Free Republic

On May 8, Maria Melendez, Melendez's daughter, Melissa Quair, and Quair's boyfriend reportedly witnessed about a half-dozen Kern County, Calif., highway patrol officers beating and kicking 33-year old David Silva in front of Kern Medical Center. Silva, the father of four young children, died early on the morning of May 8, presumably from the injuries he sustained from the incident. Melendez recorded the entire episode on her phone, as did her daughter's boyfriend. But before she could send the videos to news media outlets, she later told reporters, detectives from the Kern County Sheriff's Office, acting without a warrant, confiscated...

For a while now, especially since the arrival of YouTube ordinary citizens have been attempting to make police accountable for their actions by videoing them. Many times police officers do not have a problem being videoed. However the State of Illinois does not like their officers being videoed and sought to impose a penalty of up to 15 years in prison tied to a 50-year-old anti-eavesdropping law. ---------------------------cut----------------------- Obviously lower level courts and even a Justice Department backing, in an Obama administration, concluded that there was nothing criminal about citizens videoing police officers. Officers are not above the law. Their...