Pixiq
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Connecticut Cop Arrested After Pulling Gun On Cop Who Photographed Him
Fellow officers thought it would be funny to photograph David Davis, a Connecticut railroad police officer, sleeping at his desk while on shift.
They probably didn’t expect Davis to wake up, pull out his gun and point at the officer who had just taken his picture.
“No one’s taking pictures today,” Davis told John Freeman.
According to the Connecticut Post:
Freeman yelled at Davis to put the gun away, but Davis continued to track his movements with the gun pointed at Freeman's head and his finger on the trigger, police said. After Freeman yelled at Davis a second time, Davis put the gun back in its holster, police said. Freeman then left the office.
Police said Freeman reported the incident to MTA Internal Affairs. Following an investigation, Davis was suspended for two weeks. However, Freeman subsequently pursued the matter and the case was turned over to Bridgeport police.
The incident took place in February. He was arrested Friday.
Davis, 51, a Metro-North Railroad police officer, is now facing first-degree reckless endangerment charges.
Officer Freeman. If you are reading this, please send the photo to the email below, so we can all get a laugh.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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Jury Convicts Videographer as Judge Sides With Videographer
Photojournalist J.C. Playford has long been a thorn in the side of San Diego law enforcement officers over his right to take pictures in public.
But he’s always been the first photographer to offer condolences to cops when fellow officers die in the line of duty.
So it’s hard to picture him in a bomb scheme. Espeically a urine bomb.
But cops tell the most elaborate stories.
According to the North County Times:
Freelance photojournalist James Charles Playford, 48, of Ramona, didn't immediately comply with San Diego County sheriff's Detective Brendan Cook's orders after the deputy detained Playford, mistakenly believing the cameraman was using a cell phone in an attempt to detonate a "bomb" outside U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa's office on Dec. 11.
The "bomb" turned out to be a bottle of urine next to a coffee mug. Playford testified he was just trying to call a news agency he was working with.
Playford fidgeted and "shrugged" as if he were attempting to break free from Cook's hold, prompting the detective to call for more deputies, Cook said during testimony on Wednesday and Thursday..
The prosecutor argued that Cook was in fear for his life over the urine bomb, which is why he had the right to detain Playford.
But Playford's attorney argued that his client wasn't breaking the law by using his cell phone or recording with his camera.
The jury sided with the cop and convicted Playford for obstruction.
The judge had no choice but to go with that, but expressed that he did not agree with the verdict.
Jurors reached the guilty verdict after about an hour of deliberation. Afterward, Vista Superior Court Judge Richard Mills said he didn't see how the evidence supported the police-obstruction conviction.
Mills sentenced Playford to time served, issued no fines and did not place him on probation. Playford will have to pay about $300 in attorney's fees, Mills ruled.
Playford plans to appeal the decision, which should be a slam dunk considering the judge even sided with him.
The urine bomb, by the way, was a bottle of urine that had been left there by somebody else and had nothing to do with Playford.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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Videos Exonerate Photographers On Both Coasts
Alexander Arbuckle, a 21-year-old New York University journalism student, believed police were being portrayed unfairly in media stories about the Occupy Wall Street protests last year.
So he began a photojournalism project in an attempt to show officers in a more positive light.
He ended up getting arrested.
New York City police claimed he had been standing in the middle of the street blocking traffic on New Year’s Day, so they charged him with disorderly conduct, which as we all know is the catch-all charge when a crime has not been committed.
Thanks to videos from fellow photographers as well as police that showed he never left the sidewalk, Arbuckle was acquitted this week.
According to the Village Voice:
That's the story told in the criminal complaint against Arbuckle, and it's the story that the officer who arrested him told again under oath in court on Monday. The protesters, including Arbuckle, were in the street blocking traffic, Officer Elisheba Vera testified. The police, on the sidewalk, had to move in to make arrests to allow blocked traffic to move.
But there was a problem with the police account: it bore no resemblance to photographs and videos taken that night. Arbuckle's own photographs from the evening place him squarely on the sidewalk. All the video from the NYPD's Technical Research Assistance Unit, which follows the protesters with video-cameras (in almost certain violation of a federal consent decree), showed Arbuckle on the sidewalk.
And in an indication of the way new media are transforming the dynamics of street protest, a clip from the live-stream of journalist Tim Pool showed that not only was Arbuckle on the sidewalk, so were all the other protesters. The only thing blocking traffic on 13th Street that night was the police themselves.
