Althouse: You can video the police videoing you videoing them videoing you...

September 13, 2012

You can video the police videoing you videoing them videoing you...

... okay, now, finally, at last, everyone can video everybody...

It's like a Quentin Tarantino "Mexican standoff."

18 comments:

ALH said...: I must be living under a rock...had no idea that it was NOT legal to do this before.; 9/13/12, 8:08 PM
Sorun said...: A good rule: Never admit guilt to police for anything.

A new rule: Don't follow police into a dark alcove if you've been antagonizing them.; 9/13/12, 8:13 PM
rhhardin said...: The police don't realize that light goes from the filmed object to the camera, not from the camera to the filmed object.

The filmed object is the one doing something, not the camera.; 9/13/12, 8:17 PM
James Pawlak said...: Some lawyer (You?) should suggest to them that they file a civil action, in Federal Court, as to "violation of civil rights under color of law" and see if the Democrat US Attorney will make a presentment to the Grand Jury of the same, but criminal, charge.; 9/13/12, 8:17 PM
Sorun said...: I had a hard time fully concentrating on the Isthmus article, but I'll guess that the cops have cameras to protect themselves from dickish actions and false harassment claims from protestors.; 9/13/12, 8:19 PM
dhagood said...: it would seem obvious to me that police have the exact same right to film the general public in a public place as the general public has the right to film the police in a public place.

it's all, you know, public.; 9/13/12, 8:30 PM
Revenant said...: I must be living under a rock...had no idea that it was NOT legal to do this before.

Videotaping the police limits their ability to lie about their encounter with you later.

Lying about their encounters with civilians/suspects is a cornerstone of police work. So, naturally, they try to think up some charge to throw at you to make you stop.

And since it is basically impossible to go through a day without breaking one of the innumerable laws on the books, that isn't difficult for them to do.; 9/13/12, 8:35 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Could you imagine the... despair/torture a Kardashian would be living under at a place where videotaping is virtually akin to a federal case?

One person cruel and unusual..; 9/13/12, 8:41 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: I think that this is a problem nationwide - that a lot of police think that they can photograph anyone they want, but cannot be photographed themselves.

But, as others have pointed out above, this is not the case. The public probably has more, not less, right to photograph the police, than the other way around. They are acting as state agents, implementing government policy, and their actions are, at least in a liberal democracy such as ours, of important public interest.

Pretty much anytime this has been litigated, the police have lost, for good reason. I don't see this situation being any different.

Finally, a cop and frequent poster over at volokh.com has pointed out that if the police are doing their job right, they shouldn't have any reason to be afraid of being videoed, and should, instead be happy at such. Of course, some aren't, but that is presumably because they know that their actions would not stand up to public scrutiny.; 9/13/12, 8:43 PM
gadfly said...: I was looking back to see if you were looking back to see
If I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me.
It was very plain to see that you were looking back to see
If I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me.
~ Jim Ed Brown; 9/13/12, 8:44 PM
Ann Althouse said...: In the future, everyone will film everyone, but the only thing that will ever been seen is somebody filming something.; 9/13/12, 8:46 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: In the future, everyone will film everyone, but the only thing that will ever been seen is somebody filming something.

There is google eyewear that already could in principle do that.; 9/13/12, 8:50 PM
edutcher said...: What ALH said. Where does such a law exist?

I have a feeling what Ann said could be easily turned into the next incarnation of "Who's On First?".; 9/13/12, 8:50 PM
Sorun said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/13/12, 9:02 PM
Unknown said...: This cop photographing situation needs sorting out pretty much nation wide.

So much law in modern times is enacted by people who think the function of the legal system is to give their personal prejudices the force of law that police act most often as political enforcers. They behave more like an army of occupation every day.

If there's a way to focus awareness on this it is to make them do their work in public view. Naturally they dislike it and deter the practice of photographing them with the same boot on your neck approach that they use to deal with mundanes in general.

Anyone who points a camera at a cop has my encouragement and respect. Even if it is a bunch of commies doing it.; 9/13/12, 9:03 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: We have over millennia developed our visual sense above the the other four... over reasons that are not the point of this comment.

So, now that we have this rich visual cortex we are rewarding it with 3D, HD, flat this and that.. my sense is this is just the beginning.

The other senses are like Obama's half brother George... well maybe not that bad... (and that was the point of this comment); 9/13/12, 9:06 PM
Alex said...: In the future we will all be one collective AI and we will laugh at our biological predecessors and their ridiculous hobbies.; 9/13/12, 9:14 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I was at the Pentagon protesting Gulf I and the police photographed us, and I walked the line of police and photographed them, and the whole crowd cheered. If the Pentagon police don't mind me photographing them, why wouldn't these chumps mind? I STILL have the photographs 26 years later.; 9/14/12, 6:30 AM