[Hoot Gibson]

I object to the establishment of so-called "protected classes" in this country and believe that laws that create such privileged classes are a serious threat to our personal liberty. I know that for practical reasons, some elected officials such as the President require much greater security that the average person. But should the penalty be greater for some kook sending him a threatening email be greater than if the kook sent the same email to one of us?

The following article is what prompted me to start this thread. Why should it be a felony for a person to take a video of his interaction with a police officer while it is okay for police officers to video you during a routine traffic stop?

[INDENT]

Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police

"The police have cameras in their cars. I watch cops on TV," Ford said. "I'm very hurt by what happened. A lot of people are being abused by police in the same way."

Ford's lawyer, James Green, called videotaping "probably the most effective way to protect citizens against police officers who exaggerate or lie."

"Judges and juries want to believe law enforcement," he said. "They want to believe police officers and unless you have credible evidence to contradict police officers, it's often very difficult to get judges or juries to believe the word of a citizen over a police officer."\\In Palm Beach County, Fla., Greenacres resident Peter Ballance, 63, who has Asperger's syndrome and has to record conversations to help his memory, settled a civil lawsuit for $100,000 last year. In August 2005, police officers tackled and arrested Ballance for refusing to turn off his tape recorder.

"You know what," said the officer, according to court documents, "I still don't want that recording device on."

"Well, it's on," Ballance replied.

"It is a third-degree felony," the cop said. "If you want to push it, you can go to jail for it."

[/INDENT]

[thecavemaster]

Interesting... I'm trying to think of reasons an honest cop would see a suspect with a tape recorder as a problem. I'm struggling to think of the "why's"...