[HN Gopher] NYPD barred from telling people they can't film in p...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       NYPD barred from telling people they can't film in precinct
       stations
        
       Author : danso
       Score  : 218 points
       Date   : 2023-11-08 15:43 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hellgatenyc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hellgatenyc.com)
        
       | NickC25 wrote:
       | Good.
       | 
       | Barring any attempts to hinder a police investigation or crime
       | scene, the right to record law passed in NY should be absolute.
       | 
       | I see no reason why it's a bad thing to keep law enforcement
       | honest and make sure their actions are legal and above
       | board....because otherwise, their mistakes and ignorance of the
       | law can cost the public money.
       | 
       | It also allows the good folks within police departments to have a
       | straightforward way to root out the bad folks and the corruption
       | that a police union might traditionally try to cover up. If I
       | were a cop and I knew one of my coworkers was a bad apple, and
       | might screw things up for me, knowing that they are getting
       | recorded on the job would give me peace of mind.
        
         | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
         | The only reason I see is if it captured citizens that don't
         | want the fact that they were in a NYPD Precinct livestreamed.
        
           | stronglikedan wrote:
           | It's a public place. If a separate law gave them a right to
           | privacy then the police have to make accommodations to bring
           | them into the station privately, like through a back door.
        
             | AnimalMuppet wrote:
             | My position is that it is _good_ that everyone going into
             | the precinct should be publicly noticed. Nobody goes in
             | through  "a back door". Nobody goes into police custody
             | without the public knowing. Yes, this gets embarrassing.
             | But it keeps people from silently "disappearing". If
             | they're in police custody, everybody knows (or can find
             | out).
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | Which is fine if you're being arrested, not great if
               | you're trying to report domestic violence.
               | 
               | I get it, it's better like this, but it could have
               | secondary side effects for some people.
        
               | KennyBlanken wrote:
               | Trying to report _any_ crime where the victim fears
               | repercussions. Organized crime, crime by an employer,
               | etc.
        
               | Kye wrote:
               | Every law is a balance with some compromises toward or
               | against personal and public good. Some of that balance
               | should include alternate channels for reporting things
               | with hazards like this.
        
             | fishtacos wrote:
             | To echo the previous reply, it's a ridiculous stance to
             | defend absolving of documentation of their presence when
             | all these situations involved taxpayer money. Whether it's
             | an officer, a congressman,Trump under subpoena, or a random
             | drunk ... if they are being charged with something, they
             | are in the public record. That public record includes
             | public documentation of where they were taken, why, and
             | sufficient documentation to allow both the public to be
             | informed and for intervention in case of abuse of power.
             | 
             | Otherwise, we don't live in a functional democracy. This is
             | a good decision. It's sad the PD is appealing it, but not
             | unexpected.
        
               | tzs wrote:
               | People often go to police stations for reasons other than
               | being charged with something.
        
               | koolba wrote:
               | > That public record includes public documentation of
               | where they were taken, why, and sufficient documentation
               | to allow both the public to be informed and for
               | intervention in case of abuse of power.
               | 
               | The problem for the specific case of being charged with
               | something, or even a step before when someone is brought
               | in for questioning, is enough to tarnish the person's
               | reputation for life.
               | 
               | If someone is brought in for questioning on suspicion of
               | spousal battery, rape, or kiddie porn, that stink is not
               | going to subside even if the officers or prosecutors
               | later admit to being completely wrong.
        
               | fishtacos wrote:
               | That's a socio-cultural issue, not something related to
               | what the law requires because it's the just thing to do.
               | 
               | Otherwise, we'd have no knowledge of anything. We fought
               | so hard (US-specific) for the FOIA and that barely even
               | works. Crawling backwards into a decades of state and
               | police corruption isn't the answer.
               | 
               | I get what you're saying. There is an imbalance of power
               | between the common citizen and state. Wanting
               | transparency instead of the alternative because of abuse
               | of power is precisely why this should be the norm.
        
               | barbazoo wrote:
               | > if they are being charged with something, they are in
               | the public record. That public record includes public
               | documentation of where they were taken, why, and
               | sufficient documentation to allow both the public to be
               | informed and for intervention in case of abuse of power.
               | 
               | > Otherwise, we don't live in a functional democracy.
               | 
               | I agree with all of that but I wonder if this has
               | anything to do with living in a democracy.
        
