Police cannot prevent citizens from filming their public activities, civil rights groups say, citing courts.
A New Jersey policeman was captured on video telling a passerby who filmed his traffic stop: I have the legal right to seize your camera.
Officer Ramon Aponte then detained the videotaper until his sergeant could arrive at the scene.
The action starts around the 1:17 mark of the video, shortly after Aponte is shown pulling a car to the side of the road. The man walking by, identified as Joe Feranti, who films the scene, the Blaze reported. Feranti later uploaded his video onto YouTube.
In it, Aponte is shown walking toward Feranti and brusquely asking: “Are you recording? So am I. Is there a reason why you are recording?”
Feranti replies he’s recording for the safety of the community, “to protect the community.”
Aponte then demands the man’s name, and says: “At this point, if you’re recording at my stop, the I have to seize your phone … Yes, I do.”
Feranti explains his First Amendment right to record police actions on a public street. But Aponte tells Feranti he’s being detained.
He says: “I’m going to call my boss, you’re going to stand here and then we’ll figure this out. … I have the authority to do that sir. … You stand by, you’re being detained. That’s it.”
Aponte is later heard in the video telling a woman on the sidewalk, “You’re free to go. Next time, just don’t stand here. It’s a no-standing stop.”
Feranti, who’s been detained for several minutes at this point, then asks Aponte “why do you guys hate the First Amendment so much? … Don’t you understand I have a right to record?”
Aponte: “Are you a member of the press?”
A second officer then wanders onto the scene, but does nothing. Feranti then asks Aponte why he’s wasting time and if he had “criminals to go after,” the video shows.
And Aponte mocks him, saying: “That’s your response [to this]? Really? Is that your response? That’s definitely highly educated, that’s really good. … I’m not going to answer that question. To me, it’s not educated.”
The back-and-forth continues for several more minutes, and then Sgt. Kevin Brown arrives.
Brown explains Aponte approached Feranti because he was a “distraction” during the traffic stop. And shortly after, Brown starts to walk from the scene.
Feranti asks if he’s free to go.
“You’re not detained,” Brown said. “You in handcuffs? Are you in a police care? You’re not detained. You can leave now.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and several other rights groups have clarified several times that citizens in all states have the legal, court-stamped right to videotape police as they go about their public business.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/new-jersey-cop-detains-man-for-videotaping/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/new-jersey-cop-detains-man-for-videotaping/
No comments:
Post a Comment