Is the Video camera the new firearm?

[S&WM&P40]

Is the private citizen with a video camera the new "Armed suspect?" Why are more and more states moving to ban the public from filming our public servants? Why are Citizens with video cameras now looked upon/treated liked armed felons with firearms. In some states you can be charged with a misdemeanor-felony for video taping officers in the course of their duty's. Can be sentenced to anything from slap on the wrist,probation all the way up to 4-15 years in prison, for doing nothing more then filming the police.

In NH they use the wiretapping law (RSA: 570-A:2)

It is a felony to intercept or disclose the contents of any telecommunication or oral communication without the consent of all parties. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 570-A:2-I. It is punishable by imprisonment of one to seven years. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann § 625:9. However, it is only a misdemeanor if a party to a communication, or anyone who has the consent of only one of the parties, intercepts a telecommunication or oral communication. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann § 570-A:2-I. Misdemeanors are punishable by imprisonment up to one year. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann § 625:9.

Any person whose telecommunication or oral communication is intercepted or disclosed has a civil cause of action against any person who unlawfully obtains such communication and is entitled to recover: actual damages at a rate of $100 per day or $1,000, whichever is greater; punitive damages; and reasonable attorney fees or other litigation costs. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann § 570-A:11. to arrest you for filming police in public without their consent.

All this madness leaves me to ask,what the hell are our public servants so afraid of? Could it be that they are worried that tax payers will revolt and stop paying taxes,thus ending their paychecks?

What do they expect us to do when the people we hire to protect us are in fact our abusers? If they are in fact the abuser's does that not make us the tax payers the enabler's by counting to pay them to abuse us?

Again not all officers fall into the "abuser classification", but does it not make the good officers just as dirty when they remain silent to the abuse they see? Can a "Good Cop" still be a good cop, while covering for/covering up the corrupt acts of the bad officers?

[HueMan]

One falicy that most people have is that the police have a duty to protect them as you state. Our supreme courts have upheld that police have no constitutional duty to protect ANY individual but society as a whole. We are or already have begun to be a police state. I am NOT anti LEO, however I hold them only in the same regard to which they show me.

[S&WM&P40]

One falicy that most people have is that the police have a duty to protect them as you state. Our supreme courts have upheld that police have no constitutional duty to protect ANY individual but society as a whole. We are or already have begun to be a police state. I am NOT anti LEO, however I hold them only in the same regard to which they show me.

I understand that the highest court in the land has said that. But that still does not stop police officers from telling the flock who are still sleep that it's their job. Why carry a firearm? We are here to protect you, it's our job to protect you, etc....

So that is why I chose to use the word "Protect/Protect us" in my above post.

[Kasper]

well police are known to lie to citizens so that the citizen messes up and says something that the should not have and give the police cause to arrest them. I have been asked questions that police know that they should not be asking but people are dumb enough to answer so they ask them.

With the way the courts are allowing them to trample on our rights and the Constitution that gives us those rights it won't belong before we lose them to make the police feel safer while they kick in our doors because they heard noise that sound like someone trying to dispose of the evidence.

Last I check the police are public officials that are there to serve the public so why someone video taping them performing their duties is a crime I don't know.

[Derby]

One falicy that most people have is that the police have a duty to protect them as you state. Our supreme courts have upheld that police have no constitutional duty to protect ANY individual but society as a whole. We are or already have begun to be a police state. I am NOT anti LEO, however I hold them only in the same regard to which they show me.

How many cities have the phrase "To Serve and Protect" on the police automobiles?

I, also, am not anti-LEO, because many of them are good people. However I am more pro Peace Officer. But that is a dying breed.

[Tucker's Mom]

Is the private citizen with a video camera the new "Armed suspect?" Why are more and more states moving to ban the public from filming our public servants? Why are Citizens with video cameras now looked upon/treated liked armed felons with firearms. In some states you can be charged with a misdemeanor-felony for video taping officers in the course of their duty's. Can be sentenced to anything from slap on the wrist,probation all the way up to 4-15 years in prison, for doing nothing more then filming the police.

Funny you ask these questions. As some of you know, the side street to our house is under construction (street widening). When I am home, I often go out there with my camera taking photos of holes and lines, equipments, anything I can photograph and film (my camera has a video option...) The working men and "officials" in their outdoorsy conference rooms (about 2 men working and 6 men having a "conference") would look at me and see if I have taken a photo of them. I try not to...though I can' help it sometimes... then there was this incident of a lines man marker abusing his position and all 4 neighbours including us called the police to complain. I took videos and photographs all the time at that time the police were there (one came as a backup...) I was never asked to stop filming nor photographing...

Maybe in your neck of the woods that is a felony, perhaps not in many places...

[S&WM&P40]

Funny you ask these questions. As some of you know, the side street to our house is under construction (street widening). When I am home, I often go out there with my camera taking photos of holes and lines, equipments, anything I can photograph and film (my camera has a video option...) The working men and "officials" in their outdoorsy conference rooms (about 2 men working and 6 men having a "conference") would look at me and see if I have taken a photo of them. I try not to...though I can' help it sometimes... then there was this incident of a lines man marker abusing his position and all 4 neighbours including us called the police to complain. I took videos and photographs all the time at that time the police were there (one came as a backup...) I was never asked to stop filming nor photographing...

Maybe in your neck of the woods that is a felony, perhaps not in many places...

Sorry to say it but it is the norm! All one needs to do is run a simple Google search and or youtube search to find the proof. It all depends on the officer/officers who see you recording them. If they became police officers for the right reason most do not care. If they are someone who joined for the badge and the gun, you will have trouble with billy bad-ass. Not every person who records runs into problems!

You have people who are abused after they are in cuffs and their cameras smashed, all for doing nothing more then recording their servant at work.