               | seadan83 wrote:
               | Without those protections people can be disappeared or
               | put in jail for no reason (perhaps to prevent their
               | attendance somewhere else). It gets to the heart of
               | habeais corpus
        
               | fishtacos wrote:
               | Exactly - we need transparency so the public does not
               | feel threatened by unknowns, has trust in general
               | governance, has trust in the economic system, political
               | system, criminal system...
               | 
               | Democratic secular republics haven't been around for very
               | long. Lest we forget, given how short our lifetime spans,
               | nothing is written for us. We create history as we live
               | it. Trying our best doesn't seem to cut it so far, but
               | I'll take it over any alternative.
        
               | giraffe_lady wrote:
               | You can get arrested without being charged with something
               | though.
        
               | fishtacos wrote:
               | Yet what? It's still public record, like anything should
               | be when charged by the state. Transparency is key.
               | Otherwise, we live in an Orwellian quasi-something.
        
               | JohnFen wrote:
               | Being arrested, even if it you were innocent and it
               | doesn't lead to a trial or conviction, has very real and
               | harmful consequences to you in the US.
               | 
               | So, it seems that things are Orwellian either way.
        
               | angus-prune wrote:
               | Most western democracies dont publicise arrests and
               | mugshots like the US. Most of these countries are more
               | free and have better functioning democracies than the
               | USA. In fact, many coutries would consider publicising
               | every minor arrest as an imposition on personal freedom
               | and a massive overstep by the government.
               | 
               | I do agree that police should be filmable in almost all
               | circumstances.
        
               | kbelder wrote:
               | Ah, Europe loves its secret courts.
        
               | kreeben wrote:
               | It's so lovely when HN discussions derail into USA vs
               | Europe. Divisiveness, internet's favorite thing.
        
             | barrkel wrote:
             | What if a private organization set up cameras observing
             | everyone walking every street and avenue, and stored facial
             | eigenvectors of all the people walking there.
             | 
             | It could then set up shop as a service, and given a picture
             | of someone's face, tell you when and where they went
             | anywhere on foot in NYC.
             | 
             | It's all public, right?
        
               | wongarsu wrote:
               | That's what companies do with license plate scanners. I
               | don't think faces would be substantially different in the
               | eyes of the law.
               | 
               | I agree that it's an issue. In Europe there is some
               | expectation of privacy even in public and what you
               | describe would be illegal.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | > In Europe there is some expectation of privacy even in
               | public
               | 
               | which is reason #1367 why the UK had to leave the EU.
               | 
               | Thanks, I'll be here all week, until I die.
        
               | DoesntMatter22 wrote:
               | In thr US that is probably legal currently
        
               | roywiggins wrote:
               | It's being done for police, but I don't think there's any
               | legal bar to selling this data to the public instead.
               | 
               | https://www.404media.co/fusus-ai-cameras-took-over-town-
               | amer...
        
               | usea wrote:
               | The scenario you're describing is already the status quo.
        
               | mypgovroom wrote:
               | What if? What do you mean what if? You are obviously to
               | reality bud
        
               | ddingus wrote:
               | You can find that in London right now.
        
               | tick_tock_tick wrote:
               | Are you asking if that's legal? Because yes it absolutely
               | is.
        
             | omginternets wrote:
             | I think there's room for protecting people's public image
             | so long as they have not been _convicted_.
        
               | heliodor wrote:
               | Are you saying that every crime punishment should
               | automatically include loss of privacy? Cause that's what
               | your statement sounds like.
        
               | omginternets wrote:
               | That's a very bizarre reading of this thread of
               | conversation.
        
               | AnimalMuppet wrote:
               | Every crime _conviction_ is a public record, so that ship
               | has sailed.
        
               | themaninthedark wrote:
               | I would say that we want to know what crimes our
               | government is convicting people of. Otherwise, you can
               | have the government arrest and convict some one of
               | "secret" charges, perhaps in "secret" courts with
               | "secret" evidence. The convicted just disappeared.
               | 
               | I think we had something like that happen before, it
               | caused a bit of upset.
        
               | ddingus wrote:
               | That is all a matter of public record. Anyone who doesn't
               | want that can file a motion to have it concealed.
        
               | tick_tock_tick wrote:
               | I mean pretty much that's a cornerstone of our legal
               | system. There's a strong bias against hidden courts where
               | someone may be convicted in secret and punished in
               | secret.
        