No word on when his gleaming piece on police will be released.
Then there is Joshua Alex Garland, a Seattle photographer who was arrested during the May Day protests and accused of “grabbing a police officer’s hand and twisting his arm.”
Yes, that’s him in the above photo getting his arm twisted by police. Check him out in the video below as police pull him out of the crowd and arrest him.
He was charged with assault on a police officer. His case was dismissed this week once the video was introduced.
Expect more of the same this weekend during the NATO protests in Chicago.
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North Carolina Man Arrested For Trying To Report Suspected Crime
John Nix pulled out his cell phone after spotting what he thought was a gang of thugs mugging a man in the parking lot of a North Carolina shopping mall last week.
The former city council candidate ended up in jail after the men who were in street clothes turned out to be cops arresting a suspected shoplifter.
They thought he was taking their picture.
According to the Kinston Free Press:
Nix said one man quickly walked up to him, showed a police badge, and asked: “Can I help you?”
He told the officer he could not help him, but wanted to find out what was happening.
The officer told him to “back up.”
“I didn’t even have time to respond,” Nix recalled. “He had me flipped around and in handcuffs, and was going through my pockets.”
He said the officer accused him of trying to use his phone to take pictures of the takedown of the individual, who was a suspected shoplifter.
Nix, who is facing one count of resisting a police officer, said he wasn’t even trying to take pictures, but dial 911.
Not that it should matter.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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Broward Sheriff's Deputy Criminally Charged After Deleting Video
Here is something you don’t see often; a law enforcement officer arrested for deleting video footage.
His own, in fact, when he realized it would be used against him by investigators.
That decision ended up costing Broward Sheriff’s Detective Anthony Costanzo an additional charge of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison (he's facing life in prison on other charges but more on that in a second).
So that leaves me thinking about my arrest at the hands of Miami-Dade Police Major Nancy Perez in which my footage was deleted (and later recovered) that I plan to use in my upcoming trial.
Or all the other incidents we’ve seen in which police delete video from the cameras of citizens.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already made it clear that deleting footage is a violation of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments.
They even provide a web page with the step-by-step process in which to file a complaint against police officers that engage in misconduct.
And now South Florida investigators are proving that it could even land a cop in jail.
But the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office still insists on pursuing my charge of resisting police without violence when the evidence that was deleted and later recovered proves my innocence.
Costanzo or “Zo” as he is known by in law enforcement circles was among five deputies who pulled a woman over for making an improper left turn back in January.
Why it took five deputies to respond to this incident is not clear from the South Florida Sun Sentinel article, nor is it clear why they felt the need to search her car and purse.
But they ended up finding a bunch of pills on her, so they took her to jail, never mind the fact that she had a valid prescription. These days, you’re guilty until you’re proven innocent when it comes to medication.
While in custody, the woman told Costanzo that he reminded her of a couple of other law enforcement thugs who had falsely falsely imprisoned her on a prior occasion.
Turns out, Fort Lauderdale police officers Brian Christopher Dodge and Billy Charles Koepke were Constanzo’s buddies.
And he wasn’t about to let the fact that they had recently been arrested on extortion charges and were facing life in prison break that friendship bond.
So Costanzo used his cell phone to record the conversation he was having with the woman, then sent the recording to Koepke.
He was so sure of himself that he even bragged about his exploits to his sergeant. And that is where it all came to a screeching halt.
According to the Sun Sentinel:
Later that same day, Costanzo told Broward Sheriff's Sgt. Patrick Murray that Koepke was "a buddy" of his. Costanzo reminded his sergeant of the criminal charges against Koepke, showed him a portion of the video on his cellphone, said he had sent it to "Billy," and that it was going to help Koepke with his criminal case, investigators said.
Costanzo's cellphone was seized with a search warrant. FBI forensic analysts examined it and discovered that the video had been removed, deleted or destroyed, the report stated.
Witness tampering is a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison. Tampering with evidence, disclosure of confidential information, and felony use of a two-way communication device are all third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
So maybe Costanzo will eventually join his buddies behind prison bars.
And as for the rest of the cops who make a habit out of deleting footage?
They are not as smart as they think they are.
Here are a few incidents of cops deleting footage or ordering citizens under threat of arrest to delete footage that I've documented on this blog over the years, including from my last two arrests.
