Supreme Court Chimes In On Filming Police Activity

Cook County Illinois State Attorney has lost her bid to put citizens in jail for merely recording police activity.  She lost her case in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and now the US Supreme Court has refused to hear her further appeal.  Good.  Recording police activity is a vital right and effective protection against the abuse of power.

Now don’t get me wrong, recording most police activity would result in a lot of evidence of good men and women serving the community, protecting people, property and businesses, helping injured citizens and those in need of medical attention, managing dangerous situations with expert training and generally doing what the public would expect of them.  But there are those few occasions where a rogue officer steps out of line, abuses his/her power and deprives a citizen of his/her rights.  Clear evidence of such intolerable activity is essential to correcting those wrongs and we should applaud this decision of the Supreme Court. [Chicago Tribune]