             | oneplane wrote:
             | The public place doctrine is uniquely weird (and American)
             | in that regard. Being seen or heard by others in a public
             | place should not mean that you, as a private person, also
             | gets recorded.
        
               | JohnFen wrote:
               | I agree. I think that US law is actively harmful in this
               | regard. It should be possible to be in public spaces
               | without having to worry about being recorded, either by
               | authorities or other people.
        
               | ultrarunner wrote:
               | This reverses the subject, though: even if we grant that
               | private civilians should have a (possibly limited)
               | expectation of privacy in public, civilians acting in a
               | public capacity, like the police, should not. Given the
               | enormous power they have to act outside the law with
               | impunity, removing the only check on that power--
               | transparency into their conduct-- would be a mistake. One
               | only need to consider any of the many times police have
               | been caught outright lying by video surfacing afterward
               | to understand why.
        
               | JohnFen wrote:
               | I agree entirely. We give police extraordinary power over
               | us, and it seems completely reasonable that they have
               | little expectation of privacy when using those powers.
        
           | JackFr wrote:
           | What about crime victims?
        
           | themaninthedark wrote:
           | What if the mob is paying people to film inside the Precinct?
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | I get the argument. This is a tough problem, though, because
         | someone recording in a police building can easily prevent
         | citizens from conducting their business in there. I know that
         | if I saw some random person recording in the building (or in
         | other sensitive places), I wouldn't set foot in there. I doubt
         | I'm the only one. Particularly if someone is going in there to
         | deal with an issue where they don't want others to know they're
         | going to the police.
        
           | MrDrMcCoy wrote:
           | I'm still in favor of absolute recording rights despite all
           | that. You're quite right to point out chilling effects of
           | active recording, but you have to also consider that bad
           | police behavior is chilling in and of itself. People don't
           | want to make reports when the police might make things worse
           | or neglect things they're supposed to help with. Recording
           | can help with that and will become less common as bad police
           | are held to better account. Another thing that can balance
           | that would be for police stations to have a reception desk
           | with a transparent, soundproof box for citizens to make
           | reports with some privacy and safety regardless of recording.
        
             | JohnFen wrote:
             | > Another thing that can balance that would be for police
             | stations to have a reception desk with a transparent,
             | soundproof box for citizens to make reports
             | 
             | That doesn't really address the issue, though. The issue is
             | that people can be shown to have been at the police station
             | at all.
        
               | chrsig wrote:
               | Surely if it's that big of an issue they could call the
               | police station and arrange a more discrete venue?
               | 
               | Maybe in the best of times this would seem a bigger
               | concern, but in the present day it definitely seems like
               | there needs to be more pressure on police to meet minimum
               | standards.
        
               | JohnFen wrote:
               | > Surely if it's that big of an issue they could call the
               | police station and arrange a more discrete venue?
               | 
               | I think that's a bit more than can be reasonably expected
               | of someone who is in active danger and afraid.
               | 
               | There does need to be some way that people can go to the
               | police without being at risk of exposure by "first
               | amendment auditors", but it's hard to see how that could
               | happen. The people doing the recording would probably
               | demand the right to record in any other place that is set
               | aside for such purposes as well.
               | 
               | That's why this is a really difficult issue. The ruling
               | may be technically correct, but it seems to me that this
               | practice does more harm than good.
        
         | JackFr wrote:
         | Should other people in a police station have any expectation of
         | privacy? Victims of crimes? People who've been arrested?
        
           | Kab1r wrote:
           | People who have been arrested don't usually just hang out in
           | the lobby. There is no expectation of privacy in any public
           | space
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | That is not universally true, there are some expectations
             | of privacy in some public places. For example, public
             | restrooms, phone booths, dressing rooms, people's person,
             | car, belongings, etc.
        
             | JohnFen wrote:
             | > There is no expectation of privacy in any public space
             | 
             | But there should be protection against being recorded
             | against your will.
        
       | Lord-Jobo wrote:
       | You are legally allowed to, but doing so may result in excessive
       | bodily harm and weeks of incarceration, with low or zero
       | repercussions for the police that do it to you. Until Qualified
       | Immunity is uprooted, these lawsuits really wont do much to move
       | a needle. Still a good outcome from the courts.
        
         | stronglikedan wrote:
         | > may result in excessive bodily harm and weeks of
         | incarceration
         | 
         | It won't, because that's exactly what this law prevents.
        
