doesn’t matter–this guy was filming from his driveway when the officer approached him and drew his gun
Recall that cops for a long time would arrest filmers or break their cameras under the trope that the filmer was too close and so threatening/impeding police work. This kept some bad behavior from being recorded. This AZ rube is carrying water for such unconstitutional cop attitudes.
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i agree that the cop was way out of line. but, come on, just take your hand out of your pocket. is that so hard? it’s not a search request.
both sides escalated a bizarre situation which seems to have quite a backstory, considering the comments the citizen made about his family.
back to the legislation, it would restrict almost all indoors filming of police activity. and of course any first-person interactions.
I would note that in the video the cop was probably about 10-15 feet away much of the time.
The Republicans and their rich handlers would like nothing better than to censor what the American public knows and sees with our government, courts, and their policing.
I think as long as “We the People” are paying their salaries, we get to hold them accountable when they’re needlessly beating up or murdering someone.
But hey, I get it, you’re a Republican so you’re just a gigantic asshole.
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And yet 20 feet is to great a distance to keep the whacko anti-free women’s choice demonstrators from women entering family planning clinics…
How ironique how the Republicans will stop at nothing to impose their control and ideology on all others…regardless of the laws of the land and the US Constitution.
It’s like Nixon is back in charge of the Republicans - they really are crooks!
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"Kavanagh, who is a retired cop "
That’s all you need to know…
R-AZists! =P
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…are Native Americans. On a per capita basis.
There are laws on the books already for interfering with an officer. We don’t need a new one that is only about filming. Yes, we could pretend that’s all he’s worrying about, but this is so the cops will have any possible excuse to take cameras and arrest people filming them.
Let’s say you’re standing 25 feet away, filming an arrest, when one of the cops does something blatantly illegal, like striking a suspect in cuffs. So his partner starts walking towards you. He makes it 6 feet and then says you’re under arrest for filming too close. Even with the footage (assuming they don’t just erase it while you’re in custody), good luck getting out of that set up.
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I wonder if he would be OK with putting some arbitrary restrictions on the Second Amendment. To protect cops, of course.
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“Most cameras have great resolution where you don’t really lose anything when you’re 20 feet away,” he said, according to the Times. “At 20 feet you can pretty much pick up small objects."
“I know this from videos I have made of my schmeckle.”
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How about a companion bill prohibiting cops from shooting people within 20 feet?
Kavanagh, who is a retired cop and teaches criminal justice courses at a community college, said it was a “distraction” to have someone filming too close to police.
That’s what every criminal says. “Hey, stop filming me! I’m trying to break a law ovah heah!”
How come the GOP can say, “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from the police”? But, at the same time, if cops aren’t doing anything wrong, they should still be able to shut down any recording of their activity.
I’m sorry, but I think there’s a word for that . . . um, HYPOCRITICAL?
Is that the right word?
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I suspect he’s all in on passing a law to keep anti-abortionists from harassing people entering clinics because it’s a distraction. Except the supremes have said that’s unconstitutional, a violation of first amendment. Sorry pal, there isn’t a special class for certain people when it comes to first amendment as long as they are just expressing first amendment rights. Sure, actively interfering is probably interfering, but recording a government action is a first amendment right.
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I found for myself that whenever I can’t laugh at them anymore. When they just make me mad and start jacking up my blood pressure is good to detox for a couple of days. Get off TPM and other new sites and go read a favorite book or watch some DVDs. We all need a break occasionally.
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Most of the time they don’t know they’re being filmed so how could it be a distraction?
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Yes, we know what it “distracts” from, and that’s a good thing.
I say we keep cops 20 feet away from everyone–you just can’t trust one of them to not do this if they get any closer to citizens:
Republican state legislators continually seek new opportunities to be SPANKED by the federal court system for their incredibly invasive and blatantly unconstitutional policy proposals and legislative offerings.
“Thank you, may I have another?”