Just a heads-up to everyone: Texas is trying to make recording police illegal. Oh, sure, the legislation only keeps people back a "safe" distance...for now. And, they're not saying who is made safe by keeping people with recorders back from a police activity -- citizens or cops? The report below is from the Huffington Post in italics: [My commentary is in brackets.]
From the Huff Post: A bill introduced in the Texas House of Representatives would make it illegal for private citizens to record police within 25 feet. House Bill 2918, introduced by state Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) on Tuesday, would make the offense a misdemeanor. Citizens who are armed would not be permitted to record police activity within 100 feet of an officer, according to the Houston Chronicle. [Not only would this keep private citizens back outside of audio recording range, it pushes anyone able to defend him- or herself out four times that far. Someone able to defend himself = someone more likely to record police abuse of power.]
Only representatives of radio or TV organizations that hold an FCC license, newspapers and magazines would have the right to record police. [This really cuts to it, doesn't it? Government has been pushing for this for some time; they hate bloggers, freelancers and media they can't control. So to fix that major malfunction that keeps letting the truth out: "If you want to record us, you have to be licensed by us. Oh, yeah, and if you screw with us, we'll pull your license..."]
The legislator disagreed with people on Twitter who said he's seeking to make all filming of cops illegal. [It's getting a foot in the door. We all know how government works in these cases: Give them an inch; they put you in jail for obstruction and bust down the door.]
"My bill ... just asks filmers to stand back a little so as not to interfere with law enforcement," Villalba tweeted. [Idiot pawn.]
The bill would go against precedent set in 2011 by an appeals court, which found that citizens are allowed to record police, according to the ACLU. Villalba's bill comes at a time of increased public scrutiny over the police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others. In Garner's case, a grand jury didn't indict the police officer who put Garner in a chokehold before his death, but another grand jury did indict the man who filmed the incident on weapons charges. [The cop in the Garner case was guilty as hell. And they did bust the guy who put the murder on the internet for, depending on which news source you believe, weapons charges -- which he denies.
Last year, HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly and another reporter were detained and assaulted while attempting to film a swarm of police officers filling up a McDonald's in Ferguson, Missouri, the town where Brown was killed. That filming, as well as other recordings of police interactions by the public, are currently legal. [A lot of people recording the stupidity in Ferguson were detained by cops. And a lot of people weren't. When the recorders need to come out, there's safety in numbers; they can't get all of us without getting one of us first -- while the rest of us upload data!]
Any blogger, alternative media producer, freelance writer who has a clue as to the chokehold government and industry have on mainstream media had to know this was coming. The powers that be in government and industry hate media the can't control. If they had their way, we'd be printing pamphlets on ditto machines and that would be illegal, too.
They want us to have a license to be "media." Without a "license" any producer of content would be barred from making any profit on their content. No selling, no advertising revenue, no royalties. That sucks for those who make money off their content; what about those of us who don't? It says it right in the Huff Post story; you don't have a license, you can't record police. We have to assume that photography, audio recording and good, old-fashioned eye-witness reporting would also be covered and that, once it becomes law, Google (or your choice of net portal) will be compelled to take down your evil, untruthful news reports if you are posting without a license, Think this all sounds far-fetched and paranoid? Think again.
I also posted this article on my website: www.good-cop-bad-cop.com This site is still in the development stages, but I'm trying to add enough content to start generating interest in the concept...which is that everyone, all the time, record cops when performing their public duties in public.
The concept is actually laid out in this website (also mine): www.goodcopbadcop.info The idea is that any time one has an interaction with a cop, it's recorded, via portable app maybe, and is stored in the interaction database, accessible online and via portable app. So, when dealing with a cop, a user can have a good idea whether he's one of the good guys or one of the bad guys. They keep track of us; so we'll keep track of them.
Right now, it's not illegal to record them...
Please comment and let me know what you think of these ideas.
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