           | woodruffw wrote:
           | The law has historically not been a significant concern for
           | the NYPD.
           | 
           | Put another way: this is a "win" in the sense that there's
           | judicial recognition of the problem, but attempting to _test_
           | this law is still going to get you harassed and potentially
           | arrested. The question then becomes whether 24+ hours in jail
           | is worth ultimately being vindicated in court.
           | 
           | Compare recent attempts to get the NYPD to stop parking
           | illegally[1][2].
           | 
           | [1]: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/01/23/tipster-sues-
           | nypd-for...
           | 
           | [2]: https://hellgatenyc.com/nypd-try-to-illegally-park-then-
           | tick...
        
             | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
             | Also in many jurisdictions, arrest records are public and
             | cannot be expunged... even if charges are never filed!
        
               | KennyBlanken wrote:
               | And many people have employers who would not tolerate a
               | zero-notice day of absence, can't afford the fees for a
               | criminal defense attorney (and public defenders are so
               | backed up they're nearly useless), and so on.
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _question then becomes whether 24+ hours in jail is worth
             | ultimately being vindicated in court_
             | 
             | With a pattern of violations, a civil case for damages
             | emerges. (With an arrest, there is particularised harm in a
             | way parking violations do not tend to create.)
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | > With a pattern of violations, a civil case for damages
               | emerges.
               | 
               | Agreed, although this is predicated on being willing to
               | put up with arrest. In effect, the cost is asymmetric: to
               | have my civil rights enshrined here, I'd have to be
               | willing to go to jail a handful of times, miss work,
               | suffer physical and verbal abuse at the hands of an
               | agency that rapes detainees[1], etc. All for a judge to
               | _potentially_ grant me damages.
               | 
               | [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima
        
           | Centigonal wrote:
           | But... who enforces that law?
        
             | dragonwriter wrote:
             | Contempt of court against a federal district court order? A
             | hacked off (in the case of any actual violation) federal
             | judge with pretty broad direct power, U.S. Marshals,.and,
             | potentially, the applicable US Attorney's office, FBI, and
             | the rest of thr federal criminal law enforcement apparatus
             | for any criminal contempt or other federal crime involved.
        
           | contravariant wrote:
           | You mean like the constitution and two other laws prevented
           | it?
        
           | mangosteenjuice wrote:
           | https://signalscv.com/2023/11/lasd-statement-forthcoming-
           | on-...
           | 
           | Do you think anyone is going to be held responsible for this?
        
         | thrdbndndn wrote:
         | Just curious, how does the law distinguish "public" part of a
         | public place, and "private" part of it like staff's rooms,
         | evidence rooms etc?
        
           | LegitShady wrote:
           | signs, locked doors, public ability to go into an area.
           | Generally publicly accessible foyers, hallways, are ok.
        
             | KennyBlanken wrote:
             | I imagine NYPD's response to this will be to set up every
             | precinct so there is a guard station at the front and you
             | have to give a reason to be let in "for security."
        
               | DoesntMatter22 wrote:
               | That is already common and they go in and film anyway. If
               | the public can legally get there they can legally film
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | i imagine that policy too would be subject to legal
               | challenge, and if placed immediately after this judgement
               | would probably not draw a lot of sympathy from a judge.
               | The issue is that filming in the public foyer/area of a
               | public building IS legitimate business, even protected
               | activity, so the more they do to make that difficult the
               | worse it becomes for them.
        
               | anonymouskimmer wrote:
               | From the article they have this angle covered too, though
               | I don't know whether the judge specifically ruled on it
               | as well:
               | 
               | > and the NYPD instituted its policy without following
               | the Citywide Administrative Procedure Act, which
               | specifies the steps a City agency must take before it can
               | put a new rule in place.
        
           | NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
           | Statutory law rarely spells that out, leaving it to judges
           | and case law. My guess is that judges would be pragmatic in
           | such matters, and in those parts of the building where there
           | is no public interest in allowing video recording, they would
           | disallow it.
           | 
           | Likely, those rooms are off limits to the public anyway. And,
           | if I'm not mistaken, as dumb as the public can be, no one's
           | actually attempted to film in those places (though, with the
           | rise of influencers and Youtube and whatnot, maybe we should
           | just be anticipating the coming flood?).
        
