Email an Idea to a friend!

Your name:
Your Email:
Your friend's name:
Your friend's email:
Idea to send:	Topic personal liberty Content There has been a recent surge in the harassment and detainment of innocent people with cameras and camcorders by Police and security personnel in various places in the united states, including shopping centers, but most notably in such public places as the streets of New York City. They cite the use of such image and video capturing devices as a "security" and "terrorism" risk, even though the use of such items violates no public laws. In fact, by going into public, you consent to the possibility of your image being captured by another person. Such incidents have included the Police trying to shut off or confiscate cameras and camcorders after the bystanders operating them used them to catch the Police in precarious situations, such as engaging in behavior unbefitting of uniformed Public Servants. One Police officer justified his confiscation of a bystander's camera, after the man used the camera to document an unlawful warrantless search by the officer, by saying that he percieved that the man might use the camera as a physical weapon against him. This, despite the fact that the man was nowhere near the officer, was not involved in the incident at all, and was not making any threats of violence, physical or verbal, whatsoever -- but was merely standing back and videotaping. Yet, in the face of all of this, more and more videocameras are being placed in and around public areas by city officials and law enforcement for the purpose of protecting us, but these tapes are not made available to the public, in many cases, citing legality, and even when they are made available, there is no guarantee that they have not been edited or tampered with. Oklahoma needs to pioneer legislation to protect the civil rights of its citizens by putting into writing, and putting into law, a citizen's right to bear and use still-image, video, and audio capture devices (cameras, video cameras, and audio recorders) in public places without threat of confiscation or detainment by law enforcement or other security personnel. Furthermore, it should be made a case of theft for a law enforcement officer or other personal security personnel to confiscate such items wrongfully, or return such items without the tapes (or with damaged tapes) on which the images or audio were recorded. In the unlikely event that a recording device IS used as a weapon, or a threat is made or justifiably percieved in which such an item is used as a weapon, the unaltered contents of the device should be made mandatory evidence in court, and the defence given full access to it.