Posted on 07/16/2008 3:18:48 PM PDT by BGHater
Nearly everyone carries a cell phone and it’s hard to find one without that camera feature. It’s convenient when you want to take that impromptu photo, but a Tri-Cities area man ended up behind bars after snapping a shot of a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop.
The cell phone photographer says the arrest was intimidation, but the deputy says he feared for his life.
“Here’s a guy who takes me out of the car and arrests me in front of my kids. For what? To take a picture of a police officer?” said Scott Conover.
A Johnson County sheriff’s deputy arrested Scott Conover for unlawful photography.
“He says you took a picture of me. It’s illegal to take a picture of a law enforcement officer,” said Conover.
Conover took a picture of a sheriff’s deputy on the side of the road on a traffic stop. Conover was stunned by the charge.
“This is a public highway,” said Conover.
And it was not a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy as Tennessee code states. The deputy also asked Conover to delete the picture three times.
“He said if you don’t give it to me, you’re going to jail,” said Conover.
Under the advice of the Johnson County attorney, the sheriff would not comment and the arresting deputy said he didn’t want to incriminate himself by talking to us.
In an affidavit, the deputy said he saw something black with a red light which he thought was a threat. Conover was also arrested for pointing a laser at a law enforcement officer.
“At no time did I have a laser. I had an iPhone,” said Conover.
When you take a picture in the dark with Conover’s Apple iPhone, there is no flash or any light that comes from the phone that could be mistaken for a laser.
In a witness statement by a Mountain City officer, is says the deputy asked about the picture rather than looking for a laser.
“If you arrested me, wouldn’t you take the laser? If you arrested me, wouldn’t you take the camera?” said Conover.
He expects these charges to be dismissed.
“This guy maliciously arrested me, charging me with phony charges that he don’t even understand himself,” Conover said.
The American Civil Liberties Union would not comment on Conover’s case without fully reviewing the allegations, but told us there is no law that prohibits anyone from taking photographs in public areas, even of police. Taking photos is protected by the First Amendment. Conover is ordered to appear in a Johnson County court on August 6th.
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And there also isn’t anything conservative about going along with and/or supporting police misconduct and abuse of power.
Nor patriotic. Nor noble. Nor admirable or honorable.
That is sound advice for everyone.
Just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they are not after you!
Who is lying?
Oh, they’d have “found” something if they wanted to........
The cop thought he could intimidate a guy who wouldn’t be intimidated, and proceeded to a point where his ego wouldn’t let him back down.
Why not just wear a mask? If the officer wants to hide his identity, he should wear a mask. He probably shouldn’t wear his name tag or badge number either.
These dipwads are out of control.
Unless he was undercover he is just being a tyrannical jerk.
If this incident happened at all and there is no law that prevents the picture from being taken, he should be fired.
As far as the dumb post about posting his picture on the Internet, he is not an undercover spy. He is a police officer. There should be no law to prevent his picture being taken in public.
This is not cop hating. It is anger over the abuse of a cop. I think a lot of people have had cops abuse their power and that is where this anger is coming from. The respect must be mutual, and threatening jail for taking a picture crosses the line big time.
Great, another overly-sensitive cops-can-do-no-wrong lover acting like a liberal by accusing someone of “hate” just because someone does not share your same viewpoint.
Let us remember that the skepticism of the benefits of government, which was the hallmark of the American founding we seek to conserve, extends to all of its functionaries, not just elected officials, Supreme Court Justices, bureacrats and teachers in government schools, but to the police, and, yes, the military.
Supporting police, the military, and, yes, the rest of them when they perform rightly, or even to the best of their ability, their duties under the Constitution and the laws of the United States and the several states is both patriotic and conservative. Opposing them when the abuse or overreach their proper functions, and seeing to it that the laws do not allow or worse enshrine such abuse and overreach, is likewise patriotic and conservative.
This sounds like an example of the latter, so no ‘cop hating’ is necessary here, just American conservatism.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!
and commas are your friend
*sigh* No. If only Scott Conover had thought to bring his dog.
BTW, Conover is a very uncommon name, 99% chance he's black.
His real crime was having an iPhone while black, maybe?
C’mon, you’re being ridiculous now. This isn’t an undercover cop. He is a uniformed police officer in a patrol car — hardly a secret.
Horsehockey - it is NOT illegal to take a picture of anybody in a public place, or from a public location. It's ironic that while the government is stepping up efforts to keep the little people under surveillance, they don't want the little people photographing them. It's all about who has control over the picture.
True, but sometime their jobs make them piss off people who would happily order a hit on them. Under those circumstances I can see why they'd be less than thrilled to provide positive ID for a hitman...
From Reason Mag:
Last month Scott Conover was driving on Highway 421 in Mountain City, Tennessee, when he saw a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy, Starling McCloud, on the side of the road near a Mustang he had just pulled over. For reasons that remain somewhat mysterious, Conover decided to take a picture of McCloud with his iPhone. According to McCloud and Mountain City police officer Kenneth Lane, who stopped at the scene to assist McCloud, Conover turned his Hummer around after passing the traffic stop and came by again slowly, telling McCloud, “Smile. I’m going to take your picture.” (snip)
It’s not paranoia when the cop drags you out of your car and slaps you in cuffs for snapping his photo.
Okay Mr. Hyphen
What does the law say?
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