Friday, May 18, 2012

My detainment at BCCC/JLCNY jobs fair + Cabot Picnic (indirectly) mentioned on Huff Post piece

In 15+ years of video taping events, I have been detained
by armed on-duty police, or off-duty police acting as private security,
exactly twice. Both have been at gas drilling events.

1) First Annual Cabot Oil+Gas PR Picnic Aug 2010
2) Broome Community College JLCNY Gas industry Jobs Fair. April 2012
   (by a very nice officer with a TASAR. I complied with his "request"!)

Both were public events being held on public property (public schools).

Thanks to Josh Stearns and Tim Karr from Free Press!

The Police, the iPhone and Your Right to Record
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/the-police-the-iphone-and_b_1526701.html

QUOTE: Police departments like having a degree of flexibility in interpreting the law as it gives their officers loose rein to arrest anyone they deem a nuisance, even when they know their case will collapse before the courts.

"When I have been confronted by officers the implicit threat is that if I continued to videotape, they would take away my liberty," says advocacy journalist Bill Huston. Police have harassed Huston as he's attempted to record public events related to the fracking controversy in Pennsylvania and New York.

"Even though this is constitutionally protected behavior, the police will intimidate you and demand that you follow their orders," he said. "Even though we may get a legal remedy in the courts we are still prevented from videotaping on the scene. Our rights are still violated. This is not how the system is supposed to work."  ENDQUOTE

--
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)

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