Lawsuit Filed To Force NYPD To Respect Citizens' First Amendment Right To Record Police Officers
from the inevitable-law-enforcement-response:-'make-me' dept
The NYPD may be arbitrarily slapping the word "secret" on its internal documents and making sure all of its intelligence stays safely within its walls, but when it comes to communicating with the outside world, it's apparently a one-way transaction. It talks (when it wants to and can completely guide the narrative) but it rarely ever listens. Case in point: the Brooklyn DA says he won't prosecute low-level marijuana possession charges, so naturally the Brooklyn division tells its officers that low-level marijuana possession arrests will continue uninterrupted.
Now, it's facing a lawsuit for its refusal to stop arresting citizens for filming police officers. A recent court of appeals decision UPHELD (all caps for a reason) the public's First Amendment right to film police officers and other public servants. The ruling was loaded with exceptions, but it did reaffirm what was already a legal right, albeit one that is routinely trampled by members of law enforcement who take offense to being publicly recorded while performing their public duties.
A federal lawsuit, which cites arrests of people who recorded police confrontations or activity, was filed on Tuesday asking a judge to declare that people have a right under the First Amendment to film or record officers working in public places.The NYPD apparently believes it's exempt because there's been no specific ruling from a district court covering its jurisdiction. This despite the fact that the DOJ itself fired off a letter in response to a lawsuit brought Baltimore that stated plainly:
The suit was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on behalf of one of the people arrested, and seeks a permanent injunction barring New York City employees from retaliating against those who record them in public.
[T]he justification for this right is firmly rooted in longstanding First Amendment principles.This also despite the fact that its own Patrol Guide say photographing police isn't an arrestable offense.
[T]he Police Department Patrol Guide states that “taking photographs, videotapes or tape recordings” do not constitute probable cause for arrest or detention so long as the activity does not jeopardize the safety of officers or others.This also despite the fact that the NYPD's own chief of federal litigation made the following statement:
"[B]ystanders are allowed to film police officers as long as they’re not interfering with the officers’ duties and/or police operations.”The NYPD may be trying to dodge this on jurisdiction specifics, but note that the DOJ's letter doesn't specify this only applies to Baltimore. The letter plainly says "First Amendment right," which is something applied to all Americans, regardless of jurisdiction. It also references the Glik decision, which plainly established citizens' right to record.
Recording governmental officers engaged in public duties is a form of speech through which private individuals may gather and disseminate information of public concern, including the conduct of law enforcement officers.(2) See, e.g., Glik v. Cunniffe, 655 F.3d 78, 82 (1st Cir. 2011)The footnote (2) begins with this unambiguous sentence:
There is no binding precedent to the contrary.And yet, the NYPD continues to harass, arrest and shut down citizens who record police interactions. Shawn Thomas' experience, which we detailed here earlier, saw him harassed by a police officer who claimed he was interfering with police business despite the fact that he had to walk 30 feet away from the detained suspect to deliver this statement. The whole interaction began with police intimidation tactics and culminated in the arrest of Thomas.
Thomas was not an isolated incident.
Debra Goodman, was taking a cellphone video of paramedics assisting a woman in a wheelchair on West 73rd Street and Broadway last year before a police officer intervened.This lawsuit asks for a permanent injunction prohibiting retaliatory actions from NYPD officers against those who record them. Time and money are going to be poured into "protecting" a right that already unequivocally exists. And there's no guarantee the NYPD will pay attention even if it receives a jurisdiction-specific injunction. After all, a federal appeals court ruled the state's wiretapping law (something frequently abused to prosecute citizens for recording cops) was unconstitutional and this decision was greeted by Morgan County prosecutors and law enforcement with a "so, business as usual" shrug. It took the involvement of the ACLU to get Morgan County to align itself with a ruling that plainly stated recording police was not a violation of the wiretapping statute.
"He asked me to produce ID. I refused, because I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Goodman told CBS. “And then he grabbed my arm and handcuffed me, and told me I was under arrest.” She was held for 25 hours.
What the NYPD is doing is ignoring common knowledge and several court decisions. The DOJ's letter may have been addressed to Baltimore's police department, but the wording (and the cases cited) apply to every law enforcement agency. The US government itself has declared that citizens have this right, something that comes bundled with the First Amendment. It's utterly ridiculous that anyone should have to force the issue in a "local" court in order to make the NYPD respect citizens' First Amendment rights.
