Police Seize Cameras, Arrest Photographers, Solicit Information on Other Media at Anti-War Protest

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/25834

Police Seize Cameras, Arrest Photographers and Solicit Information on Other Media at Anti-War Protest
Submitted by danielifearn on Wed, 2007-08-15 15:02. Congress

Aaron Dykes / JonesReport.com | August 7, 2007

Fairport, NY - Police arrested three anti-war demonstrators for allegedly trespassing at the privately-owned district office of Congressman Randy Kuhl (R - NY), apparently on the orders of Welker Property Management, the landlords. Two of the three arrested were carrying signs related to "9/11 Truth," including Wendy Painting, one of those arrested, who is a member of "Rochester 9/11 Truth" and an Indymedia reporter.

Painting says all of those arrested were press members. She says that police confiscated her camera and later used its conditional return as incentive to provide information about other cameramen at the event.

"I was told that if I identified the other people taking pictures, I would be allowed to keep my camera."

Because she refused to identify others, she was told she won't be able to get her camera back until December. She was released with a citation and her camera remains under police custody.

Wendy Painting said police had also threatened her with jail when she initially refused to show ID and also acted suspiciously towards a tattoo on her arm depicting a "smoking pistol" that Painting says is a personal memento that should obviously be irrelevant to police concerns.

Protesters were challenging Congressman Kuhl (R-NY) to end his support for the Iraq war, though such a change in position seems unlikely-- his website is littered with photos of the Congressman and numerous defense contractors and the President.

Matt Reed, one of the events' organizers, discusses his reasons for the protest.

The fact that police have chosen to target public photography is a frightening and unconstitutional trend that violates the first amendment, as both the right to free speech and the right to a free press are guaranteed. Mayor Bloomberg has sent shock waves when he announced his intentions to heavily restrict public photography without a city permit and a $1 million insurance policy, though he has now backed-off under pressure from vocal critics.

Police in other parts of the country have already claimed that filming officers on duty is a crime that falls under wiretapping laws-- including one case that sentenced a man to seven years in prison. And in numerous other cases, cameras have been routinely confiscated or even destroyed.

The criminalization of independent journalism and freedom of speech must not be allowed to stand-- the republic is under attack and the country can certainly not be defended by a complicit deaf-and-dumb mainstream media.

CONTACT:

Fairport Police:
585 223-1740
fpd (at) village.fairport.ny.us

Congressman Kuhl's Fairport District Office:
220 Packett's Landing
Fairport, New York 14450
585 223-4760 (phone)
585 223-2328 (fax)

Kuhl's Washington Office:
1505 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202 225-3161 (phone)
202 226-6599 (fax)

Welker Property Management, Inc
[phone]
FAX: [phone]
[e-mail]

Wendy Painting can be contacted at illbirdgirl (at) yahoo.com

[Blaze Diem]

1. Soon the Spy Satellites will keep track of protest skirmishes

occurring across this Nation.

We have no rights and you better have your "papers" in order and with you at all times.

[Blackhatjack]

2. IMHO This is where the rubber meets the road ... you have to challenge this

If our public servants are allowed to violate the constitutional rights of citizens that is unacceptable.

However, if our public servants can impose photographic and news blackouts, stifle public protests, and arrest people for exercising their constitutional rights to petition their government officials --we are way over the line.

THis falls squarely into the category of authoritarian control tactics.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Cellphone cameras could be put to good use here

They are cheap, and the pictures can be sent off instantly.

[1monster]

4. And we will still be told that those who compare and contrast what has happened

in Germany in the early 1930s are wrong because Bush hasn't set up death camps. Yet. He already has the concentration camp in Gitmo and secret prisons all over Europe and who knows where else.

[leftchick]

5. The second arrest at Kuhl's offices in a week???

Kuhl is Nazi scum!

5 people arrested during anti-war protest in Bath

http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=115511&SecID=83

Five people are arrested following an anti-war protest at the Bath office of U.S. Congressman Randy Kuhl.

