Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog
,
Something I hope to encourage readers of Liberty Blitzkrieg to
become aware of is their civil rights. Although the situation
seems to have improved in recent years, many citizens remain
woefully ignorant of their individual rights. Rights that were
intentionally enshrined in the U.S. Constitution specifically to
prevent the emergence of tyranny.
In our ever-changing modern technological world, the application
of the Bill of Rights from time to time has needed a bit of
clarification from the court system. One example of such was the
2011
case of
Glik v. Cunniffe, in which the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the First Circuit noted that:
“videotaping of public officials is an exercise of First
Amendment liberties.”
Apparently, this is rubbing certain Texas police officers the
wrong way, and they found a willing lapdog to push their interests
in Texas State Representative, Jason Villalba.
Mr. Villalba recently introduced bill
HB 2918, which bans citizens unaffiliated with
government licensed mainstream media outlets from filming police
within 25 feet. It doesn’t take much thought to immediately
recognize that this criminalizes filming an encounter with a
cop who pulls you over, or any personal interactions with officers
for that matter.
Many of the most popular videos shared on this site over the
years have come from random citizens recording personal encounters
with police. For example:
Extremely Powerful Video: Happy 4th of July from a
Police State Checkpoint (5 million+ views)
Video of the Day – This is What Happens When You
Try to Exercise Your Constitutional Rights in
Illinois (100,000+ views)
Under Jason Villalba’s idiotic and authoritarian bill, it
appears such recordings would become Class B misdemeanors.
Breitbartcoveredthis story comprehensively, here are a
few excerpts:
Texas State Representative Jason Villalba (R-Texas) has
found himself at the center of controversy after filing a bill that
would make it a crime for bloggers and independent journalists
— as well as regular citizens — to film police
officers.Despite the backlash from free speech advocates,
Villalba is insisting that his bill “does not infringe on
constitutional rights” or “limit liberty in any way.”
The bill,
HB 2918, adds to the definition of what
constitutes “interfering” with an officer’s duties, and
would make it a Class B Misdemeanor to film, record,
photograph, or document the officer within 25 feet while that
officer is performing his official duties. That distance is
extended to 100 feet if the person is carrying a concealed
handgun. There is an exception for news media, but the current
language of the bill does not include bloggers, independent
journalists, or private citizens, and it is not clear whether
online media outlets would be included in the exception
either.
Specifically, the types of “news media” that would be exempt
from the restrictions on filming police officers include only these
three categories:
(A) a radio or television station that holds a license
issued by the Federal Communications Commission;
(B) a newspaper that is qualified under Section 2051.044,
Government Code, to publish legal notices or is a free
newspaper of general circulation and that is published at
least once a week and available and of interest to the general
public in connection with the dissemination of news or public
affairs; or
(C) a magazine that appears at a regular interval, that
contains stories, articles, and essays by various writers, and
that is available and of interest to the general public in
connection with the dissemination of news or public affairs.
Publications such as Breitbart Texas or The
Texas Tribune that are published only online could argue they
should be considered “newspapers” or “magazines,” but it is
far from clear.
What is clear is that someone who runs an independent blog,
or an internet radio station or podcast, would not be
included. As newsrooms across the country have scaled back staff in
recent years, independent citizen journalists have often
stepped forward to fill that void, especially when it comes to
covering local politics and issues of civil and constitutional
rights violations that have not yet captured the attention of the
mainstream media.
Villalba’s bill would also make it illegal for private
citizens to record their own interactions with police
officers.In fact, the language is so broad, in prohibiting
“documenting” the police officer’s activities, that taking notes
during a conversation with an officer, about what was being said,
the officer’s badge number, etc., could be construed as a
violation. Besides the fact that law enforcement agencies
themselves have acknowledged the role that cameras can play in
reducing both incidents and false claims of police brutality — as
evidenced by the rising support for
police body cameras — this bill directly
contradicts established case law precedent allowing citizens to
videotape police.
Breitbart Texas reached out to Villalba to get his
comment regarding this bill, and spoke with him by phone Thursday
evening. Villalba was adamant in his defense of HB 2918. “All
we’re trying to do is get people to step back when the cops are
doing their work,” he said, and “twenty five feet doesn’t seem
unreasonable to me.”
“What is important to point out here is that a
person without a camera, can be within the distance
constraints as described in the legislation and will not be in
violation of any law,”continued Syrmopoulos. “The
camera, the record of police conduct is what is made illegal in
this bill.
To deny that it is not a direct attack on free speech is
asinine.”
What’s even more interesting about this, is that parts of Texas
are well known for being civil asset forfeiture capitals of
the world. Recall the extremely popular post:
Why You Should Never, Ever Drive Through Tenaha,
Texas
.
“Don’t mess with Texas.”Unless of course you are a
thieving, violent cop; in which case Jason Villalba wants to make
it open season on citizens by denying them their First Amendment
rights.
Texas, do yourselves a favor and vote this clown out of
office.
In case you need an additional reminder on why it’s so important
to film police, watch this one minute video of several police
officers stomping a Bridgeport, Connecticut man as he lay
motionless on the ground:
The cops were recently
found “not guilty.”
* * *
For related articles, see:
Innocent Army Veteran Framed by Louisiana Police
and Prosectors Barely Escapes Jail Due to Cellphone Video
Caught on Video – LAPD Guns Down Homeless Man in
Broad Daylight
Protecting and Serving – Florida Police Raid
90-Year-Old Woman’s Home; Find No Drugs but Wreck Home
Video of the Day – This Is What Happens When You
Call the Cops
Video of the Day – Watch as 8 Police Officers Fire
46 Shots and Kill a Homeless Man in Broad Daylight
