FC: Should cops be permitted to videotape protesters?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Police videotaping anti-free-trade marchers in DC last month:
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-28/police-prepared-for-protests-3.html

I'm hardly a fan of police surveillance, but in this case I'm not sure
I'd ban police from videotaping protesters. Protesting is by
definition and intention a public activity, after all.

Another solution: Get rid of laws in some states that prevent
protesters from wearing masks!

-Declan

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http://www.centralmaine.com/news/stories/021021cameras_.shtml

Monday, October 21, 2002

Associated Press
Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel

Activists Protest Police Cameras

PORTLAND - Activists and civil libertarians say snapping cameras and
whirring camcorders at demonstrations intimidate people who disagree with
the government and should be regulated by the state.

Activists also say collecting information on tape or film reminds them of
government excesses during the 1960s, when demonstrators opposed to the war
in Vietnam were sometimes harassed by authorities.

The issue arises following a raucous demonstration in Portland in opposition
to the United States waging a war against Iraq. City police made a videotape
of the event.

A week later, a state police trooper snapped pictures as demonstrators
protested House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's appearance at a rally in
Lewiston.

Louise Roback of the Maine Civil Liberties Union said people have a right to
engage in anonymous political activity without being monitored by police.

[...]




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