Boston Police Department Claims Contacting Its Public Affairs Number Is A Criminal Act
Boston Police Department Claims Contacting Its Public Affairs Number Is A Criminal Act
Most long-term Techdirt readers will be familiar with Carlos Miller, the man behind the Photography Is Not A Crime blog (usually shorthanded to simply "PINAC"
. Miller, along with several other citizen photographers, have challenged local law enforcement officials repeatedly on their baseless claims that recording them is a crime.
Miller himself has been repeatedly arrested, harassed and charged with various dubious misdemeanors in an effort to curb his First Amendment rights. Now, Miller is being charged with something much more serious, thanks to the Boston Police Department's uncontrollable urge to silence critics and shutdown photographers.
The story begins typically for Photography Is Not A Crime with a story about a Boston Police Department sergeant thuggishly assaulting a photographer recording a traffic stop. A PINAC fan and journalism student named Taylor Hardy called the Boston PD's Bureau of Public Information on its public line to ask about the story.
Hardy spoke with Angelene Richardson, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department who provides information to the media and public. When Hardy published a recording of that call, the Boston Police Department arranged for him to be charged with wiretapping. Hardy claims that he informed Richardson that he was recording the call (though he did not successfully record that part of the conversation), apparently Richardson claims that he did not.
<snip>
After being informed that the BPD was pursuing Hardy on wiretapping charges, Carlos Miller posted the following to PINAC.
Maybe we can call or email Richardson to persuade her to drop the charges against Hardy considering she should assume all her conversations with reporters are on the record unless otherwise stated. Her listed number is (617) 343-4520.
Maybe we can build up an entire collection of recorded conversations with her. After informing her, of course.
The BPD's response to this action -- Miller posting a publicly available contact number (something Miller has done dozens of times previously without issue) -- was to charge him with a felony.
[T]hat led to Detective Moore filing a criminal complaint against me for witness intimidation, which I received Friday and is posted below, claiming that I caused Richardson all kinds of pain and grief because I posted her publicly available work contact info on my blog.
He also threatened to charge any readers who called her, making me think that perhaps the Boston Police Department is recording all incoming calls because how else would they gather the evidence to charge my readers for witness intimidation?
<snip>
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131113/08171425229/boston-pd-claims-contacting-its-public-affairs-number-is-criminal-act.shtml
smh.....
= new reply since forum marked as read
They should expect an onslaught of calls, deal with it losers-
Outside of that-
"he informed Richardson that he was recording the call (though he did not successfully record that part of the conversation)"
SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