- Miami-Dade police deleted a video clip from my camera after Major Nancy Perez arrested me for obstruction of justice and resisting arrest. I recovered the video, which will be entered as evidence in my upcoming trial. I will also use that video as evidence in the civil suit I will file once I get cleared of the criminal charges.
- Miami Beach police deleted several photos after they had handcuffed me for photographing them against their wishes in 2009. I recovered the photos and had my charges dismissed when the cop did not show up to court.
- Springfield (Massachusetts) police confiscated a woman’s phone last year after she recorded them pulling a man out of his car and dragging him away in handcuffs. When they returned it to her two months later, the clip had been deleted. A judge found this act “extremely troubling,” but let it go without further discussion.
- Memphis police confiscated a cell phone camera from an ABC news reporter who had recorded them issuing a ticket to a business owner, deleting the video clip before returning it to him.
- Federal officers in Washington D.C. snatched a flip camera from a man while they were harassing him for photographing the outside of a courthouse, which they described as a “sensitive building.” The federal officers deleted his video footage before returning the camera, telling him he had been violating the wiretapping law.
- Baltimore police deleted footage from a man’s cell phone after he had recorded them making an overly aggressive arrest at the Preakness Stakes in 2010. Christopher Sharp is now suing. The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the federal judge presiding over the case, reminding him that it is a violation of the Fourth and 14th Amendments for police to destroy footage.
- Chicago police deleted footage from the camera of a journalism professor last year after he recorded them making an arrest.
- A Pennsylvania state trooper ordered a man to delete his images after he photographed a nuclear power plant from the side of a public road last year.
- A New York City police officer ordered a man to delete his images after he had photographed an open ATM as well as a Muslim in 2010.
- Maryland police ordered a man to delete his images, threatening him with arrest if he did not comply, after he photographed a fatal traffic accident in 2009.
- Mississippi deputies deleted footage from the camera of Cop Block activists while they were touring the country in an RV in 2009.
- Wisconsin police deleted images from a student’s camera after he had photographed them making arrests in front of a bar in 2009.
- Chicago police arrested a photographer, then deleted more than 500 images he had taken of a crime scene, before returning it to him upon his release. He recovered the images.
- Oklahoma state troopers handcuffed a man, then placed him in the back of a patrol car while they deleted his images after he photographed them conducting a traffic investigation stemming from a high-speed chase in 2008. He later recovered the photos.
- A Coral Gables cop deleted a photo from the camera of a woman after she had photographed him sitting on a motorcycle talking on his cell phone. She later recovered the photo.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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U.S. Department of Justice Slaps Baltimore Police Over Right to Record Issue
The U.S. Department of Justice is coming down hard on the Baltimore Police Department as it prepares to issue a settlement to a man whose footage they deleted after he recorded them making an arrest.
The settlement stems from a 2010 incident at the Preakness Stakes, which prompted the Department of Justice in January to send a statement of interest to the judge presiding over the resulting civil suit, advising him that such blatant action violates the Constitution and should not be tolerated.
That letter provoked the police department into issuing a 7-page General Order to its officers February stating that citizens have the “absolute right” to record cops in public as long as they did not "violate any section of any law, ordinance, code or criminal article."
Baltimore cops simply expanded existing laws to allow them to continue cracking down on camera-wielding citizens, including threatening to arrest a man for loitering.
On Monday, the Department of Justice slapped the Baltimore Police Department with another letter, condemning it for writing such a vague general order and for allowing the harassment to continue.
It is a very impressive read. Eleven pages of case citations and Constitutional clarifications. One of the most solid efforts from the federal government in protecting the rights of citizens to record police.
The letter was issued less than 10 days after various journalism and civil rights organizations, including my favorite, the National Press Photographers Association, sent U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a letter, insisting he take action in the War on Photography.
As far as I know, this is the first time the federal government has drafted guidelines to a local police department on this issue. The most extensive out of all the general orders I’ve read from police departments over the years.
And it will be the biggest challenge for whoever replaces Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III who abruptly resigned earlier this month, staying in the job only until August.
I would love to break the letter down for you, but I’m still digesting it and it’s late. Or early depending on how much sleep you’ve had.
So maybe you guys can help me out by copying and pasting the positives and negatives you find in the letter.
