Cato Institute Presentation on US Citizens Rights to Record Police...

[sgreger1]

I just don't believe that.

Dude, go check out youtube. I've seent his a hundred times, where the guy is being arrested, and his g/f or someone pulls out a camera, and as soon as he sees the camera he starts acting all crazy like "stop touching me man stop that, Owww, oww!!" even though he is the one making it difficult for cops to restrain him. There are groups that try and go out and provoke cops to get it on tape. Go ask any police officer and they will fill you in on the details.


It's stupid to not allow people to tape though. Dealing with punks is kind of something that comes along with he job. There will always be provoceteurs in a line of work like that.


You can believe it or not. You don't have to look hard to find it.

[sgreger1]

Youguys wanna talk about citizens rights? Police being dicks or arresting you for something stupid is just the beginning of it.

They can dissapear you in the night and torture you for years, bouncing you from torture camp to torture camp, and president Obama will still fight tooth and nail to make sure you never get a day in court. He's already done it with 5 innocent people who were tortured (and I don't mean waterboarding). The people were released and he evoked the states secrets BS like bush used to to make sure that no court ever heard their case and that they get no compensation for being dissapeared and tortured for a year or more.


How can we not expect the police to be on a power trip, when the people at the highest federal levels such as the president condone a completely lawless society where the state has unstopable power to do whatever they want and get away with it. All they have to do is claim it may hurt national security and blam, that's it, no due process for you.


This is why I don't get people who support Obama. You support candidate Obama, you support what he stood for, President Obama is the antithesis of candidate Obama.

Remember: candidate Obama told us to be wary of presidents who use national security as a cover for violating people's rights.

[truthwolf1]

From your clip Raptor.

When dealing with the police it is best to answer questions without a attitude/emotion and if what is said by the officer is conflicting then to calmly explain your point of view.

A majority of the police are good people but there are definately quite a few who are mentally unstable and dangerous. There are many ex-Iraq vets now in the police force who are coming back from doing three tours in a row. My guess is the mental illness is at a all time high in these professions.

You will never know which type of cop you are dealing with until it is too late and your skull is crushed or a taser stops your heart. So be respectful with a fake smile if needed.

You can always argue your case to a judge later. It has worked for me a few times with moving violations by just being patient.

[snusjus]

Two words:

First Amendment

That pretty much sums up my opinion.

[snusgetter]

Two words:

First Amendment

That pretty much sums up my opinion.

Slowly becoming a footnote in history!!

[raptor]

I don't buy this whole "provocative for the camera" business. If the cops do the right thing, then even with video evidence they don't need to worry about punishment (although they might need to explain what they did).

It's really that cops don't want video evidence because then they can likely get away with whatever bad things they do (like killing that black youth in Oakland, already subdued and handcuffed, execution-style).

How can we not expect the police to be on a power trip, when the people at the highest federal levels such as the president condone a completely lawless society where the state has unstopable power to do whatever they want and get away with it. All they have to do is claim it may hurt national security and blam, that's it, no due process for you.

The police have been power-tripping long before Obama came into office... it's drug war funding pushed by both parties.

Yes, what Obama has done is horrific, but what he has done in the interest of "national security" doesn't predicate illegal police violence.

[sgreger1]

I don't buy this whole "provocative for the camera" business. If the cops do the right thing, then even with video evidence they don't need to worry about punishment (although they might need to explain what they did).

It's really that cops don't want video evidence because then they can likely get away with whatever bad things they do (like killing that black youth in Oakland, already subdued and handcuffed, execution-style).



The police have been power-tripping long before Obama came into office... it's drug war funding pushed by both parties.

Yes, what Obama has done is horrific, but what he has done in the interest of "national security" doesn't predicate illegal police violence.

The durg war is about money and I don't think it really has much effect here. power tripping comes witht he job, but the example from higher has been a bad one for many administrations. Obama is just today's bad example, last term it was Bush, and what about Nixon? He has plumbers to fix leaks, people had JFK shot I mean the powerfull have no rules. And the police feel that power.


