Anthony Graber, a Maryland Air National Guard staff sergeant, faces up to 16 years in prison. His crime? He videotaped his March encounter with a state trooper who pulled him over for speeding on a motorcycle. Then Graber put the video — which could put the officer in a bad light — up on YouTube.
The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who potentially faces sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. In a trend that we’ve seen across the country, police have become increasingly hostile to bystanders recording their actions. You can read some examples here, here and here.
However, the scale of the Maryland State Police reaction to Anthony Graber’s video is unprecedented. Once they learned of the video on YouTube, Graber’s parents house was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated. Graber was arrested, booked and jailed. Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation. Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute.
The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties. According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber’s case, “To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist.”
(via digby)
http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/867003772/tumblr_l687apxZra1qz6q52
A professor of law at Washington and Lee University explains the trend toward increased punishment in the United States
The bloodbath continues along our southern border and now word is coming in that Los Zetas, the highly trained killers formerly with the Gulf Cartel, have crossed into the United States and taken over at least two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area. I am receiving word that the owners of the ranches have evacuated without being harmed.
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE 4:55 PM: OaklandBeat just reported: “80 Oakland Police officer layoffs to happen at 5 p.m. today after union, city fails to reach contract agreement.”
“I came here to build an organization, not downsize one,” said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts at a recent discussion of the pending city layoffs of 80 police officers as part of the city of Oakland’s attempt to manage what still looms as an $8 million or more deficit, even after cuts.
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Legal analyst Dan Recht said he believes the Jefferson County District Attorney is “seriously overcharging” a Wheat Ridge homeowner, accused of attempted first degree murder for shooting at two thieves.
If San Francisco Crime were Elevation
WASHINGTON (AP) — Want to invoke your right to remain silent? You’ll have to speak up.
May 11 (Bloomberg) — Erik Townsend says he prefers the Arizona prison where he’s serving 15 years for robbery to the California facility where he was until August. For one thing, he was getting just two hot meals a day at the other prison.
I’ve spent a sizable part of the past six years writing stories about life in Chicago neighborhoods where poverty is endemic and gangs rule. From the economics of the drug game to the plight of ex-offenders who cycle in and out of prison, from stories of good people making the most of bad…
It wasn’t the voltage but the amps this young Philllies fan felt on Monday night in Philadelphia.
In the eighth inning of a Phillies-Cardinals game, a 17-year-old male hopped a fence at Citizens Bank Park. He fled security for a few seconds until a Philadelphia police officer fired a Taser gun at the boy from about 15-feet away, dropping him on the spot in left-center field.
NEW ORLEANS — A former New Orleans police officer told federal authorities he saw a fellow officer shoot and kick unarmed, wounded civilians in a deadly incident on a bridge in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, marking the first time an officer has provided federal authorities with an eyewitness account of the events.
This weekend, the FBI conducted a series of raids in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana to detain members of a Christian militia group on criminal charges. So what does this group believe, and how do its members fit in with the larger radical right?
I implore everyone to read the entire article. While this group’s plan to attack law enforcement is deplorable and deserves the full punishment of the law, make sure you read the part about secular, libertarian militia groups wanting nothing to do with this group. There’s fringe and then there’s the fringe’s fringe. Emphasis mine.
HEMET, Calif. – Police in this picturesque city in rural Riverside County have been on edge in recent weeks. Someone is trying to kill them.
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