Here’s a portion I know you guys are going to love:
“Members of the press and members of the general public enjoy the same rights in any area accessible to the general public.” Id. at 4.
“No individual is required to display ‘press credentials’ in order to exercise his/her right to observe, photograph, or video record police activity taking place in an area accessible to, or within view of, the general public.” Id
Here's another good one:
Because recording police officers in the public discharge of their duties is protected by the First Amendment, policies should prohibit interference with recording of police activities except in narrowly circumscribed situations. More particularly, policies should instruct officers that, except under limited circumstances, officers must not search or seize a camera or recording device without a warrant. In addition, policies should prohibit more subtle actions that may nonetheless infringe upon individuals’ First Amendment rights. Officers should be advised not to threaten, intimidate, or otherwise discourage an individual from recording police officer enforcement activities or intentionally block or obstruct cameras or recording devices.
Policies should prohibit officers from destroying recording devices or cameras and deleting recordings or photographs under any circumstances. In addition to violating the First Amendment, police officers violate the core requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process clause when they irrevocably deprived individuals of their recordings without first providing notice and an opportunity to object. See Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 333 (1976) (“The right to be heard before being condemned to suffer grievous loss of any kind . . . is a principle basic to our society.”); Stotter v. Univ. of Tex. at San Antonio, 508 F.3d 812, 823 (5th Cir. 2007) (The notice defendant provided to the plaintiff “was insufficient to satisfy due process because [plaintiff] did not receive the notice until after his personal property was allegedly discarded . . . . [D]iscarding [plaintiff’s] personal property in this manner violated his procedural due process rights.”).
Here’s another one I enjoyed:
This principal is particularly important in the current age where widespread access to recording devices and online media have provided private individuals with the capacity to gather and disseminate newsworthy information with an ease that rivals that of the traditional news media. See Glik, 655 F.3d at 84 (“[M]any of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper.”).
And that last sentence couldn’t ring truer this early morning as not a single news outlet has this story yet.
Click here to read the letter.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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Blogger Confronts Newspaper Publisher On Camera Over Copyright Infringement
You know the tide has turned in the media landscape when bloggers begin demanding payment from newspapers for copyright infringement.
After all, it was not too long ago when a Las Vegas company was shaking down bloggers for copyright infringement on behalf of newspapers.
Righthaven burst on the scene in 2010 under the guise that they were saving journalism.
Or as Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick stated at the time:
Yet, when it comes to copyrighted material -- news that my company spends money to gather and constitutes the essence of what we are as a business -- some people think they can not only look at it, but also steal it. And they do. They essentially step into the front yard and drive that content away.
Well, we at Stephens Media have decided to do something about it. And, I hope other publishers will join me
Fast forward to 2012 and Righthaven is history after actually having to go to court in one of its suits instead of just collecting on a settlement as it did so many times.
According to Wired:
Ironically, Righthaven sought — as payment — the domain names owned by the people it was suing, and now it has lost its own domain name and any other available assets in the process. The company has threatened to file for bankruptcy protection.
The domain auction and the unscheduled auctioning of Righthaven’s copyrights is to help pay Las Vegas lawyer Marc Randazza for successfully defending Vietnam veteran Wayne Hoehn against a Righthaven copyright lawsuit seeking large damages for posting the entirety of a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial to a small online message board.
The lawsuit against Hoehn, one of hundreds of Righthaven’s lawsuits, accused him of unlawfully posting all 19 paragraphs of a November 2010 editorial from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Hoehn posted the article, and its headline, “Public Employee Pensions: We Can’t Afford Them” on medjacksports.com to prompt discussion about the financial affairs of the nation.
Judge Pro ruled that the posting was fair use of the article, an issue that is on appeal. Whether Righthaven retains the financial wherewithal to litigate the appeal was not immediately known. Righthaven’s chief executive, Steve Gibson, did not immediately respond for comment.
Bloggers, including myself, have long claimed "fair use" to justify reposting copyrighted material. But fair use has never been specifically defined by any court.
I try to limit myself to using not more than four paragraphs from a single story but sometimes I use more if it calls for it. I also am sure to cite and link to the source.
Last week, a federal judge in Georgia handed down a long-awaited ruling regarding fair use in the electronic age, which favored the defendant who was accused of copyright infringement.
But you never really hear about bloggers suing newspapers over copyright infringement.
