Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Another step on the road to a police state?
It appears so. In 11 states it is now illegal (!?) to video or otherwise record a police officer at work. After all, it violates his "privacy."
Here's an especially egregious example from the Washington Post, in which a Maryland National Guardsman who received a speeding ticket (which he accepted and paid) is now being prosecuted. He faces up to sixteen years in prison.
If the police are doing things that shouldn't be filmed, the solution is for them to stop, not to prosecute citizens. If it is illegal to document police brutality and other wrongdoing, such behavior will expand and become institutionalized.
