Chalk Up One For Liberty
Sep 29, 2010 Political
Some time ago Anthony Graber was riding his motorcycle in a reckless manner on Interstate 95 in Maryland. Graber had a helmet camera on and was filming his antics, antics that caught the attention of an off duty Maryland State Trooper. The trooper stopped Graber and got out of his car with his gun drawn. He did not immediately identify himself as a police officer and Graber thought he would be killed by some crazy guy with a gun.
Once the man identified himself (I never saw if he flashed a badge) Graber got off his motorcycle. After he was released he posted the video of the encounter with the trooper on You Tube. A few days later the police arrived at his house with a warrant and confiscated his computer equipment and the camera.
Graber was charged with violating Maryland’s wiretapping laws which make it illegal to record private conversations.
That case went to court and the charges against Graber were dropped. The Judge, Emory A. Plitt Jr, ruled the wiretap law did not apply because the conversation was not private.
This is the absolute correct decision. No public conversation is private and, as Graber’s lawyer points out, when a police office arrests you he informs you that what you say can be used against you thus meaning the conversation is not a private one. Wiretapping laws are meant for conversations where one can reasonably expect privacy. A conversation on a public street, particularly one with a representative of the government, is not private.
It is not illegal to audio or video record anyone on the street but the cops want it both ways with regard to privacy. They want to be able to put a GPS on your car because you have no reasonable expectation of privacy on a public street but they expect privacy on a public street when they have an encounter with you.
It is all bogus and Judge Plitt made that very clear.
Of course, the police will just continue to do what they want. The Maryland State Police have stated they respect the judge’s decision and will review how they handle things but they will not change how they handle stops. This means if you are recording them there could be problems, particularly if they discover it at the time.
The police record people when they stop them and the recording is done without the permission of the person who was stopped. Is this another blanket abuse of our rights based on the idea that driving is not a right and that in order to drive you give consent to be recorded if stopped?
The way I see it, the police work for US and we have the right to record them doing their jobs.
In any event, nothing they do is private because they are PUBLIC servants. Everything they do is and should be in the public’s eyes.
Judge Plitt made that clear so record them all you want.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: lies, maryland state police, public, recording