Shooting a cop with your camera may get restrictions in Texas

[JollyRoger]

A bill restricting the rights of citizens to record the police was filed in Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The House Bill 2918 introduced by Texas Representative Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) would make private citizens photographing or recording the police within 25 feet of them a class B misdemeanor, and those who are armed would not be able to stand recording within 100 feet of an officer.

As defined in the bill, only a radio or television that holds a license issued by the Federal Communications Commission, a newspaper that is qualified under section 2051.044 or a magazine that appears at a regular interval would be allowed to record police.

"(My bill) just asks filmers to stand back a little so as to not interfere with law enforcement," said Villalba.

An appeals court in Glik v. Cunniffe ruled unanimously that private citizens are allowed to videotape police in 2011, so this bill would go against the set precedent.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Bill-restricting-rights-of-citizens-to-videotape-6130903.phpk

So if you are the liberal media you are favored over citizens with a camera and even more favored over a citizen with a camera and a gun.

 

[FriendlyFire]

100 feet = 30 meters

How about a Bill to switch from imperial to metric.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Hey, Texas has every right to pass laws that have already been deemed unconstitutional. It gives constitutional lawyers something to do getting it thrown out. And of course Texas cops may have opportunities to shoot people while enforcing it during the interval...that's always a plus.

 

[Agent327]

So if you are the liberal media you are favored over citizens with a camera and even more favored over a citizen with a camera and a gun.

So unfair!

 

[Borachio]

Wait. Your American cameras come with bullets?!

 

[Kyriakos]

Cop to other cops: "Hey, that guy is shooting us".

Won't end well.

Also:

100 feet = 30 meters

How about a Bill to switch from imperial to metric.

So a private citizen with a camera and gun can only use his cell phone to record police from 30 meters away? Ok. What will he be recording, what color of clothes they wear?

And even the 25 feet (8 meterish) for anyone recording is really fishy, cause people don't usually walk in a perimeter of 8 meters with no one else around.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The intent is that by pushing any recording devises to 25 feet chances of an unobstructed view are reduced to near zero and it is beyond audio pickup range for most cell phones. The whole 'back off a safe distance' business is a red herring.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Does this apply if my camera is a gun?

 

[sophie]

100 feet = 30 meters

How about a Bill to switch from imperial to metric.

A meter and a yard are roughly the same distance. I think a meter is like 0.94 yards. Feet/Yards to meters is like the least difficult conversion to make. Even miles to km is fairly easy if you know how many yards are in a mile.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

A meter and a yard are roughly the same distance. I think a meter is like 0.94 yards. Feet/Yards to meters is like the least difficult conversion to make. Even miles to km is fairly easy if you know how many yards are in a mile.

Well, no...maybe a yard is .94 meters...a meter is definitely bigger than a yard...simple ballpark conversion 3 meters is 10 feet.

 

[sophie]

Well, no...maybe a yard is .94 meters...a meter is definitely bigger than a yard...simple ballpark conversion 3 meters is 10 feet.

Haha, d'oh! Yeah, got it backwards. Don't I look like an idiot! Unless you're doing really large distance calculations you can more or less treat them as equivalent though.

Maybe it's because I'm used to them because I've been around them all my life, but I do prefer imperial measurements for everyday use. I understand the value behind metric. It scales easily and it's far more precise for measuring and calculating things. There's a reason it's the international standard for science. But for personal use imperial just makes a lot more sense to me. It's much easier to eyeball things. An inch is about 1 joint segment on my index finger. A foot is a bit bigger than my foot. A yard is about one stride's length. I can eyeball tsp and tbs and cups very easily. All of my glasses at home are 1 pint's volume. And from pint and cup you can very easily scale up to quart and gallon.

So like I get the logic behind pushing metric. But I just don't see the value of making it a standard for everyday use. Imperial's just way more practical. And the conversions aren't THAT bad. Everything is in units of 3s and 4s.

 

[JollyRoger]

If you are closer then 25 feet, a Texas cop will taze you. If you are closer than 8 meters, he will shoot you.

 

[warpus]

or a magazine that appears at a regular interval would be allowed to record police.

I wonder if a blog would count, if you post to it once a month.

If so, I would urge all Texans to start a blog entitled: "Videos of the police infringing on my rights as a citizen" or something similar, and each month write an entry titled: "No videos this month, but stay tuned". Or maybe once every 2 months. Whatever the courts would deem to be sufficient to satisfy "at a regular interval". There's probably precedent so you could look it up. Could also look up what qualifies for "magazine". An online blog should count, but you might have to commit to to some regular content upkeep to make it 100% legal.

And then when you need to record police and they try to stop you, you can just say: "Sorry officer, I am recording this for my monthly publication, I am well within my rights."

This is of course all probably very stupid legal advice, as I am not at all versed in American law.

 

[JollyRoger]

Just so long as your compartment for holding cartridges (firearm or film) appears at regular intervals, I think you are good.

 

[Zelig]

Maybe it's because I'm used to them because I've been around them all my life, but I do prefer imperial measurements for everyday use. I understand the value behind metric. It scales easily and it's far more precise for measuring and calculating things. There's a reason it's the international standard for science. But for personal use imperial just makes a lot more sense to me. It's much easier to eyeball things. An inch is about 1 joint segment on my index finger. A foot is a bit bigger than my foot. A yard is about one stride's length. I can eyeball tsp and tbs and cups very easily. All of my glasses at home are 1 pint's volume. And from pint and cup you can very easily scale up to quart and gallon.

Yup, that's the entire thing.

A cm is about the width of my finger, a dm is about the length of my palm, a m is to my hip. Eyeballing volume is especially easy because 1cm^3 = 1 ml = 1 g of water.

 

[Leonel]

Wait. Your American cameras come with bullets?!

Yeah, it's a long story...

 

[Crackerbox]

Restrictions on filming cops have been struck down as unconsitutional UNLESS you're interfering with the investigation. They've tried to say it's a violation of the privacy of the accused who is being arrested, which is rather bizarre as family members have done the film whilst the accused is being arrested.

If States want to piss away money by creating unconstitutional laws, even when other states have already been down this road, then the leadership in that state needs a better state attorney general.

Law enforcement has been caught trying to delete such footage. Law enforcement has been caught tampering with their own cameras and mics. We need more citizens filming, not less.

Link to video.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Restrictions on filming cops have been struck down as unconsitutional UNLESS you're interfering with the investigation. They've tried to say it's a violation of the privacy of the accused who is being arrested, which is rather bizarre as family members have done the film whilst the accused is being arrested.

If States want to piss away money by creating unconstitutional laws, even when other states have already been down this road, then the leadership in that state needs a better state attorney general.

Law enforcement has been caught trying to delete such footage. Law enforcement has been caught tampering with their own cameras and mics. We need more citizens filming, not less.

For the record, there is no expectation of privacy on a public street or sidewalk, or anywhere that can be viewed without effort from a public street or sidewalk, and that doesn't change if you are a criminal, a cop, or both. Cops who talk about the 'privacy of the suspect' are totally hypocritical, since cops have always been happy to use the public perp walk as an opening shot at influencing the jury pool.

 

[Crackerbox]

Based upon how that Illinois law was written, then every journalist in the state who filmed arrests or filmed events outside of courts then would be committing eavesdropping. Any law enforcement officer who filmed an arrest then is also eavesdropping too.

It's insane.

When the controversy first began, since one could get out of some of the state laws by being a journalist, then some websites would give anyone who applies a journalist certification so they could record events.

I don't recognize my country after the Patriot Acts, the militarization of law enforcement, the end to Posse Comitatus, the filming of police controversy, etc.