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Filed Under: citizens, filming, first amendment, nypd, police, recording police
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Imagine that.
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Just NY?
Or in any other US jurisdiction or protectorate.
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Re:
The action I would like to see is a federal civil rights prosecution every time this happens. Toss several dozen cops in jail from different jurisdictions and now your talking deterrents...OK, I will wake up from my dream now...
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Not just a couple of dozen, but every last violator.
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Re:
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18 USC 242
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This Could Never Happen In Teh USA
So don't sweat the small stuff. We can sleep safe at night, with that ultimate guarantor of our rights close at hand, under that pillow.
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Re: This Could Never Happen In Teh USA
Wielding a fascist government is an invitation for armed resistance from people defining themselves as freedom fighters.
And it's not like basically every important leader of terrorist actions against the U.S.A. hasn't had CIA training. It's probably the CIA's idea of job security.
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Re: Re: This Could Never Happen In Teh USA
The fact that the NYPD is more a military force than police will mean a lot more blood spilt but thought history people have had to offer their lives to remove obscenities from power.
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Petty Authoritarian Control Freeks
It is clear even for a casual observer that the NYPD has zero respect for the NYS/US constitutions both of which the entire department has sworn oaths to "protect and defend".
When the DA's office and courts fail to hold the NYPD to account it creates an anything goes policing attitude that allows the police to run rough-shod over the very citizens they're supposed to be serving.
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Make them Pay
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That's the curse of public service
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Vote with your feet
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Let's take the case of the woman filming paramedics before police showed up. Once police showed up, the police officer approached the woman filming and demanded to see her ID. You must produce ID if an officer demands it. Whether you feel such a demand is relevant or justified does not matter, it's the law.
Now, once the officer demanded to see her ID. She is no longer considered a "bystander". She is now considered "temporarily detained" and she is now an active participant in a police investigation.
According to my understanding of the law as it pertains to filming cops. It's permissible to film cops questioning your buddy, so long as the one filming is not being "temporarily detained". But it's not permissible for you to film cops if you, yourself, are being "temporarily detained" and questioned.
So basically if cops want to get around being filmed. All cops need to do is have their partner walk up to the ones filming them, and "temporarily detain" them all by asking to see their IDs and asking them additional questions.
While they're being "temporarily detained". The persons filming will be required to turn their cameras off, until the officer releases them from "temporary detainment".
Conclusion: You're best bet when filming police conduct is to make sure the cops don't notice you filming them. Otherwise they'll "temporarily detain" you and compel you to shut your camera off.
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People like you should stop posting on the internet, you ARE part of the PROBLEM and IGNORANCE that plagues this nation!
Of course, regardless of the law, an officer can easily make your life miserable or arrest you for just look cross eyed with little recourse on your behalf but to wade through a corrupt system for relief. But by all means, STOP POSTING YOUR DRIVEL!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes
Please don't call me "a plague". I was only trying to point out a loophole that law enforcement officers can use to force people to shut off their cameras.
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Well don't keep us in the dark, Tim. What was the reason?
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Re: Re
Of course if you're operating a motor vehicle then you must produce a valid license.
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It's long past time...
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nowadays the cops are the criminals
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Re: This Could Never Happen In Teh USA
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Re:
You have to only identify yourself, according to the law. You do NOT need to produce any kind of ID, unless, as another poster noted, you are operating a motor vehicle. As a bystander, you DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE AN ID to a cop. That is not "the law."
So yes, you are a plague spreading false information and the presumption of automatic capitulation to authority.
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Last, but of greatest importance,is the Billy club which is often used as a pretendering agent for testilying before and at trial.
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Re: Re: This Could Never Happen In Teh USA
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In the real world of "law" enforcement, refusal to provide such information may result in arrest or a beating. The arrest may not be too bad if you have the funds, time and temperament to bring a lawsuit against the offending agency. That of course assumes that the arresting officer doesn't invent pile on charges that can put you away for 7 years or more (your chin smashed my gloved hand).
A beating is much more problematic in that it can lead to life long damage as well as a guilty verdict for assaulting an officer (fabricated or not.)
The courts are pretty much meaningless. The mighty patent office just told SCOTUS to go screw, and it will grant patents on whatever basis it feels like. The Congress won't even act when hearing witnesses from the FBI get up and walk out of a hearing because they don't like the questions.
We live in a society run by a (usually) velvet coated jack boot.
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Temporary Walls NYC
http://1daywall.com/temporary-walls-nyc/
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