Over the years, I've heard stories from local bloggers accusing the Miami Herald of ripping off their stories, but I've never seen any proof.
But here we have a case where Duane Lester of All American Blogger discovered that the Oregon Times Observer of Oregon, Missouri has republished one of his pieces in its entirety.
Rather than send him a threatening letter, Lester decided to confront the newspaper’s managing editor Bob Ripley in person while holding a camera.
Lester ends up with a $500 check written out for “bullshit” in just over six minutes, which shows us we can all save ourselves a ton of cash and time by resorting to cameras instead of lawyers.
Lester is being praised on his blog and all over the internet for handling a “tense situation very well,” even though Ripley is 40 years older than him and a head shorter and didn’t come across anymore aggressive than the old man down the street yelling at kids to get off his lawn.
Lester did handle it well, but so did Ripley, even if he did tell Lester to get “your ass out of my building” after writing the check.
But best of all, Ripley didn’t get all stupid about the whole incident being recorded, even though he probably could have ordered the videographer out of his building before signing the check.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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California Judge Dismisses Felony Charges Against Photojournalists
On November 30, during the height of the Occupy movement, more than 100 activists marched down the street in Santa Cruz, one of hundreds of demonstrations taking place throughout the country at the time.
At one point, the activists entered an abandoned Wells Fargo – directly across the street from an active Wells Fargo branch - and began a three-day occupation, hoping to turn it into a community center in this Northern California city.
Covering the demonstration were photojournalists Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy of the Indybay Collective, a coalition of independent journalists in the Bay Area.
Also covering the demonstration was Shmuel Thaler, a photojournalist from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the city’s mainstream newspaper.
The three photojournalists entered the building with the activists, snapped their photos and videos and left by nightfall.
Meanwhile, Santa Cruz police attempted to disperse the activists from the abandoned building, but were outnumbered. After three days of negotiations with police in riot gear, the activists left the building peacefully.
Naturally, police were not going to just leave it at that. They spent more than two months accumulating evidence - using the photos that were taken by the journalists and asking the public for help in identifying them – eventually naming 11 suspects.
Two of those suspects were Allen and Darocy, charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors. And it was obvious that the only reason they were named is because they published stories, photos and videos with their bylines.
But the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office tried to paint them as activists while ensuring Thaler, the Santa Cruz Sentinel photographer, was there as a bona fide journalist.
Fortunately, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Paul Burdick saw through that flimsy argument and dismissed all charges against Allen and Darocy Monday.
Burdick also dismissed charges against four activists who were charged, leaving five more people facing charges, including two who are regular contributors to Indymedia.
“It will be interested to see how their cases are treated,” Allen said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime Monday night.
"They are more described as activists and advocacy journalists. They write very supportive of the demonstration while Alex and I are both more objective."
The decision to dismiss the charges against against Allen and Darocy is not only a victory for Indymedia, but a victory for independent journalists throughout the country who have been struggling for recognition and respect for more than a decade.
In an age of corporate media downsizing with an upswing in independent websites, blogs and Youtube accounts, it’s clear that the definition of a journalist has forever been changed.
In my latest arrest, Miami-Dade Police Major Nancy Perez – who heads the department’s media relations bureau – told my attorney that she didn’t consider me to be a real journalist, which is why singled me out from the rest of the corporate journalists covering the Occupy Miami eviction.
But I have a degree in journalism. I’ve spent years working for the mainstream media before becoming an independent journalist. And I covered the Occupy Miami movement for Miami Beach 411 better than most of the local corporate journalists.
Maybe she was upset that I didn’t call her for a quote in the article I wrote about how little static the activists had been receiving from police; an article that was followed by the Miami New Times three days later in which they did call her for a quote.
But I didn’t’ need to call her for a quote when I was witnessing for myself what was taking place while she was holed up in her office across the county.
Regardless, the First Amendment makes no distinction about journalism degrees or mainstream media experience or even press credentials when it ensures citizens Freedom of the Press.
And while that may cause confusion for authorities when arresting activists considering almost everybody is carrying a camera these days, it shouldn’t have been that murky in this case, considering Allen and Darocy had published photos and articles before the activists had even been dispersed from the former bank.
That is one reason why the National Press Photographers Association, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Society of Professional Journalists and the ACLU all joined in their defense, writing letters and legal briefs to Judge Burdick in Allen’s defense.
