Agreed.
It’s like this in Lancaster. They have 6 cops on any shift and I have seen two of them sitting in industrial parking lots hanging out doing nothing. My shop gets robbed and no one can do anything or help anyone. You sneeze wrong and they are all over you like stink on shit. I feel like like there are too many incompetent police officers out there. They don’t use their heads enough.
It actually made me laugh that the RPD took it to this level.
Rochester police use selective enforcement of parking laws to harass attendees at a meeting in support of Emily Good
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/06/24/rochester-police-use.html
me too
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so out of curiosity. In a traffic stop do I have the right to have a camera rolling to record the traffic stop? personally I don’t find it unreasonable but I do see where it would make someone uncomfortable. I can’t imagine getting excited enough to cause a issue like this lady in rochester getting arrested. It amazes me how much words can change the outcome of a event. If the officer had said I don’t feel comfortable with you standing behind us, the lady would have said i’m in my own yard. He could have replied with I would be much more comfortable if you would at least record from your porch could you do that for me please. I imagine she would have said ok and moved back. Instead he choose a less reasonable approach in my eyes. I have always found that people respond well to kindness, but maybe in the heat of the moment things don’t play out that way I don’t know
she is a known political activist who was just found guilty of blocking a foreclosed home that had squatters in it, she wants this to happen and pushed the issue to ensure it would.
Does it really matter? It doesn’t change the fact that she was perfectly within her rights to record the stop from her front yard and the police illegally arrested her for it.
She wasn’t arrested for recording it. The officer allowed her to hand off the camera to a friend, who continued recording. She was arrested for obstruction.
What is the law on videotaping/photography? I often want to look up laws but just can’t seem to find the correct law on the interwebs.
In what way was she obstructing justice?
Fixed
And it’s a moot point now anyway, since the charges were dismissed. But she’ll get arrested again, because she’s an instigator and doesn’t know when to mind her own business.
Actually it’s not really moot, because what I read yesterday was there was a possible civil case against the police coming. The fact that the charges were bogus and got dismissed will certainly help her case.
If every person whose charges were dismissed sued the police for bogus charges, the courts would be full 24/7. This self-proclaimed ‘activist’ is now wasting taxpayers’ money. She needs to find a more worthwhile cause than her own twisted anti-police agenda, or squatting on legitimately foreclosed homes. Here’s an idea for her: tell your friends to pay their mortgages, and stop annoying the cops.
if its in public in open view you have the right to take pictures and video of it, audio included.
although most respectable photographers will ask permission first if they have the opportunity to.
consent isn’t needed by the person being filmed? Any source on this?
if it is in public, and can be seen from where you are standing, you can record it.
obviously there are some boundaries on it but for the most part thats how it is. i mean the city of buffalo has cameras all over and they dont have signs posted about it, its the same for us.
True, but not every dismissal of charges involves a video documented violation of civil rights.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the lady is a tool. And if she is one of these foreclosed home squatter supporters even more so. None of this changes that fact that I really hate cops who think they can make up laws to suit them. Boohoo you don’t like being on camera. It doesn’t mean you can make up bogus obstruction charges against someone who is 100% within their rights to be doing what they’re doing. The video posted of the cops later harassing her supporters by sending 4-5 police cars to ticket them for being parked 12.01" from the curb shows me the problems in the RPD are quite serious. That alone is enough for me to overlook this woman’s douchiness and support her in her civil suit. Bad cops are a much bigger problem to law abiding citizens than idiots like this woman.
Well said.
Yep.
Summed it up nicely.
Next time Im pulled over Im going to threaten the cop and tell him to turn off his dash cam.
I’m okay with my taxes going towards this. What I’m not okay with is my taxes arresting some dumb broad just because she’s recording and the officer is camera-shy.