The Rochester woman who filmed the police stop outside her house was acquitted of the criminal charges brought against her. But I thought you’d appreciate these two pieces:
(1) The Pink Rulers of Law: In response to the above incident, the Rochester thugs police “converged on Clarissa Street late Thursday afternoon and began ticketing their parked cars for being more than 12 inches from the curb. A member of the group video taped the incident and posted the video on line. The pictures show police using a pink ruler to measure the distance from the curb to the wheels, and then issuing parking tickets”
(2) I used to live in Massachusetts. Three different times actually. It turns out that the state has abused a privacy protection law to make it illegal for private citizens to survey the police. What is it that the nanny-surveillance staters say to me when I get nuts about the Patriot Act? If you aint’ got nuttin’ to hide …
I also just ran across this new Smart Phone app that helps you police the police. It has some interesting potential applications. Whether or not any of this becomes illegal in the future, the technological cat is out of the bag. We are very rapidly going to be living in a surveillance state, and whether legal or not, the only way to stay sane in that state is to “surveill” right back.
I follow your point, but one does not have to be a nanny-stater to think the NSA should not be given access, with qualifications, to communications between our enemies. That is different from worrying whether Dick Cheney read Patrick Leahy’s e-mails to Fidel Castro, or Anthony Weiner. I wish everybody would devote a hundred staff to monitor The Unbroken Window. And don’t call me a nanny-stater, or Shirley.
It has to be assumed that literally everyone is under some form of surveillance whenever out in public for sure, maybe even while in the confines of one’s own home. This would include agents of law enforcement. You would think that the police would be in favor of having their activities recorded, since those records would be of professionals acting in a professional manner. But you would be wrong.
I hope the police get fired. It might not be unreasonable to sack the whole department, start from scratch. I normally support police (at least usually give them the benefit of a doubt), by the way, as you may see from previous posts.
So the RPD decided to tell the people of Rochester, “No Snitchin’!” I seem to recall them complaining when others send that same message, calling them thugs or some such. I guess the police must be those “more equal” animals I keep hearing about.