Huffington Post – by Andy Campbell
A bill introduced to the Texas House of Representatives would make it illegal for private citizens to record police within 25 feet.
House Bill 2918, introduced by Texas Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) on Tuesday, would make the offense a misdemeanor. Citizens who are armed would not be permitted to record police activity within 100 feet of an officer, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Only representatives of radio or TV organizations that hold an FCC license, newspapers and magazines would have the right to record police.
The legislator disagreed with people on Twitter who said he’s seeking to make all filming of cops illegal.
“My bill … just asks filmers to stand back a little so as not to interfere with law enforcement,” Villalba tweeted.
The bill would go against precedent set in 2011 by an appeals court, which found that citizens are allowed to record police, according to the ACLU.
Villalba’s bill comes at a time of increased public scrutiny over the police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others. In Garner’s case, a grand jury didn’t indict the police officer who put Garner in a chokehold before his death, but another grand jury did indict the man who filmed the incident on weapons charges.
Last year, HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly and another reporter were detained and assaulted while attempting to film a swarm of police officers filling up a McDonald’s in Ferguson, Missouri, the town where Brown was killed. That filming, as well as other recordings of police interactions by the public, are currently legal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/13/bill-recording-police-illegal_n_6861444.html
When you make filming unlawful thugs to protect yourself unlawful then you make the only alternative to fire upon unlawful thugs, your choice delegates.
The fact of them outlawing the recording of police behavior speaks for itself.
So, if a person is NOT filming, but is less than 25 ft away, are they also interfering or obstructing the police? Will it soon be illegal to stand less than 25 feet from any police activity?
Suppose you are more than 25 ft away, but the thugs decide they STILL don’t like you filming….. Will you be required to maintain the 25 ft distance as the barking dogs charge at you in a threatening manner? Will they then claim you were acting suspiciously and trying to flee if you retreated to maintain their bubble of non-interference?
Best we man up and put an end to this tyranny.
God Bless the Republic.
oh yeah they sure would LOOOOVE that now wouldn’t they
communist bastards
how more IN YOUR FACE does it need to get?
And WAIT:
“Only representatives of radio or TV organizations that hold an FCC license, newspapers and magazines would have the right to record police.”
Isn’t that an admission that “mainstream news” is in fact part of the government???
Yep
And part of the problem
This is akin to rubbing your face in shit and telling you to like it. If these bastards were not the criminals that they are they would welcome the videos as proof of how fair they are instead of the gang land thugs that they really are! They want to know why there are so many citizens that look at them as criminal thugs ,its because they are and if they really want to see what the problem is they have to go no farther than the closest mirror. Act like militant thugs and act perplexed when they are hated only show them for the buffoons that they have turned into.
Hang the treasonous SOB! 😡
Is he even American? Villalba? What kind of name is that and what is he doing in the Senate?