For John, BLUF: Yes, you can film Police doing their duty. even in Fall River. Nothing to see here; just move along.
"Fall River Man Arrested For Videotaping Police Officer". The man, apparently on his front porch, was videoing a police officer on a paid detail. So reports CBS Local Channel 8. Also reported is that the video phone was confiscated and the video deleted.
Assuming the news report is pretty close to correct, I suggest the following two points:
First, the Mayor, Mr Willam A Flanagan, needs to invite the Chief of Police, Mr Daniel Racine, up to his office and privately explain to him how the cow ate the cabbage. By now it should be a common place that a citizen can videotape the police. Then the two city officials need to agree on the kind of deal to cut with the man videotaping from his front porch (that is to say, a US Citizen).
Second, the man on his front porch should be offered a formal public apology by both the Chief of Police and the Police Officer and $500 for the loss of his phone and videos (to be paid for by the City, not the Police Officer).♠
Regards — Cliff
♠ But, the same should apply if he is an illegal resident.
AMEN!
ReplyDeleteI'm extremely alarmed at the number of these cases around the country, and absolutely agree that the correct priority is always respecting citizens and their rights. I'm coincidentally encouraged that Lowell's Superintendents for so many years have come out so strongly and publicly in support of respecting citizen's rights in situations like this. I appreciate greatly that they manage their (our!) officers to be as respectful as possible, and back that up with their actions. I give strong credit in this to Rob Mills of the Lowell Sun's "Police Line" blog for leading by his impeccably responsible and respectful example. Not only do police need to be respectful of citizens, but citizens need to be respectful of the difficult and good job our officers do in our community, and ensure that recordings are done with a shared priority for public safety above all. In some cases, this means declining to either take or share a video, and Rob has done so much for all of us by being so collaborative and cooperative with the police so that they understand we're all in this for the same goals.