First Circuit Panel Says There’s a Clear Constitutional Right To Openly Record Cops.

The Agitator ^ | August 26, 2011 | Radley Balko

[Immerito]

This is great. (PDF) Here’s what happened:

As he was walking past the Boston Common on the evening of October 1, 2007, Simon Glik caught sight of three police officers — the individual defendants here — arresting a young man. Glik heard another bystander say something to the effect of, “You are hurting him, stop.” Concerned that the officers were employing excessive force to effect the arrest, Glik stopped roughly ten feet away and began recording video footage of the arrest on his cell phone.

After placing the suspect in handcuffs, one of the officers turned to Glik and said, “I think you have taken enough pictures.” Glik replied, “I am recording this. I saw you punch him.” An officer1 then approached Glik and asked if Glik’s cell phone recorded audio. When Glik affirmed that he was recording audio, the officer placed him in handcuffs, arresting him for, inter alia, unlawful audio recording in violation of Massachusetts’s wiretap statute. Glik was taken to the South Boston police station. In the course of booking, the police confiscated Glik’s cell phone and a computer flash drive and held them as evidence.

The charges were dropped. But Glik sued for violations of his civil rights. The First Circuit ruled today that the officers are not protected by qualified immunity. From the ruling:

[CharacterCounts]

In many states it's legal for citizens to take a photograph without the consent of the subject, but it's illegal to record a voice.

I believe you are referring to eavesdropping statutes.

It's not illegal to record a voice. It's illegal to record a "private conversation".

Police making an arrest on a public street is anything but a private conversation.

[RightFighter]

The biggest reform we could make in DC would be to require that all government meetings involving Congress or the President be open and in the sunshine (national security matters excluded). That would be a great constitutional amendment. CSPAN cameras could record everything and there’d be no questions about what is going on behind closed doors.

[marktwain]

The biggest reform we could make in DC would be to require that all government meetings involving Congress or the President be open and in the sunshine (national security matters excluded). That would be a great constitutional amendment. CSPAN cameras could record everything and there’d be no questions about what is going on behind closed doors.

No Constitutional amendment is required, only simple legislation. As usual, the question becomes: who would enforce it?

[GOPJ]

In many states it's legal for citizens to take a photograph without the consent of the subject, but it's illegal to record a voice.

I suspect that had the citizen turned off his cell phone's audio (if that's possible), he wouldn't have been arrested in the first place.

I believe you're right. Do you know if the audio part been court tested recently?

[rolling_stone]

read the decision

[GOPJ]

...while the Massachusetts law only bars the surreptitious recording of cops. It would have been nice for the court to come right out and say either way whether the Massachusetts law itself passes First Amendment muster. But it didn’t, I guess because it didn’t need to. The opinion says Glik clearly wasn’t violating the statute, which means his arrest was a clear violation of his rights. If he had been recording secretly, and were arrested for that, I’d imagine the cops probably would have been granted immunity.

Taking photos in public places is pretty iron clad - the recording stuff still feels a little 'iffy' to me.

[Publius6961]

The biggest reform we could make in DC would be to require that all government meetings involving Congress or the President be open and in the sunshine (national security matters excluded). That would be a great constitutional amendment. CSPAN cameras could record everything and there’d be no questions about what is going on behind closed doors.

Don't be an idiot. It's totally unnecessary because we already enjoy all those things.

Obama promised it all, and surely he doesn't lie.

Right?
Right?

...helloooo?

[marktwain]

You make an excellent point!