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Kawaii Sentai

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“I thought I had freedom of speech?”
“You don’t, you just lost it”
Police claim man’s First Amendment suspended for legally filming
Mikael Thalen
Infowars.com
February 25, 2014
A young man in Maryland reportedly “lost” his First Amendment right Sunday while attempting to film a police encounter.


In cellphone footage uploaded to Vimeo, a large group of police thought to be from the Baltimore County Police Department can be seen arresting two people as a massive crowd watches from the sidewalk. As the video’s author quietly films, one officer spots the camera and immediately approaches.

“Get out of my face,” the officer bizarrely says after walking up to the camera.

Despite being surrounded by countless people, the cameraman is specifically singled out as more police approach and begin demanding he leave the area.

“Get the hell out of here!” a second officer says. “You diverted my attention!”

Attempting to assert his Constitutional right, the cameraman is suddenly assaulted as the second officer begins pushing him down the street.

As the cameraman walks away from the scene, a group of officers continue to follow, clearly upset that they are still being legally filmed.

Another officer corners the cameraman and begins to threaten him with jail time, refusing to point out any illegal activity or crime committed.

“We’re not f*cking around, do you understand?” the officer says. “Walk away and shut your f*cking mouth or you’re going to jail.”

Again attempting to find out what crime he has committed, the cameraman’s arm is suddenly twisted behind his back as the enraged officer continues his threats.

“I thought I had freedom of speech?” the cameraman asks.

“You don’t, you just lost it,” the officer states.

Although the Supreme Court has continued to uphold the right to film police, First Amendment violations seem to be on the increase as cameras become more commonplace.

Just last week, a Florida woman was assaulted by police for trying to record her own traffic stop. Despite an officer claiming her actions were illegal, her charges were quickly dropped after spending the night in jail.

The week prior, a New York man was harassed and assaulted by police for filming from 30 feet away. Although officers attempted to delete the man’s footage, their police report was soon found to be false after the encounter was retrieved from the phone.

As some police become increasingly hostile to the First Amendment, others set the example by defending it. In 2012, Sheriff Stan Lenic became an internet sensation after refusing to detain activists legally filming at New York’s Albany International Airport.


Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-assault-man-filming-freedom-speech/#Qi3EVl8lAXl0FbRI.99


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Kawaii Shoujo

How can anyone suddenly 'lose' their freedom of speech? What gives police officers the right to proclaim that those people lost it?

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fairy-phoenix
How can anyone suddenly 'lose' their freedom of speech? What gives police officers the right to proclaim that those people lost it?

Because quite a few of them seem to think they're Gods now.
Alexander J Luthor
fairy-phoenix
How can anyone suddenly 'lose' their freedom of speech? What gives police officers the right to proclaim that those people lost it?

Because quite a few of them seem to think they're Gods now.
True! It's sad in a way.
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Feral Citizen

Alexander J Luthor
fairy-phoenix
How can anyone suddenly 'lose' their freedom of speech? What gives police officers the right to proclaim that those people lost it?

Because quite a few of them seem to think they're Gods now.


Some of them always have! I mean, police officer is number seven of the top ten professions that attract psychopaths. Only, now we're more aware of it, because of how many people now film them. If they weren't behaving (at best) unprofessionally in the first place, they wouldn't be so upset about being filmed doing their jobs.

Quotable Informer

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Police should be filmed. If they follow protocol or s**t get out of hand the film taken would help prove their case for what ever action they needed to take.

Friendly Explorer

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So that's their plan! Arrest the good guys and let the bad guys go free? well if that's the case then I have the freedom to break into a house and steal a Nintendo wii and not get arrested for it!

Snuggly Buddy

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I guess those Baltimore cops didn't get the memo from FEB 2012
Baltimore PD releases new rules for videotaping police
Police photo, video policy
Upon discovery that a bystander is observing, photographing, or video recording the conduct of police activity:

1. DO NOT impede or prevent the bystander's ability to continue doing so based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

2. DO NOT seize or otherwise demand to take possession of any camera or video recording device the bystander may possess based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

3. DO NOT demand to review, manipulate, or erase any images or video recording captured by the bystander based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

4. For investigative purposes, be mindful of the potential that the bystander may witness, or capture images/video of events considered at some later time to be material evidence.

5. BEFORE taking any police action which would stop a bystander from observing, photographing, or video recording the conduct of police activity, Officer(s) must have observed the bystander committing some act [deemed criminal, such as obstruction, disorderly conduct or interfering with an officer's lawful duties].

But then, apparently they had trouble grasping it last year either
May 2013 Cops Beat Woman For Filming Another Beating

I'm glad I don't live in Baltimore.

Snuggly Buddy

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Citizen Jones
Alexander J Luthor
fairy-phoenix
How can anyone suddenly 'lose' their freedom of speech? What gives police officers the right to proclaim that those people lost it?

