Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
We’ve seen it happening again and again, police detaining civilians photographers for recording or photographing them. The two stories mentioned here ended with police having to pay quite a bit of money for doing so. And in the end the message of photographers rights will go through (or not).
But what do you actually have to do if you are stopped by the police for taking photos?
Swiss police came up with a new, and highly controversial, plan to get suspects to turn themselves in.
According to Ha’aretz newspaper, the police will release a pixelated photo of suspects to the media, along with a message warning that unless they turn themselves in within a week, unpixelated photos will be published and the public will be asked to identify them.
As you can imagine, the new policy is said to cause quite a stir among politicians and lawyers.
I know that we have been reporting many anti photography laws lately. It’s a drag. But sometimes, the law makers surprise us and actually work towards making the world a better place for photographers..
This new Colorado law is called “Stop Police Interference Cop Incident Recordings”. The summary of the proposed bill stated:
“The bill creates a private right of action against a peace officer’s employing law enforcement agency if a person records an incident involving a peace officer and a peace officer destroys the recording or seizes the recording without receiving consent or obtaining a warrant or if the peace officer intentionally interferes with the recording or retaliates against the person making the recording. The person who recorded the peace officer incident is entitled to actual damages, a civil penalty of $15,000, and attorney fees and costs.”
We are happy to announce to our police-stalking shutterbugs that House Bill 15-1290 was signed into law by Colorado governor Hickenlooper (gotta love a man of power with that name) on May 20th.
These types of clips are popping up so frequently these days, it’s almost not even shocking to see anymore. But, this video posted yesterday on YouTube shows a heavily armed US Marshal charge a woman who was photographing a group of officers. The Marshal grabbed the phone out of her hand, then proceeded to kick and smash the phone as it hit the ground. The entire group of law enforcement officials appear to have then walked away from the startled woman.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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