In May 2007,the military-industrial complex decided to use the Port of Grays Harbor (in my then town of residence, Aberdeen, WA) to ship weapons of mass destruction to US forces in Iraq. Thinking that they could avoid the kind of loud protests they had encountered over the previous months in Tacoma and Olympia, they were rudely surprised to find protesters ready and waiting for them.
I know about this event, not because I read about it in the newspaper or saw a report on TV, but because I was one of the organizers!
As we gathered to march and demonstrate, several cameras were trained on our assemblage of 75 - 100 peaceful citizens. These were not TV cameras. The police were the ones holding the cameras. For the entire 4 days, anytime even a small group of us got anywhere near the Port, the police filmed our every move.
On the day of our big march, we were joined by several members of the Evergreen State College Students for Democratic Society (SDS). Since they had been forewarned of the presence of police cameras, several of them decided to wear bandannas to cover their faces.
This move greatly angered the police. One officer yelled at them, "If you aren't doing anything illegal, then you have no reason to worry about being photographed or filmed."
Sounds like a logical position to take, doesn't it? Yet, as David Sirota reports, the police themselves don't take kindly to citizens photographing them as they do police work!
It's a two-way street or, at least, it SHOULD be.
I know about this event, not because I read about it in the newspaper or saw a report on TV, but because I was one of the organizers!
As we gathered to march and demonstrate, several cameras were trained on our assemblage of 75 - 100 peaceful citizens. These were not TV cameras. The police were the ones holding the cameras. For the entire 4 days, anytime even a small group of us got anywhere near the Port, the police filmed our every move.
On the day of our big march, we were joined by several members of the Evergreen State College Students for Democratic Society (SDS). Since they had been forewarned of the presence of police cameras, several of them decided to wear bandannas to cover their faces.
This move greatly angered the police. One officer yelled at them, "If you aren't doing anything illegal, then you have no reason to worry about being photographed or filmed."
Sounds like a logical position to take, doesn't it? Yet, as David Sirota reports, the police themselves don't take kindly to citizens photographing them as they do police work!
Police officers, [Jim Pasco] told NPR, “need to move quickly, in split seconds, without giving a lot of thought to what the adverse consequences for them might be.” He added that law enforcement authorities believe that “anything that’s going to have a chilling effect on an officer moving — an apprehension that he’s being videotaped and may be made to look bad — could cost him or some citizen their life.”So, this is what it comes down to. The police argue that law-abiding citizens should not mind having the state photograph us whenever they feel like it, but we do not have the right to film them. If they aren't infringing on our rights or breaking the law, why should they care if they are caught on film?
Obviously, nobody wants to stop officers from doing their much-needed job (well, nobody other than budget-cutting politicians who are slashing police forces). In fact, organizations such as the NAACP have urged citizens to videotape police precisely to make sure police are doing ALL of their job — including protecting individuals’ civil liberties.
This is not some academic or theoretical concern, and video recording is not a needless exercise in Bill of Rights zealotry. The assault on civil liberties in America is a very real problem and monitoring police is absolutely required in light of recent data.
As USA Today reported under the headline “Police brutality cases on rise since 9/11,” situations “in which police, prison guards and other law enforcement authorities have used excessive force or other tactics to violate victims’ civil rights increased 25 percent” between 2001 and 2007. Last year alone, more than 1,500 officers were involved in excessive-force complaints, according to the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project...
It's a two-way street or, at least, it SHOULD be.
The trouble is that not all folks who deal with the police are as peaceful and as law abiding as you guys were. A mobster, for instance, can easily order a hit on a police officer who gives him a traffic ticket.
ReplyDeleteSo, I disagree. It isn't a two way street. The police, by virtue of representing law and order, should have the upper hand. Their performance should be evaluated some other way.
I don't understand what your point has to do with the issue of taking pictures. Sure, a mobster can order such a hit, but he doesn't need a camera to do that.
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