         | anonymouskimmer wrote:
         | From what I've gathered watching Youtube legal videos,
         | Qualified Immunity doesn't apply when the government officials
         | have been explicitly told by a court that their specific
         | behavior is a violation of a right. With this temporary
         | injunction they have so been told.
        
           | wefarrell wrote:
           | Qualified immunity doesn't apply when the officer clearly
           | violates a constitutional right. Unfortunately the article
           | says:
           | 
           |  _Judge Jessica Clarke, who ordered the injunction last week,
           | ruled that while the First Amendment claim might be a little
           | more complicated, it seems pretty clear that the NYPD
           | violated the state and municipal Right to Record Acts with
           | its policy._
        
             | anonymouskimmer wrote:
             | Civil rights aren't just Constitutional rights, else the US
             | wouldn't have a variety of federal and state level "civil
             | rights" acts. State police are subordinate to the State,
             | not just the Federal government.
        
       | mc32 wrote:
       | In the UK apparently you can't record past precinct property
       | --which can be just beyond the sidewalk, or if there's a gate to
       | the parking lot... of if there's police activity on a public
       | street.
       | 
       | There's a guy who goes around challenging them:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5G2mL_7BMg
        
       | resters wrote:
       | One of the best things about Youtube (and now TikTok) is the
       | growing popularity of videos that reveal the shocking extent of
       | police misconduct.
       | 
       | Thanks to camera phones we have all become outraged at the way
       | may police treat black people, and I credit camera phones as the
       | driving force behind the social movement now known as BLM.
       | 
       | But the creators on TikTok and YouTube who focus on police
       | misconduct are going beyond BLM and focusing on the routine,
       | institutionalized bullying of citizens of all ages, races, etc.
       | 
       | We should all be very outraged by this, and we should all rally
       | to support these creators, BLM, etc.
       | 
       | This is what the internet was supposed to give us. Better
       | transparency into government misconduct, and defense against
       | oppression committed against citizens by government.
        
         | SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
         | The only problem is there's no step in social media to activate
         | people to put pressure on the government to reduce police
         | abuse. I want stuff like cops who beat their significant others
         | taken off the force. Cops sent to jail if they rape or sexually
         | assault their detainees. I want a reversion to the legal
         | precedent that cops have no duty to defend civilians from
         | crime. But there's no way to do this without large popular
         | action,.
         | 
         | Hell even with BLM mass protests, no city actually defunded the
         | police!
        
           | nxm wrote:
           | Cops do not get sent to jail if they rape or sexually assault
           | their detainees?
        
             | jacoblambda wrote:
             | In some cases no.
             | 
             | https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertsamaha/this-
             | teena...
        
             | FireBeyond wrote:
             | Hah. There was a case a few years ago where a cop "had sex
             | with" a female teen (minor but above age of consent) who
             | was handcuffed and in custody. He argued it was consensual,
             | and the court agreed.
             | 
             | The sister reply has this stunning statement:
             | 
             | > She had no idea she lived in one of 35 states where
             | officers can claim a detainee consented.
             | 
             | Why is any state allowing LEOs to have sex with detainees,
             | "consensually" or otherwise?
        
               | jlokier wrote:
               | I find it even more stunning that there were _two_ cops
               | in the police van, and they both had sex with the
               | handcuffed girl while on duty, confirmed by sperm DNA
               | samples in the girl afterwards.
               | 
               | Neither cop got any serious punishment, and this was due
               | to their word against hers in court.
               | 
               | If there had been in-van cameras or even just audio, it
               | would almost certainly have corroborated her word as rape
               | victim saying "no" repeatedly, or the cops' word that it
               | was a fully consensual offer to have (presumably
               | unprotected) sex with both cops in exchange for her
               | freedom. (The cops' claim sounds like such a bizarre
               | defence to me, because it obviously should be illegal to
               | accept such an offer. But apparently it was allowed.)
        
             | dragonwriter wrote:
             | > Cops do not get sent to jail if they rape or sexually
             | assault their detainees?
             | 
             | Frequently, no, because of pro-cop bias among (in what is
             | simultaneously approximately the order of both strength of
             | pro-cop bias and temporal order in which the biases apply
             | to a case) cops (who are the first line investigators of
             | crime), prosecutors (who's involvement is necessary for
             | criminal charges), judges, and the public (i.e., the jury
             | pool.)
        
