100% Correct. And if you’re black, increase all of your odds of this happening
And I can tell you, Marc, who has a master’s in criminology, agrees with ALL of this and always tells me never to talk to cops.
wow i’m really glad i saw this because a similar photoset led me to believe that it was legal to film cops in my state HAHAHAhahaha
Mostly true on the Illinois/Maryland/Massachusetts thing.
Maryland is an all-parties-consent state, which means you have to get permission from all parties to a conversation before you can record it. But unlike Illinois and Massachusetts, Maryland’s law does include a privacy provision. That is, if the non-consenting party does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to the conversation that has been recorded, there is no violation of the law. State and federal courts across the country have determined that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces. This is why someone can snap your photo in public without your consent.
So in Maryland police have a habit of completely abusing wiretapping laws; Illinois and Massachusetts just have very terrible wiretapping laws that are easier to use against citizens and make stick.
But remember, that’s filming and recording audio that they’re trying to use against people. Still photos are still fine.
Wiretapping statutes apply to audio recordings, with or without video. Maryland is one of 12 states with a wiretapping law that requires consent from all parties to a conversation for someone to legally record it. But in 10 of those 12 states, including Maryland, the statute says a violation occurs only when the offended party has a reasonable expectation that the conversation is private. This privacy provision prevents people who record public meetings or inadvertently pick up conversations while shooting video in public from accidentally committing felonies. Civil liberties advocates argue that on-duty police officers, like people attending city council meetings or walking down a public street, do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. For Graber to be convicted under Maryland’s wiretapping law, a prosecutor would have to argue that Uhler—a police officer who had pulled over a motorist, drawn his gun, and yelled at the guy on the side of a busy highway—had a reasonable expectation that the encounter would remain private.
see also
(Source: paxamericana)
FUCK THE POLICE! TAKE THE MATTER INTO YOUR HANDS!