But Santa Cruz police attempted to cast them as non-journalists from the very beginning on its own blog.
On December 6, they posted Allen’s pictures in asking the public for help in identifying the activists, identifying him by name only, never declaring that he was a journalist.
That same day, they also posted photos taken by Thaler and a photojournalist from the Santa Cruz Patch, part of a community news organization owned by AOL, stating the following: “These photos were taken by local media outlets (Patch and Sentinel).”
At one point in the trial, according to Allen, Judge Burdick help up a photo that police took showing Allen on the roof of the building holding a camera and told the prosecutor: “One can reasonably assume he was working as a photojournalist” as Thaler had been doing.
But assistant district attorney Rebekah Young responded by saying, “(Thaler) only took a single photograph. He was there only a short amount of time.”
So now the definition of a journalist is one who takes only one photo?
The corporate media cutbacks have been harsh, but not that harsh.
Perhaps the real issue is that in 2005 and 2006, Indybay Media exposed the Santa Cruz Police Department after it had sent undercover officers to infiltrate a community meeting about an upcoming New Year’s Eve parade in which they were trying to organize sans permit.
The outcry sparked an investigation in which police eventually cleared themselves of any wrongdoing.
But a month later, an independent auditor hired by the city determined police had violated the rights of citizens by infiltrating the meeting.
"In my opinion, the Santa Cruz Police Department violated the Last Night DIY Parade organizers' rights to privacy, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in the manner in which they went about obtaining information about the organizers' activities." Bob Aaronson, Police Department Auditor.
The issue pretty much died there, but a public records requests revealed that police had built up an extensive file on the citizens, including using a photo that Allen had taken during the parade, identifying that it came from “Indymedia.”
So why they didn’t identify his photos as coming from Indymedia while using them in trying to get the public to identify activists last December?
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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Canadian Protesters Turn Aggressive Towards Media
Once again, protesters turned aggressive towards the journalists documenting them, leaving the impression that perhaps they should keep their protests behind closed doors in the privacy of their own homes.
This time, the assaults took place in front of a Montreal courthouse earlier today where students were protesting the prosecution of four people arrested for igniting smoke bombs inside the city’s subway system, which caused a major shutdown.
The four people arrested in the incident were charged with “inciting fear of terrorism,” which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The protesters outside the courthouse today were blaming the media for bias in their coverage and began pushing and shoving videographers. Watch video in French here.
Phil Carpenter, a videographer for the Montreal Gazette, stated on Twitter that activists poured hot coffee on his camera.
They also placed their hands and sheets in front of camera lenses, which certainly helps them spread across whatever message they had.
I used to buy smoke bombs from the ice cream man as a kid for twenty-five cents each, which allowed me to create all kinds of havoc in my neighborhood.
But obviously, times have changed.
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
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Photographer Suing L.A. Sheriff's Dept. Detained Again For Photographing Deputies
A pair of bullying Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies detained a photographer who snapped their picture on Hollywood Blvd, accusing him of all kinds of false crimes before handcuffing him, then searching through his camera bag without consent.
Shawn Nee – who already has a pending lawsuit against the sheriff’s department for violating his rights as a photographer – once again captured the incident on his Vievu camera, exposing a disgusting show of brute intimidation.
The deputies first told him it was against the law to take their photo.
Then they told him it was against the law to photograph a couple of underage girls they were chatting up.
And then they told him it was against the law to walk down the street without identification.
Obviously the dumb asses didn’t realize they were being recorded the entire time.
The Vievu was attached to his camera bag, which was left strewn on the sidewalk for several minutes after they walked him handcuffed to their patrol car.
One of deputes calls Nee a “retard” seconds before the other deputy discovers the Vievu attached to the camera bag.
They end up turning the camera off, then releasing him about 15 minutes later with no citation or charges.
It is Nee’s second run-in with the sheriff’s department since the lawsuit was filed in October, setting the stage for what could be a significant payout once it reaches trial by August of next year.
This incident took place in February, but Nee’s attorney advised him against posting it until now.
"There was a lot said to me during the detainment that was not captured by the camera," said in an email Sunday morning.
"But one thing the second officer said to me right after he took the cuffs off was, 'You know why we did this? You know why we did this, right.'"
Please send stories, tips and videos to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com.
CARLOS MILLER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the "donate" button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write "carlos3" in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Hair Transplant
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I'm documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested.
