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Baltimore police must allow photography and video...

sawah

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Jan 22, 2011
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436
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Virginia
From the article:

Stephens said officers "get annoyed with things from time to time, but once they've been given instructions, the overwhelming majority will act within the spirit and the letter of the policy. … Cameras are part of our world."

...and the overwhelming majority of officers will not cover for this minority who refuse to follow departmental orders.
/sarcasm
 

HandyHamlet

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Nov 17, 2010
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Terra, Sol
There may be hope yet for the People's Republic of Maryland...

You are dreaming Sir. :)

Time and again those policies have proven to be absolutely worthless in protecting citizens from the illegal actions of "police".

Big Sis hates the 1st Amendment.
 

HandyHamlet

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Case and point...

A day after the policy was issued the Thugs with badges are undeterred.


[video=youtube;A6Th_wsavHI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A6Th_wsavHI#![/video]

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...ng-20120211_1_loitering-officers-police-union

In Federal Hill, citizens allowed to record police - but then there's loitering..
February 11, 2012|By Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun

The officers on Saturday got Cover to stop filming, not by telling him to cease recording or seizing his camera. They told him he was loitering, and that he had to move along or risk arrest.

It's a caveat - some might say loophole - in the new general order publicly trotted out by police on Friday, three days before they're due in court to argue in a lawsuti brought by the ACLU that they are properly addressing citizen's right to record.

The new rule says that citizens have an "absolute right" to photograph or video record the enforcement actions taking place in public view. The chief legal counsel for the agency called it "an extension of the citizen's right to see. [An officer] wouldn't go up to a citizen at a crime scene and tell them to close their eyes, so the officer can't tell them they can't film."

But the rules also says that the person recording may not "violate any section of any law, ordinance, code or criminal article" - such as loitering - while doing so. The officers on Cross Street seemed aware of that fine print.

The police union says the officers acted appropriately and professionally; the ACLU says it shows there's more work to be done. "I think the inescapable takeaway is that the new policy,a nd any training that might have been conducted on the policy, have not been effective at changing the custom and practice of the BPD with respect to citizens' rights to record," said Deborah Jeon, of the Maryland ACLU.
 
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Dreamer

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Sep 23, 2009
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Grennsboro NC
The color of law in Baltimore is green. The only way the BPD will abide by the law is if they get the badges sued off them...
 

Sig229

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Dec 14, 2006
Messages
926
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Glad to hear that the Constitution has prevailed.
Now lets see if the corrupt BPD will abide (I doubt it).

I never understood how police can arrest someone for "loitering" while standing on a public sidewalk (in reference to the video posted)
 

Dreamer

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Sep 23, 2009
Messages
5,360
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Grennsboro NC
Glad to hear that the Constitution has prevailed.
Now lets see if the corrupt BPD will abide (I doubt it).

I never understood how police can arrest someone for "loitering" while standing on a public sidewalk (in reference to the video posted)


There's the rub...

An LEO can arrest you for moping with intent to creep if they want to.

And even though they KNOW that the charges will be dropped, and the case thrown out, YOU still have to hire a lawyer, take time off work, and spend a LOT of time and money to avoid jail or fines. Meanwhile, they are laughing at you, and doing the same thing to the next guy who had the nerve to commit "contept of cop"...


Someone needs to get all these people together who are being hassled, abused, and falsely arrested and detained by BPD and file a class-action Federal Civil Rights suit agianst the BPD, the Baltimore City Coucil, the Mayor of Baltimore, and the Chief of BPD. Let the City pay ut 7 or 8 figures to a few dozen people in one lump sum, and they might change their tune...



On a side note, over the last two decades BPD has paid out more Federal Civil Rights settlements than ANY other LEA in the region, and they have one of the WORST Civil Rights Suit payout records of ANY LEA in the nation. You'd think they would have learned after the fiirst $20+ million. But I guess that the sociopathy in MD LEAs and MD Government runs soo deep that it's immune even to multimillion dollar punishments levied by the US DOJ...
 
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Sig229

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Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
926
Location
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
On a side note, over the last two decades BPD has paid out more Federal Civil Rights settlements than ANY other LEA in the region, and they have one of the WORST Civil Rights Suit payout records of ANY LEA in the nation. You'd think they would have learned after the fiirst $20+ million. But I guess that the sociopathy in MD LEAs and MD Government runs soo deep that it's immune even to multimillion dollar punishments levied by the US DOJ...

That might explain why taxes are so high in that area....
 
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