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States make it illegal to video tape police
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of KDVR-TV (Denver, Colorado Fox Network affiliate)
Posted: August 31st, 2010
http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-illegal-to-video-cops-txt,0,57...
With more and more ways to take pictures or images, police departments are lobbying state legislatures to pass laws which in effect allow them to operate without public oversight. "It's not right," said Colorado Attorney General, John Suthers. "We think that allows police agencies, who are public employees, working for tax payers, to operate outside the First Amendment." Defense attorneys also claim the laws give the impression police are above the law. Police work is done in public and if they are being photographed in public that gives the public the ability to judge their work (unlike people in the private sector). Many say that getting prosecuted for taking pictures of police is the [purpose] of police and official intimidation, and when people are ordered to stop taking pictures of police, few want to test the veracity of those threats; most will comply. Those who don't will be arrested, but attorneys say it makes little sense to say the government can take our pictures without letting us take pictures of them. One attorney said, "At last check, they work for us, we don't work for them."
Note: For key reports from reliable souces on increasing government threats to civil liberties, click here.
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