Dennis Fox’s Weblog

Today’s New York Times reports that this might no longer be legal in New York City, but I’m not sure:

According to the Times:

In a rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled yesterday that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there is an indication that unlawful activity may occur.

Four years ago, at the request of the city, the same judge, Charles S. Haight Jr., gave the police greater authority to investigate political, social and religious groups. In yesterday’s ruling, Judge Haight, of United States District Court in Manhattan, found that by videotaping people who were exercising their right to free speech and breaking no laws, the Police Department had ignored the milder limits he had imposed on it in 2003.

As I read the article, it sounds like the cops can still videotape whenever they claim something illegal might happen, but they have to follow the rules to get higher approval. Not really much protection, when you think about it.

So I think this will continue, but maybe they’ll hide the cameras better:

These photos are from the 2004 legal protest outside the Republican National Convention in New York City. More photos of the event in my galleries.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 11:00 am and is filed under Law/Justice, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.