               | jimbob45 wrote:
               | _Frequently, no, because of pro-cop bias among cops,
               | prosecutors, judges, and the public_
               | 
               | So...everyone?
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | The public in aggregate, yes, but not everyone
               | individually, no.
        
           | jacoblambda wrote:
           | So do direct action. Go join an org and demonstrate. That's
           | the only way change happens.
        
           | resters wrote:
           | I strongly agree, what you are describing is what is needed.
           | 
           | I'm also concerned by the chilling effects we've seen lately
           | on speech, starting with attacks on press freedom by
           | government, but also aided by social media firms cooperating
           | in censorship, and more recently the canceling of people who
           | do things like protest in favor of the Palestinians, etc.
           | 
           | We can observe the extent of status quo social media
           | censorship when we see how much "subversive" but legal and
           | helpful/benign content that is popular on TikTok never got
           | legs on other platforms.
        
           | kmeisthax wrote:
           | There were cities that _literally_ defunded the police. More
           | accurately, they deliberately engineered a crime crisis to
           | discredit police reform activism under the common
           | misunderstanding that  "defund the police" means "I want the
           | Purge" and not "stop sending cops out to shoot at homeless
           | people in a Wendy's drive-thru".
           | 
           | The thing about cops getting taken off the force is that it
           | actually happens fairly commonly. The term of art in law
           | enforcement for them is "gypsy[0] cops", because they jump
           | from force to force whenever they do something that attracts
           | media attention. Ironically, they are enabled by _literally_
           | defunded police departments who are looking for someone they
           | can pay peanuts to go issue traffic tickets all day. The
           | really abusive bullies are their perfect employee, at least
           | until they cause a media stir and have to be fired to save
           | face.
           | 
           | In all these cases, there actually _is_ active pressure from
           | people to reform and it does go to the people that matter.
           | The problem is that those people have a vested interest in
           | keeping policing brutal, and they are also rhetorically
           | _slippery_. They will actively misinterpret your
           | sloganeering, they will ignore your political writings and
           | pamphlets, and generally seek to embarrass you until you go
           | away.
           | 
           | Less depressingly, I do recall a few cities[1] run by people
           | with their heads on straight that did what the "defund the
           | police" people _meant_ , not what they literally said. And it
           | turns out that, given not-crooked people in power
           | implementing these things faithfully, it _does_ work. The
           | problem is entirely the people at the top making the
           | decisions. What we need is not merely bottom-up pressure, but
           | an explicit democratic mandate - i.e. infiltrating local
           | government with competent politicians favorable to the cause.
           | 
           | Also, maybe we should change the slogan. I vote for "Refund
           | the Police", because it has a double-meaning: send back the
           | violent interventions and fund non-violent programs instead.
           | 
           | [0] Their words, not mine.
           | 
           | For those unaware, in Europe this word is basically the
           | N-word.
           | 
           | [1] Whose names I frustratingly DO NOT REMEMBER
        
       | logicalmonster wrote:
       | I'm glad it's legal to film, particularly when you want to
       | protect yourself when reporting a crime and you fear police
       | reprisal for some reason.
       | 
       | However, I can see some truly asshole-ish behavior resulting from
       | this if the influencers get wind of this decision and they decide
       | to use it to make content. Imagine some Instagrammer gawking at a
       | crime victim on the worst day of their life as they go to the
       | police for help and they sit there smugly saying "It's legal, fr
       | fr bruh, no cap. on god".
       | 
       | EDIT: IDGAF, just curious, why the downvotes?
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | > I'm glad it's legal to film, particularly when you want to
         | protect yourself when reporting a crime and you fear police
         | reprisal for some reason.
         | 
         | I am not glad it's legal to film, because of the risk of
         | reprisal from criminals you may be going in to the police
         | department to talk about.
        
         | pixxel wrote:
         | > EDIT: IDGAF, just curious, why the downvotes?
        
         | gqcwwjtg wrote:
         | The downvotes, I guess, are because this is kind of a silly
         | concern. Steamers do rude things all the time, but that's not a
         | good reason to change the law to prevent everyone from doing
         | the thing that seems rude in that case.
        
       | iandanforth wrote:
       | The line between 'annoying ego-trip' and 'act essential for the
       | preservation of freedom and democracy' is surprisingly thin. In
       | many cases it boils down the manners and this guy seems to at
       | least try to be polite in his videos.
        
