Cop fears camera, ignores gun
It’s official, 40-years after Rod Serling’s death, I’ve reached my next stop, The Twilight Zone. In the dimension where I’m located, guns are no longer feared, but cameras scare the crap out of people, particularly law enforcement.
Just look at the video above taken across the street from the police department in Addison, Texas. The man with the camera, Brett Sanders, says he is also carrying a firearm (open carry of a pre-1900 black powder pistol). That I can hear on the video, the officer respects Sanders’s Second Amendment rights and doesn’t even mention the weapon. As for the First Amendment, that’s another thing.
Previously: Fire official in Florida confronts man shooting video of public safety building
This video is just another reminder people are going out of their way to test public safety on their rights as citizens. It’s happening all over the country.
This officer failed that test in a pretty big way. He made a lot of statements that just aren’t true, including that people need to have a reason to shoot something in public while standing in a public location. The officer also told the man, “You have no authority to sit here and video the police department.”
Actually, that authority comes from the United States Constitution, the document the officer likely swore to uphold when he became a cop.
You can read Brett Sanders’s account of the confrontation on the website Photography Is Not A Crime (PINAC). I’m sure many will not agree with or like what the videographer did or some of the tactics used by PINAC. But our personal opinion really don’t matter. People with cameras, exercising their First Amendment rights, are just a fact of life that needs to be dealt with throughout the world of public safety. The last one of these I posted was back in January and involved a fire official in Florida who confronted someone taking video of the public safety building.
Often after these “tests”, legal action follows. In fact, Sanders wrote, “I have a feeling that the Addison Police Department will know soon enough that Photography is not a Crime.”
Police, fire and EMS in many jurisdictions have been forced by the courts to address this very concept. They learned the hard way that photography really isn’t a crime. You have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
