It's Ok... You CAN Record the Police With Your Camera in a Public Space
(well... for the most part...)
The events at Ferguson and the murder of Eric Garner reveal the video camera as one of the most effective ways to combat abuse of power by the police. More people need to have their cameras at the ready and be prepared to record without fear of intimidation by the police. But many people aren't always aware of their rights to record the police. Spocko at Hullabaloo, hoping to spur more boldness in progressive actions, does his civic duty and points out where you can find out what your rights are re: the use of your camera to record police activity:
I've developed ideas groups love, but they get nervous during the implementation. So sometimes people have to pick up the ball themselves, and when they do I want them to know the rules, tips and tricks. I want to teach them how to anticipate responses and next steps. Luckily on the video rules side I've got guidelines for you.
- My friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation put together an updated guide for people in the US who want to use their phones to record police and other actions at a protest.
- The ACLU has a guide, Know Your Rights: Photographers. I'll direct you to the "special considerations when videotaping" section. Different states have different laws about consent when it comes to the audio portion of video.
Finally, my friends at Boing Boing have a podcast on what gadgets to use to gather your photos, video and audio. This is all good in helping people going to current protests, but I also want people to look at previous protests to see both what we can learn and how we can use them for change at a deeper level. Plus prepare for future actions. Let's look at history and then predict the future.
Sometimes we do things for profit but we should always do things for progress.
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