![]() ![]() Only in Massachusetts and Illinois is it illegal for people to make an audio recording of people without their consent. A dozen states require all parties to consent before a recording is made if there is a "reasonable expectation of privacy." Virginia and New York require one-party consent. A lot of people are being abused by police in the same way."Īcross the country, arrests such as these highlight the growing role of witness video in law enforcement. Prosecutors refused to file charges against Sharron Tasha Ford and her son. Her crime: videotaping an encounter between police officers and her teenage son at a movie theater. The ACLU of Florida filed a First Amendment lawsuit last month on behalf of a model who was arrested February 2009 in Boynton Beach. ![]() "If cops are doing their jobs, they shouldn't worry." "They're just regular citizens with a cell-phone camera who happen to come upon a situation," Miller said. He won one case on appeal, he said, while the other was thrown out after the officer twice failed to appear in court. Miller himself has been arrested twice for photographing the police. "With these charges, anyone who would even think to record the police is now justifiably in fear that they will also be criminally charged."Ĭarlos Miller, a Miami journalist who runs the blog " Photography Is Not a Crime," said he has documented about 10 arrests since he started keeping track in 2007. "The message is clearly, 'Don't criticize the police,'" said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who is part of Graber's defense team. YouTube still features Graber's encounter along with numerous other witness videos. Videos of alleged police misconduct have become hot items on the Internet. Graber was indicted for allegedly violating state wiretap laws by recording the trooper without his consent.Īrrests such as Graber's are becoming more common along with the proliferation of portable video cameras and cell-phone recorders. They confiscated his camera, computers and external hard drives. In early April, state police officers raided Graber's parents' home in Abingdon, Md. It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later - taken with his helmet camera - of a plainclothes state trooper cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore. For that, he was issued a speeding ticket. He raced his Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95 in Maryland at 80 mph, popping a wheelie, roaring past cars and swerving across traffic lanes.īut it wasn't his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the possibility of 16 years in prison. July 19, 2010— - That Anthony Graber broke the law in early March is indisputable. ![]()
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