Illinois Man Faces 75 Years In Prison For Recording Cops

[Technician]

Michael Allison faces 75 years imprisonment for recorded his interactions with police officers.

In Illinois, the old and outdated "eves dropping law" has been brought back into light to battle the public recording police actions. Recording on-duty law enforcement, on public or private property, can punished harder than both murder and rape. Appropriately, the same law excludes police recordings of citizens unwarranted or undercover.

Even the reporters recording this debacle was threatened t be charged with the same crimes.

Luckily, another man charged with this same crime has won. Hopefully, this will be effective in every state in the near future.

[Blastfrog]

I wonder if things will ever change. :(

[GreyGhost]

This sort of shit used to be associated with tinpot police states on the other side of the Iron Curtain. I bet if Stalin was still alive he would almost feel at home living in the "Land of the Free".

[Csonicgo]

Sodaholic said:

I wonder if things will ever change. :(

Anarchists claim they have the answer. They don't.
Libertarians claim they have the answer. They don't.

It has always been this way since we were ape-like. We still are. It won't change. Have a nice day.

[Rambosee]

Dammit. Whats next?

Man gets 50 years for talking about how much the system sucks?

[Megalyth]

Rambosee said:

Man gets 50 years for talking about how much the system sucks?

Soon enough.

[Megamur]

Rambosee said:

Dammit. Whats next?

Man gets 50 years for talking about how much the system sucks?

Enjoy your jail time, by the way.

[deathbringer]

Or, to spin it another way: Man catches cops screwing up, they drag up some ancient law to prosecute him, a wave of negative publicity results in the case being dropped and the law repealed.

[AndrewB]

As outrageous and offensive as these laws are, they'll probably be struck down by the supreme court or struck down by a lower court and refused to be heard by the supreme court. I suspect that unconstitutional laws are created and defeated on a fairly regular basis.

[Koko Ricky]

We're living in a world where, for the first time, anybody can record audio and video secretly, with tiny devices available everywhere. The video/audio quality will only get better, the devices smaller, and their prominence greater. Cops don't stand a chance.

[magicsofa]

GoatLord said:

We're living in a world where, for the first time, anybody can record audio and video secretly, with tiny devices available everywhere. The video/audio quality will only get better, the devices smaller, and their prominence greater. Women wearing skirts/dresses don't stand a chance.

FTFY

[Quast]

AndrewB said:

As outrageous and offensive as these laws are, they'll probably be struck down by the supreme court or struck down by a lower court and refused to be heard by the supreme court. I suspect that unconstitutional laws are created and defeated on a fairly regular basis.

Yet while videotaping police is 'only' illegal in 3 states IIRC, police in other jurisdictions will still use intimidation and attempt to state that it is illegal there as well (even if it is not) and use that as an excuse to bully and arrest people. It matters not what is 'technically' and 'legaly' illegal here in the states, what matters is whether or not you upset a police officer enough to draw his ire. Sure, you may not get a prison sentence or community service, but you may lose your cell phone or camera anyway and spend the weekend in jail regardless. SCOTUS could literally say videotaping on-duty police in public is a-ok anywhere and people would still get arrested for it. Seriously, they don't give a shit.

And the best part is some employers may even terminate your employment based on an arrest and not a conviction, so we have that too.

[hex11]

Yeah every job application these days asks all kinds of personal questions, and they also do background check and look at credit scores. Some jobs (esp. the dead-end min. wage / no benefits variety) even do personality profile tests, in order to weed out people who aren't desperate enough to appear genuinely happy to work their asses off as wage slaves. The last time that sounded fun to me was my very first couple of summer jobs in high school. But even corporate jobs with better pay aren't much better motivators IMO, given the high amount of daily office BS and the expectation of overtime (esp. these days). In the end, it's about money and these tests are just to find exploitable "resources".

Re: cops, best to avoid dealing with them altogether, and say nothing or very little to them, without being beligerent or disrespectful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

[Maes]

hex11 said:

Re: cops, best to avoid dealing with them altogether, and say nothing or very little to them, without being beligerent or disrespectful.

Or become one. Guaranteed pay & pension, plus legalized bullying and "putting people in their place". And if you can't handle this alone, a radio call and about a dozen of your colleagues will help you vent some steam on some poor SOB's ass, with more fun to be had in the dungeons of the precint...gotta love those lead-padded gloves.

[Du Mhan Yhu]

What!? The same as rape? Fuckin' gay!

[Mr. Freeze]

Meanwhile, corrections officers don't give a shit despite having a more dangerous and valuable job.

[geo]

I live in IL and there are a lot of these now... One woman said she was raped by 2 cops so she recorded it and they put her in prison too for 15 years for recording them. They got 15 years as well I do believe. Chances are she can sue the city... or they can use her 15 years in jail as leverage against her.

I can see why there would be laws against recording law officials... 1st and foremost its a safety issue, like if you hear the cops are doing a sting, then you go and mess it up and secondly and more importantly it costs the city money. If someone sues the city using your video, that's a million dollars out of the city's pocket? Does the city have that money? Does the city have compitent cops that are allways compitent? It can't be 100% compitent... No one is.

Oh yeah and I have recorded police too... in IL. However, I wasn't stupid enough to try use it against the cops. Dumbasses...

Anyway... its a law until its not a law.

[Coopersville]

Did he call the cop a dude as well?

[Quast]

geo said:

I can see why there would be laws against recording law officials... 1st and foremost its a safety issue, like if you hear the cops are doing a sting, then you go and mess it up and secondly and more importantly it costs the city money.

I do like how you think money is above and beyond potential injury or death, however that probably IS how they view it anyway.

Filming an undercover sting is one thing, and of course letting the suspects know about it is quite another. But to say that people should not be able to film on-duty, uniformed public officials in the public square is fucking absurd. WE are their employers and have every right to scrutinize their job performance. Especially when we give them the power that they have to make life and death decisions if need be.

They are not the city worker that mows the park. They have far more responsibility than that. They can kill you, mistakenly, or even intentionally, and the state will back them every step of the way. The general public has no real recourse, except to film them in the act if and when they do fuck up.

[geo]

Money is above. Ruin a city financially and it will damage life for everyone in a city with a million people. Cut funding from PD and you have dozens to hundreds of more injuries. Cut school your kids come out dumb and turn to crime that will injure people. Cut fire department and buildings burn down. Cut transit... That's how it is.

One person will always fuck it up for everyone else. I'm not even blaming the victim. I'm blaming the PD for their fuckups and the lawsuits they have raised against them.

People filming cops should blatantly have their cameras right there that way the cop can warn them... or suffer the consiquences. The cops did something wrong, but it would be the city to pay for it.

[TheEndOfUs]

Freedom is an oxymoron in the eyes of our overlords, The Military–industrial complex & co. In this day & age, freedom means nothing more than security... which also is an oxymoron... or just plain moronic in that context. Welcome to 1984, where you get arrested & sentenced to death for being alive.