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Police in Maryland are in a tiff over an unflattering YouTube video, and prosecutors are working overtime to suppress it. Harford County prosecutors have filed felony charges against 25-year-old motorcyclist Anthony Graber, who taped a traffic stop in March and shared it on the popular website.

Mr. Graber was stopped by police after he made a high-speed trip down Interstate 95 with a video camera mounted on his helmet. Had the officers involved issued a simple speeding ticket and provided a stern roadside counseling session, the matter would have ended there. As seen by nearly a quarter-million viewers online, however, Maryland State Trooper Joseph David Uhler had other ideas. Clad in jeans, sneakers and a grey pullover, Trooper Uhler jumped out of his unmarked Chevy, gun drawn, yelling for Mr. Graber to "get off the motorcycle" - almost forgetting to identify himself as a peace officer. While drawing a deadly weapon over a minor traffic infraction may seem a bit extreme, Trooper Uhler kept it pointed at the ground with his finger off the trigger. The decision was made in the heat of the moment.

The truly outrageous conduct happened days later, after Trooper Uhler was "made aware" of the YouTube video and the negative comments from the public. State police responded with a dawn raid on Mr. Graber's home, confiscating all computers, hard drives and video equipment from the residence. Mr. Graber was charged with three counts of felony wiretapping because he had failed to obtain permission to tape his own arrest.

Maryland's wiretapping statute, intended to protect telephone conversations from eavesdroppers, requires consent from all parties to a private conversation. For the law to apply to a traffic stop, the officer working on a public highway would have to assert that he had an "expectation of privacy." That would be a rather absurd position to hold in a state that uses speed cameras on its interstate highways to record and ticket passing motorists without their permission.

Mr. Graber is being represented by a legal team assembled by the Maryland branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. In an interview with The Washington Times, staff attorney David Rocah expressed concern over the implications of the case. "To use a statute designed to protect people's privacy - including significantly their privacy from government intrusion - as a sword to suppress the truth about official behavior is really turning the statute on its head."

The sword in question is particularly heavy in this case, as Mr. Graber faces up to 16 years in jail. Prosecutors went out of their way to include a charge based on an obscure 2006 law imposing sanctions on anyone who commits a crime with the intent to film it. The wiretap counts include a charge for the possession and use of a "surreptitious" wiretap device - although it is unclear how a large camera mounted on top of a helmet could be considered hidden.

While Mr. Graber is fortunate to have pro-bono legal assistance, it is troubling that police and prosecutors have the ability to lob such serious charges against citizens for exposing questionable official conduct to public scrutiny. The legislature should strip prosecutors of this authority by clarifying that the public has the right to use video to hold public servants accountable for their official conduct.

This is such questionable logic. The police videotape people constantly at red light cameras and other public surveilance. I can understand the compaints about upskirt and dressing room cams, etc, but this is videotaping for a non-commercial and non-lurid purpose. Hell, even the cops have dash cams in a lot of places.

I always thought a good compromise would be to have every video and red light camera marked with a big yellow sign just for purposes of disclosure.Now if law enforcemnt complains about revenue being down because they aren't getting as many tickets, i would counter that the benefit in public safety is more important, right?

Other discussion of this issue earlier this week at the end of this thread

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/40/355201.html

Yeah I caught that too, but I thought this one deserved its own little place in the the light here.

Are Cameras the New Guns?

http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns

Thanks for the link, very informative. Oh wait that's the one posted in the other thread yesterday.

Between FUNdamental, WingNut and WTL maybe we just need to create a forum policy that there MUST be more than one thread on every topic so we can waste time re-posting the same things.

pgens Wrote:
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> ... maybe we just
> need to create a forum policy that there MUST be
> more than one thread on every topic so we can
> waste time re-posting the same things.

But you must use an alternate screen name for the re-post.

I will say, though, that I think the "illegal videotaping" issue does deserve its own thread.

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13 4826 0948 82695 25847. Yes.

MrMephisto Wrote:
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>
> But you must use an alternate screen name for the
> re-post.



+1

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“It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton Lavey

MrMephisto Wrote:
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> But you must use an alternate screen name for the
> re-post.

As if that isn't happening.

Sorry for the overpost ladies,because not everyone is going to go to the Miranda thread. my take is that we might miss some really important and relevant info.

I'm sure I'll get some relevent and importnat info before the year is up.

idontlikebeingrightaboutshitlikethisbutiam



Edited 21 time(s). Last edit at 5/31/1967 05:57AM by WingNut.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 07:31PM by WingNut.

Watch how the cop's demeanor changes when he notices the police car behind the bike.
He turns to his right and holsters his weapon surreptitiously.

The worst of it though is the raid on the guy's house.


Long, boring version, without sound (yeah, the rider deserved to be ticketed):




More:

http://carlosmiller.com/2010/04/16/maryland-motorcyclist-spends-26-hours-in-jail-on-wiretapping-charge-for-filming-cop-with-gun/

http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/26/watching-the-detectives#commentcontainer

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