Because quite a few of them seem to think they're Gods now.


Some of them always have! I mean, police officer is number seven of the top ten professions that attract psychopaths. Only, now we're more aware of it, because of how many people now film them. If they weren't behaving (at best) unprofessionally in the first place, they wouldn't be so upset about being filmed doing their jobs.


"If they weren't behaving (at best) unprofessionally in the first place, they wouldn't be so upset about being filmed doing their jobs"

Kind of ironic since police psychology 101 is "If you are not doing anything wrong then surely you won't object to me invading your privacy" (Search a vehicle or person or enter a residence and so on). When I lived in the heart of downtown I overheard cops using that tactic many times. But apparently filming what everyone can plainly see is 'bad'.

I'd love to see them mistakenly pull that s**t on what turned out to be a legitimate news crew. It's harder to brush it off as 'pissed off citizen lying' when the person with the camera happened to be a news professional who films news on the street all the time. Granted not normally with a cell phone but if a reporter saw a story going down he/she would record it with whatever they had handy.
just another day in totalitarian america.

Fashionable Bookworm

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It's frightening to think that cops don't know any more about the Constitution than your average high school kid.

Destructive Detective

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David2074
I guess those Baltimore cops didn't get the memo from FEB 2012
Baltimore PD releases new rules for videotaping police
Police photo, video policy
Upon discovery that a bystander is observing, photographing, or video recording the conduct of police activity:

1. DO NOT impede or prevent the bystander's ability to continue doing so based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

2. DO NOT seize or otherwise demand to take possession of any camera or video recording device the bystander may possess based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

3. DO NOT demand to review, manipulate, or erase any images or video recording captured by the bystander based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

4. For investigative purposes, be mindful of the potential that the bystander may witness, or capture images/video of events considered at some later time to be material evidence.

5. BEFORE taking any police action which would stop a bystander from observing, photographing, or video recording the conduct of police activity, Officer(s) must have observed the bystander committing some act [deemed criminal, such as obstruction, disorderly conduct or interfering with an officer's lawful duties].

But then, apparently they had trouble grasping it last year either
May 2013 Cops Beat Woman For Filming Another Beating

I'm glad I don't live in Baltimore.
I wish that city weren't in my state. I'm nowhere near that rotten dump, but since it's the only city in MD most people seem to have heard of, I usually tell people in other states I'm in DC (rather than just its metropolitan area) so they will not even think I'm anywhere near that festering shithole. Yeah, DC has its own problems, but even when it was the murder capital of the country I forget how many years running it still did not have as bad a rep as Baltimore has - and deserves.
Thank God our police aren't like that

Clean Seeker

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The trick when filming police is to not be obvious about it. Just pretend you're texting or browsing the Web. Then when finished, upload to YouTube or LiveLeak!

Snuggly Buddy

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Ratttking
David2074
I guess those Baltimore cops didn't get the memo from FEB 2012
Baltimore PD releases new rules for videotaping police
Police photo, video policy
Upon discovery that a bystander is observing, photographing, or video recording the conduct of police activity:

1. DO NOT impede or prevent the bystander's ability to continue doing so based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

2. DO NOT seize or otherwise demand to take possession of any camera or video recording device the bystander may possess based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

3. DO NOT demand to review, manipulate, or erase any images or video recording captured by the bystander based solely on your discovery of his/her presence.

4. For investigative purposes, be mindful of the potential that the bystander may witness, or capture images/video of events considered at some later time to be material evidence.

5. BEFORE taking any police action which would stop a bystander from observing, photographing, or video recording the conduct of police activity, Officer(s) must have observed the bystander committing some act [deemed criminal, such as obstruction, disorderly conduct or interfering with an officer's lawful duties].

But then, apparently they had trouble grasping it last year either
May 2013 Cops Beat Woman For Filming Another Beating

I'm glad I don't live in Baltimore.
I wish that city weren't in my state. I'm nowhere near that rotten dump, but since it's the only city in MD most people seem to have heard of, I usually tell people in other states I'm in DC (rather than just its metropolitan area) so they will not even think I'm anywhere near that festering shithole. Yeah, DC has its own problems, but even when it was the murder capital of the country I forget how many years running it still did not have as bad a rep as Baltimore has - and deserves.


I'm honestly surprised there aren't some huge lawsuits going on - either by individuals or with the involvement of something like the ACLU. From just a casual Google search it appears one can readily document -
1. That the 'you can't record public stuff' abuse has been a recurring pattern that has been going on for years.
2. The courts told the cops that was illegal a long time ago.
3 The police department is on record as having relayed that information to its LEOs repeatedly in a variety of ways.

So it seems to me like all the usual excuses are all used up and the admin should be stopping it if for no other reason than to protect their jobs and protect the department from large lawsuits.

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