         | intrasight wrote:
         | Is thin or non-existent. But still VERY glad that these
         | individuals do what they do. It's just one example of what can
         | be done, besides voting, to uphold civil rights.
        
         | bdcravens wrote:
         | they needn't be mutually exclusive
        
       | austin-cheney wrote:
       | In most US jurisdictions it is still illegal to film within the
       | confines of a courthouse, unless prior authorized, due to
       | potential privacy violations, but anybody can film on the
       | courthouse steps. These privacy violations may compromise persons
       | charged with crimes, witnesses, jury members, court staff, or
       | plaintiffs. Since the conduct and presence of many people at a
       | courthouse is often involuntarily and yet not part of the public
       | record their privacy concerns, and even potential safety
       | concerns, exceed third-party expression concerns.
        
         | CobrastanJorji wrote:
         | > due to potential privacy violations
         | 
         | This may be a thing people say, but it doesn't make any sense
         | to me. The whole premise of the legal system is that it's
         | public. Closed door procedures are the exception. You can
         | generally walk in to nearly any courtroom, observe the whole
         | thing, write down what everybody said, and publish it, and
         | that's 100% legal. So the "no cameras because it might violate
         | privacy" argument always felt weird to me.
        
           | thfuran wrote:
           | But you can't walk in and demand to see the jurors' IDs.
        
             | CobrastanJorji wrote:
             | But if it was somehow important to privacy, for example
             | because maybe you could ID jurors, than they would never
             | allow cameras in there, but many judges do allow cameras.
             | Why is it up to the judges if there's an important reason
             | for it?
        
           | JohnFen wrote:
           | I see a really huge difference between being able to observe
           | something and being able to record the thing. The latter is
           | so much more intrusive than the former that different
           | standards should apply.
        
             | CobrastanJorji wrote:
             | Okay, but why can you transcribe everything that's said and
             | literally paint portraits of the proceedings, but you can't
             | use a tape recorder? Surely the gains in public access and
             | accurate record keeping from an audio recording outweigh
             | whatever extra intrusiveness audio has over text?
        
               | JohnFen wrote:
               | Ah, you're talking about during an actual court
               | proceeding? I was thinking just in the courthouse/police
               | station/etc. generally.
               | 
               | In an actual court proceeding, things might be a bit
               | different. In my state, anyway, the court itself makes
               | audio and video recording of the proceeding and prohibits
               | others from doing so. I'm OK with that, but I wouldn't
               | have a huge issue if they allowed others to do it too.
               | Outside of a court proceeding, though, I have a larger
               | issue.
        
         | LegitShady wrote:
         | from what I understand this isn't true. Basically restrictions
         | on filming in courts are judicial orders (and they're basically
         | gods in courthouses) but restrictions on filming in public
         | areas of a courthouse building in general are more complicated.
         | You don't have any expectation of privacy there, and if you did
         | they would need to accommodate it.
        
       | notacoward wrote:
       | Cue the copyrighted music playing 24/7 in NYPD stations in 3, 2,
       | 1, ...
       | 
       | No, I'm not joking. This is a real thing that has happened
       | elsewhere, using copyright law to take down evidence of police
       | misbehavior.
       | 
       | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/15/california-p...
        
       | chimeracoder wrote:
       | It's a good ruling, but the NYPD will almost certainly ignore it.
       | The worst part is that any restitution will come in the form of
       | fines, which are paid not by police officers, but by taxpayers.
       | 
       | NYPD officers can break the law with complete impunity, because a
       | third party (the taxpayers) is paying for both their legal fees
       | _and_ any punitive fines.
        
         | LegitShady wrote:
         | The activist that fought this in court and won will come back
         | and do it again.
        
       | yieldcrv wrote:
       | the public needs something on par with Administrative Law Judges
       | (ALJs)
       | 
       | (for the uninitiated, many state corporations and agencies have
       | judges on staff and inhouse that can hear an agency's case the
       | same day, getting emergency injunctions done at a moment's
       | notice.)
       | 
       | it would be cool if this was like a perk with unions or something
       | that wouldnt get too bogged down by the general public
       | immediately, but for the general public.
        
       | sys_64738 wrote:
       | NYPD will take you down violently if you show them any lip. No
       | silly regulations will get in their way of running your ID if you
       | catch their gaze.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-11-08 23:02 UTC)