NYPD Need Respect
Hate to harp on this, but NYC is supposedly Blue, so everyone really should give a damn when our basic rights are being seriously abused by our own Police. From CBS:
A lot of NYCers will bitch about President Bush's trampling of rights, like with the Military Comissions Act, but then put on the blinders when it comes to behavior by the NYPD. Folks, Ray Kelly and chief Smolka, they are not heros.
Police Take Exception To Citizens With Video Cameras
(CBS) NEW YORK Eileen Clancy of has been investigating police reactions to citizens using video cameras in the city.
What she has found has been a troubling pattern of behavior: Cops threatening citizens with arrest and confiscating cameras, especially over the last eight months.
For example, on Aug. 25 Critical Mass bicycle protestors pedaled up Third Avenue near 40th Street. Police stopped the protestors, including Jacob Redding, who had a video camera. Twenty five seconds after one officer stopped him and held his arm, Redding said a second officer came from behind and knocked the camera out of his hand onto the ground, breaking it.
Redding said in the days after he was hit he photographed bruises on his arm. In a complaint to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, he identified the officer who hit him — Lt. Daniel Albano, a lawyer in the police legal department.
"Officers not wanting us to videotape is kinda scary, because there is nothing to hold them accountable afterwards," Redding said.
Another Critical Mass bicycle protestor with a camera that night was Sarah Phillips. Police told her to stop videotaping Redding receiving a summons.
"I felt I particularly had a right to videotape after my friend had been assaulted," Phillips said.
Were the police right? Just when do citizens have a right to videotape police?
"An officer could for instance tell an individual to stop smoking a cigarette, keep his hands out of his pockets, stop calling out to bystanders, don't take notes, keep your hands at your side," said Sadiq Reza, who teaches criminal law at New York Law School.
Reza said when an officer arrests someone, or even gives a summons, he or she can order the person to stop whatever they're doing, including videotaping. However, as in Phillips' apparent case, if you are not being arrested or given a summons and are not interfering with an arrest, you have a constitutional right to videotape. And as in Redding's allegation, police cannot strike you for merely videotaping.
"Knocking a video tape out of someone's hand, a video camera, would presumably be unreasonable use of force or unlawful excessive use of force and might also raise criminal liability for the officer," Reza said.
The NYPD had no comment. The Civilian Complaint Review Board said the Critical Mass group has had some substantiated claims of police abuse, and some thrown out. It notes videotapes will be used to investigate these cases.
(CBS) NEW YORK Eileen Clancy of has been investigating police reactions to citizens using video cameras in the city.
What she has found has been a troubling pattern of behavior: Cops threatening citizens with arrest and confiscating cameras, especially over the last eight months.
For example, on Aug. 25 Critical Mass bicycle protestors pedaled up Third Avenue near 40th Street. Police stopped the protestors, including Jacob Redding, who had a video camera. Twenty five seconds after one officer stopped him and held his arm, Redding said a second officer came from behind and knocked the camera out of his hand onto the ground, breaking it.
Redding said in the days after he was hit he photographed bruises on his arm. In a complaint to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, he identified the officer who hit him — Lt. Daniel Albano, a lawyer in the police legal department.
"Officers not wanting us to videotape is kinda scary, because there is nothing to hold them accountable afterwards," Redding said.
Another Critical Mass bicycle protestor with a camera that night was Sarah Phillips. Police told her to stop videotaping Redding receiving a summons.
"I felt I particularly had a right to videotape after my friend had been assaulted," Phillips said.
Were the police right? Just when do citizens have a right to videotape police?
"An officer could for instance tell an individual to stop smoking a cigarette, keep his hands out of his pockets, stop calling out to bystanders, don't take notes, keep your hands at your side," said Sadiq Reza, who teaches criminal law at New York Law School.
Reza said when an officer arrests someone, or even gives a summons, he or she can order the person to stop whatever they're doing, including videotaping. However, as in Phillips' apparent case, if you are not being arrested or given a summons and are not interfering with an arrest, you have a constitutional right to videotape. And as in Redding's allegation, police cannot strike you for merely videotaping.
"Knocking a video tape out of someone's hand, a video camera, would presumably be unreasonable use of force or unlawful excessive use of force and might also raise criminal liability for the officer," Reza said.
The NYPD had no comment. The Civilian Complaint Review Board said the Critical Mass group has had some substantiated claims of police abuse, and some thrown out. It notes videotapes will be used to investigate these cases.
A lot of NYCers will bitch about President Bush's trampling of rights, like with the Military Comissions Act, but then put on the blinders when it comes to behavior by the NYPD. Folks, Ray Kelly and chief Smolka, they are not heros.
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