A. Finlayson (extropy@apexinternetsoftware.com)
Date: Sat Oct 19 2002 - 04:31:41 MDT
On Friday, October 18, 2002, at 07:14 PM, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, 18 Oct 2002, Jeff Davis wrote:
>
>> --- Samantha Atkins <samantha@objectent.com> (maybe) wrote:
>>
>>> In practice cops confiscate cameras and slap on
>>> extra criminal charges that are upheld by the courts.
>>> It is actually illegal to film "public" officials
>>> acting in their "public" capacity in many circumstances.
>
> Can we get a citation or two on this? I would expect it to
> be a violation of my freedom of speech rights. The only
> exception I can think of is restrictions on filming government
> buildings that I think came up in WA last year.
> (These were non "national security" buildings but happened at
> the height of the 911 paranoia. And the confiscation of
> the camera did cause quite a bit of noise.)
>
That's ridiculous. Camera confiscation happens in China, not here. You
can follow around a cop with a camera. There's a television show called
"Cops" for example, they follow around cops with cameras.
I think the cops are pretty quiet about how much they illegally invade
privacy. They're too busy enjoying, you know, or being involved in, all
the eavesdropping.
>> If enough people break this law then it ceases to
>> achieve its corruption-protecting purpose, and the
>> corruption *may* face the challenge that finally beats
>> it.
>
> Ah but what about "ubiquitous" surveillance? I'm watching
> my property for intruders and a cop pulls from their car
> and mistreats someone on the street in the same camera view?
>
You can arrest them, it's called citizen's arrest. Being a cop just
means they get to write traffic citations, and they're called upon to
enforce laws.
> Its going to require some really strange changes in the
> laws for the cops to get my tape or for it not to be
> used as evidence in court (at least in the U.S.).
> Obviously automated heat detecting/motion sensing cameras
> would be even more likely to detect such situations.
> This might only work well in relatively dense cities of course.
>
> Robert
>
Yeah. Most government records have no security protections from not
being released. It's causal that any governmental withholding of public
evidentiary records is a sign of miscreance, malfeasance, or
institutional malaise. Anything else would be uncivilized.
Anyways, cops are just people wearing a uniform.
Ross
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:17:40 MST