Too bad for protesters that the upcoming NATO Summit is taking place in Chicago instead of Baltimore. The Department of Justice is set issue a STRONGLY WORDED LETTER saying that people have the right to record the police as long as they’re in uniform – the cops, that is, not the protesters (although it would be kind of a fun rule to make videotaping protesters dress in a sort of uniform). The letter is in response to a 2010 incident involving the Baltimore Police Department and Christopher Sharp. The Verge reports:
Baltimore police arrested Sharp at the Pimlico Rase Course after he recorded officers arresting and beating his acquaintance — the officers seized Sharp’s cellphone and destroyed all of the videos it contained. The BPD and the Police Commissioner then sought to dismiss the case against them, citing a policy that instructs officers to leave citizens who are recording them alone, unless they are actively violating a law.
To put it into terms that public radio listeners can understand: recording McNulty while he and Bunk work a case = not OK. Recording McNulty cruising in a black and white = OK.
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