Charges dismissed against woman arrested while videotaping traffic stop from her front yard

Raw Story

The case against a 28-year-old woman charged with obstructing governmental administration after refusing a police officer’s order to leave her front yard while she was videotaping a traffic stop has been dismissed.

WHEC reported a judge dismissed the case against Emily Good of Rochester, New York on Monday because there was insufficient evidence of a crime.

Good was arrested while she filmed police officers conducting a traffic stop in front of her home. Good's recording shows the officers saying that they feel threatened by her standing behind them because she seemed "very anti-police."

The arrest added to the already heated debate over videotaping police officers.

In a joint statement, Mayor Tom Richards, City Council President Lovely Warren and Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard said they agreed that the case should be dismissed...[Full Article]

Rochester Police Arrest Woman For Videotaping Them From Her Front Yard

A woman was arrested for videotaping police from her front yard in Rochester, New York.

The woman, who is unidentified at this point, was recording a traffic stop where police had a man handcuffed on May 12^th. The video was uploaded to Blip TV today.

The cops noticed her recording and started hassling her with absurd notions...[Full Article]

National Guard Man Faces 16 Years In Jail For Videotaping Police Officer

Should Videotaping the Police Really Be a Crime?

Time Magazine
Thursday, August 5, 2010

Anthony Graber, a Maryland Air National Guard staff sergeant, faces up to 16 years in prison. His crime? He videotaped his March encounter with a state trooper who pulled him over for speeding on a motorcycle. Then Graber put the video — which could put the officer in a bad light — up on YouTube.

It doesn’t sound like much. But Graber is not the only person being slapped down by the long arm of the law for the simple act of videotaping the police in a public place. Prosecutors across the U.S. claim the videotaping violates wiretap laws — a stretch, to put it mildly.

These days, it’s not hard to see why police are wary of being filmed. In 1991, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) beating of Rodney King was captured on video by a private citizen. It was shown repeatedly on television and caused a national uproar. As a result, four LAPD officers were put on trial, and when they were not convicted, riots broke out, leaving more than 50 people dead and thousands injured (two officers were later convicted on federal civil rights charges).

Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police

That Anthony Graber broke the law in early March is indisputable. He raced his Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95 in Maryland at 80 mph, popping a wheelie, roaring past cars and swerving across traffic lanes.

But it wasn't his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the possibility of 16 years in prison. For that, he was issued a speeding ticket. It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later -- taken with his helmet camera -- of a plainclothes state trooper cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore.

In early April, state police officers raided Graber's parents' home in Abingdon, Md. They confiscated his camera, computers and external hard drives. Graber was indicted for allegedly violating state wiretap laws by recording the trooper without his consent.

Arrests such as Graber's are becoming more common along with the proliferation of portable video cameras and cell-phone recorders. Videos of alleged police misconduct have become hot items on the Internet. YouTube still features Graber's encounter along with numerous other witness videos. "The message is clearly, 'Don't criticize the police,'" said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who is part of Graber's defense team. "With these charges, anyone who would even think to record the police is now justifiably in fear that they will also be criminally charged."

Carlos Miller, a Miami journalist who runs the blog "Photography Is Not a Crime," said he has documented about 10 arrests since he started keeping track in 2007. Miller himself has been arrested twice for photographing the police. He won one case on appeal, he said, while the other was thrown out after the officer twice failed to appear in court.

"They're just regular citizens with a cell-phone camera who happen to come upon a situation," Miller said. "If cops are doing their jobs, they shouldn't worry."...

[Full Article]