The protestors, some in a group organized by Finger Lakes for Peace, said they would not leave the office until Congressman Kuhl pledged to cut funding for the Iraq war and bring troops home as soon as possible.


The protestors spent the afternoon reading the names of constituents opposed to the war and the names of those killed while fighting.

They say Congress has a chance to end the war when the funding bill comes up for a vote next month.

"There are men and women dying, our own troops, as we speak, there are iraqi women and children and men dying. So we feel Congress needs to act as quickly as possible and as decisively as possible," said Peace spokesperson Chris Tate.

[EVDebs]

6. Related info from similar event in Providence RI yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1577853&mesg_id=1584563

[L. Coyote]

7. Is this true, or hype? DETAILS?

"Police in other parts of the country have already claimed that filming officers on duty is a crime that falls under wiretapping laws-- including one case that sentenced a man to seven years in prison. And in numerous other cases, cameras have been routinely confiscated or even destroyed."

Where are the details? What police, what country, who claimed such, what case, what man sentenced? What numerous other cases? It is very poor journalism, just hype, to state such generalizations w/o producing the facts to back it up.

[MagickMuffin]

8. From the link provided.......

Man Faces 7 Year Sentence Under "Wiretapping Law" For Filming Police
OK for police and government to film and wiretap US citizens though

Steve Watson Prison Planet Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A man has been charged in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with filming police officers during a routine traffic stop and faces up to seven years in prison for "wiretapping".

Brian D. Kelly is charged under a state law that bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone's oral conversation without their consent, reports the Patriot News.

The criminal case relates to the sound, not the pictures, that his camera picked up.

His camera and film were seized by police during the May 24 stop, he said, and he spent 26 hours in Cumberland County Prison until his mother posted her house as security for his $2,500 bail. Police also took film from his pockets that wasn't related to the traffic stop, he said.

Kelly, just 18 years old, is obviously extremely scared and has apologized profusely for not knowing the law. he has sought the help of the ACLU in the case.

In Seattle, police banned a photography student from a public park. He was taking photographs of a bridge for a homework assignment. The officers who ban him from the park do so without the knowledge of park officials and have no authority to do so.

In Texas a man was first threatened by neighbors and then reportedly accosted and sprayed with pepper spray by police. He was walking around his neighborhood, filming with his new video camera.

In New York, National Press Photographers Association members staged a protest in the New York subway system to bring attention to a proposed law to ban photography in the subway system.

MORE:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/120607Wiretapping.htm

Cops Caught Stealing Protestors' Cameras
NYPD refuses to return stolen property despite video documentation

Steve Watson Infowars.net Monday, December 18, 2006

In the latest attack on the first amendment, a shocking video has emerged of the NYPD attacking a protestor and stealing his camera and footage at a demonstration demanding justice for an independent video journalist who was shot and killed earlier this year.

The filmmaker, Flux Rostrum, was filming the interaction between protestors and police outside the Mexican Consulate in late October at a demonstration protesting the murder of journalist Brad Will, who was shot and killed on October 27, 2006 during the teachers' strike in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. His murderers are believed to be local officials.

Flux was not arrested, nor did he receive a receipt for seized property. Without any warning, he was jumped by two police officers, one of whom is an NYPD captain, and knocked down onto the asphalt of 39th Street. A police officer then snatched the camera out of Flux's hands. As Flux attempted to protect himself and his equipment from being trampled and beaten, the cop with the camera conferred with another officer and scurried back into the building to hide the camera.

Video of the events quite clearly shows the cop saying "I want that camera" before Flux is jumped and attacked. View the video below.

MORE:
http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2006/181206Camera.htm

[Richard Steele]

9. Given the volume of "news" you post, it's hard to believe you're asking an honest question here.

Did you forget a "sarcasm" smiley, perhaps?

[L. Coyote]

10. What, can't we ask "honest" questions on DU? No sarcasm.

And I've questioned the truth in other "news" reports, including those I post.

It is important to not just accept the writings and exaggerations of journalists at face value.