I'm just saying that the entire concept of government power in America is what leads to this. They are held to a different set of rules.


As far as being taped, sometimes people see something and assume the cop is using excessive force or that they did something illegal, when maybe it was situation appropriate. It's like the wikileaks videos of soldiers killing people; out of context it looks terrible but when given all the details (and the unedited full version of the tape) you can see that they were not in the wrong. I think cops should not have any right to stop you from videotaping, but I can see why they hate being videotaped, because something that was appropraite at the time may be misconstrued as police abuse or illegal by a million viewers on youtube.


It's really caused by this constant national security police state stuff. It's normal to go through metal detectors in high school in big cities or to enter a gov building, it's normal to go through naked body scanners when at the airport, to have swat teams with stryker vehicles, sound cannons and microwave rays. It's about the militarization of the police, and the blending of police and paramilitary/defense contractor in things like major disasters (katrina) etc. It's not like the old days where if the cops caught you and your friends doing something stupid they would tell you to cut it out before someone gets hurt. Now it's by the book, to the full extent of the law etc.

[sgreger1]

I'm goign to up the ante. Forget videotaping, how about just watching:


Three Jackson, Mississippi police officers are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on allegations that they falsely arrested an ACLU member for attempting to observe their interaction with a person who was not under arrest. They claimed it was illegal to watch police officers.

[lxskllr]

I'm goign to up the ante. Forget videotaping, how about just watching:


Three Jackson, Mississippi police officers are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on allegations that they falsely arrested an ACLU member for attempting to observe their interaction with a person who was not under arrest. They claimed it was illegal to watch police officers.

I think that's how you define irony. They picked the wrong person to **** with. I hope they get nailed to the wall.

[Ainkor]

It's really not a police problem. It's a problem with just being a human. Of course not all people in an authoritarian position abuse that authority, but a few bad apples ruin it for the rest.

I've been in a leadership role for 20 years in business and you would be amazed (or not lol!) at the stories I hear from employees. In fact, just last year I had to call my boss to the carpet for grabbing one of my employees. He denied it and he gave me a ration of shit and made my life a living hell for the next 6 months. Luckily the VP and President of our company figured out that I was actually right and he was an power tripping asshole. What if he had finally fired me for no good reason? In this economy, that's a very damaging thing.

While this isn't even remotely close to getting your ass kicked by a cop or getting shot an killed by one, it is in the same vein. Bad people get into authority positions because some of the traits needed to be a good leader can be taken WAY to far and become abusive. Being stern and directive is only a step away from being an abusive asshat. Add to the mix high levels of adrenaline and you have a recipe for disaster.

[CoderGuy]

I'm goign to up the ante. Forget videotaping, how about just watching:


Three Jackson, Mississippi police officers are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on allegations that they falsely arrested an ACLU member for attempting to observe their interaction with a person who was not under arrest. They claimed it was illegal to watch police officers.

Avert your eyes! Do not look at the police officers! lol

[Simplysnus]

Curious that a certain federal agency has a policy against recording, paired interviews as testimony only.

[Simplysnus]

From first hand experience, everything is known. Scary so.

[raptor]

The durg war is about money and I don't think it really has much effect here. power tripping comes witht he job, but the example from higher has been a bad one for many administrations. Obama is just today's bad example, last term it was Bush, and what about Nixon? He has plumbers to fix leaks, people had JFK shot I mean the powerfull have no rules. And the police feel that power.

The Drug War paved the way for paramilitary police training. The Drug War made SWAT teams armed with SMGs. The Drug War led to police referring to people as civilians rather than citizens they protect.

Giving a department a boatload of new automatic weaponry from War on Drugs funding gives more opportunities for police to assert their authority through increasingly deadly ways. I do have to give some credit to Taser usage as a less-lethal armament, but even then there are cases where police don't realize how deadly LL arms can be.

[sgreger1]

The police chief of Wister, Oklahoma was caught on video slamming a 50-year-old woman into a wall then using a leg-sweep takedown on her, slamming her face onto the floor giving her a black eye, bruising her ribs, and dislocating her knee.