A Victory for Recording in Public!

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2011/victory-recording-public

A Victory for Recording in Public!


The CMLP is thrilled to report that in the case of Glik v. Cunniffe, which the CMLP has blogged previously and in which the CMLP attempted to file an amicus brief, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has issued a resounding and unanimous opinion in support of the First Amendment right to record the actions of police in public...

....For those of you not familiar with Simon Glik's case, Glik was arrested on October 1, 2007, after openly using his cell phone to record three police officers arresting a suspect on Boston Common. In return for his efforts to record what he suspected might be police brutality -- in a pattern that is now all too familiar -- Glik was charged with criminal violation of the Massachusetts wiretap act, aiding the escape of a prisoner and disturbing the peace...

...Undeterred, in February 2010, Glik filed suit in federal court against the officers and the City of Boston under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act. Glik alleged that the police officers violated his First Amendment right to record police activity in public and that the officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights by arresting him without probable cause to believe a crime had occurred.

Naturally, the police officers moved to dismiss on the basis of qualified immunity, but Judge Young was having none of that, denying the motion from the bench and ruling that "in the First Circuit . . . this First Amendment right publicly to record the activities of police officers on public business is established." The police officers then appealed to the First Circuit, but they have now struck out on appeal as well, with the First Circuit ruling that "Glik was exercising clearly-established First Amendment rights in filiming the officers in a public space, and that his clearly-established Fourth Amendment rights were violated by his arrest without probable cause."...

[valerief]

1. That's great news. The First Amendment isn't just giving lots of money to pols. nt

[brooklyn297]

8. +1

[RC]

2. Slowing the race to the bottom slightly.

Hopefully this will put a crimp in some of the actions of law enforcement.

[Lunabelle]

3. This is excellent news

Clearly if it is in public, it is legal.

[rocktivity]

4. NO ONE has an "expectation of privacy" in their workplaces

-- cops included!

Besides, what if the video Glik had taken had exonerated the cops of any wrongdoing? They'd be calling him a hero. It works both ways, you know!

Cue the Vonage theme!

:woohoo:
rocktivity

[pnorman]

7. "expectation of privacy" in their workplaces -- cops included"

I LIKE that!

[X_Digger]

5. K&R! n/t

[duhneece]

6. Let's 'reverse Big-Brother' filming of every police encounter

Can we legally demand/record every minuter of every interaction we have with any official person, elected or police? I think we should be able to. This looks very good.

[PavePusher]

10. FOIA.

You can request it, but they don't always have to give it to you.

[ratsrats]

9. CCTV

WIth all the **** cameras they have on people all the time, we'd better be able to film.

[Quartermass]

11. LAWSUIT!

I hope he sues those cops and wins big money.

There's an old saying;

You only run when you have something to hide.

So the cops ran.