Knocked Sensible

On June 13, 2007, in a post I titled Lights, Action, Camera - You’re Under Arrest, I noted the case of Brian D. Kelly, who was arrested and charged with felony wiretapping for video taping a police office who had pulled over a motorist.

Via a post by Billy Beck, titled Tape The Police, I note today that all charges against Mr. Kelly have been dropped, which is only sensible and just.

But, in an article noting Mr. Kelly’s legal travails as being over, titled Wiretap charge dropped in police video case, we read the following comment uttered by Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed.

"When police are audio- and video-recording traffic stops with notice to the subjects, similar actions by citizens, even if done in secret, will not result in criminal charges,” Freed said yesterday. “I intend to communicate this decision to all police agencies within the county so that officers on the street are better-prepared to handle a similar situation should it arise again."

A cursory review of the above comments by Freed may incline one to give Freed high marks for possessing the sensiblity to drop the charges, and establish a precedent for no further follies of this type in the future.

But, Billy Beck astutely points out the weak kneedness of Freed’s pronouncement in the following comment.

“Better-prepared"? It is an elementary set of principles that should have precluded this. It is because of cops’ claim on a monopoly of force that they must be summarily subject to ordinary observation any and every single time any citizen takes it in mind to do it.

Keep those cameras rolling.

Posted by on 06/23 at 06:31 AM

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