KommonCents: Photography is NOT a crime, and free speech remains a protected civil right, despite DHS assertions.

You have the same right to film police activities as they do. You’ve seen the reality shows on TV where dashboard cameras record police stops. For the TV shows they even have separate cameramen following the action.

Problems can arise when the media gets it’s hands on the recordings, they are not shy about political editing. Take the Trayvon Martin incident where the media made a racial incident out of one that wasn’t by the way it deliberately edited the recording.

And then there’s the Rodney King event where the media caused a riot by not showing the events that preceded the subduing of King who was obviously on PCP or some other mind altering drug. That would have given some context to what appeared to be a case of cops gone wild…when they actually had a wild man on their hands! The riot may never had happened had the public seen the whole story!

China Detains Reporter During Live Broadcast, While U.S. Violates Free Speech Every Day

While China’s police state tactics are familiar to the world, the United States, renowned for its freedoms, has routinely intimidated its citizens for daring to film in public.

Aaron Dykes Prison Planet.com March 16, 2013

China Detains Reporter During Live Broadcast, While U.S. Violates Free Speech Every Day right to photograph infowars

While China Censors a Reporter Live on Air, Few Pay Attention to the Daily Abuses of Free Speech and the Ongoing Intimidation of Journalists Inside the United States.

When Sky News reporter Mark Stone was detained by Chinese police during a live broadcast, the communist superpower essentially got caught red-handed while trying to stifle coverage of one of their most embarrassing authoritarian moments — namely Tiananmen Square.

What the world already knows about China’s heavy-handed censorship was put on display after the British journalist made passing mention of the 1989 incident and was dragged away to a police van, with officials apparently unaware that the signal was still going out. This kind of behavior, while shameful, is perhaps expected in a place like China.

But the United States, renowned for its freedoms, has routinely intimidated its citizens for daring to film in public, too, particularly when confronting controversial topics, establishing chilling blows to the First Amendment which guarantees free speech and a free press.

Since 9/11, these freedoms have been openly trashed as law enforcement and security guards have been trained to treat journalists as criminals and anyone with a camera as a potential terrorist. Despite Homeland Security’s repeated attempts to profile journalists, and prosecute those who take pictures of federal buildings or record police or TSA encounters, recent court cases have upheld the fact that photography is NOT a crime, and free speech remains a protected civil right.

This special report details how Infowars reporters have repeatedly been harassed for filming in public places, particularly near government installations and during events, a problem that is compounded by widespread ignorance on the part of police, TSA and security on location:

Founding father Benjamin Franklin warned that any society that would trade liberty for security, would end up with neither.

This article was posted: Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 11:12 am

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Photography is NOT a crime, and free speech remains a protected civil right, despite DHS assertions.

You have the same right to film police activities as they do. You’ve seen the reality shows on TV where dashboard cameras record police stops. For the TV shows they even have separate cameramen following the action.

Problems can arise when the media gets it’s hands on the recordings, they are not shy about political editing. Take the Trayvon Martin incident where the media made a racial incident out of one that wasn’t by the way it deliberately edited the recording.

China Detains Reporter During Live Broadcast, While U.S. Violates Free Speech Every Day

Aaron Dykes Prison Planet.com March 16, 2013

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