Blind Justice

Blind Justice

Originally shared by David Brin

Danger, danger. The most important civil liberties advance in the 21st Century so far was when the Obama Admin joined multiple courts in declaring a citizen may record the police. I wrote about this in The Transparent Society (1997; see p.160) and how vital it is that we can exercise sousveillance at the level of the street, where power can most-directly affect us. Now: "In a free speech ruling that contradicts six other federal circuit courts, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court ruling that says Americans do not have a first amendment right to videotape the police, or any public official, in public."

Sure enough, in a deep-red state, this principle is under attack. Only... I blame the good side lawyers! They base their arguments for sousveillance on the First Amendment and sometimes the Fifth... when it is in fact the under-appreciated SIXTH Amendment that most preserves the citizen from true abuse of power, by granting us the power to compel revelation of facts in our own defense, allowing us recourse to the ultimate defense...

...the Truth.

http://krcgtv.com/news/local/eighth-circuit-citizens-do-not-have-a-right-to-film-public-officials-in-public
http://krcgtv.com/news/local/eighth-circuit-citizens-do-not-have-a-right-to-film-public-officials-in-public

Comments

  1. Yeah, the article doesn't make the underlying issues very clear.

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  2. At least part of the complaint seems to involve treating a municipal police FB page as a public place, which seems odd. I did not see much justification for restricting recording, however.

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  3. Citizens have a right to photograph anyone - strangers, public officials, you name it - if all are standing on public property. There is no requirement to ask. This is well-supported by case law (although I admit I do not know how "filming" is treated under the law). I don't see this standing if it makes it to the Supreme Court.

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