There were so many readings on this list that I could respond to, so I'll just respond to a few of them
What caught my attention in "Street Photography Tips for the Modern World" was where it discusses the First Amendment rights. The author in this case says that free speech includes the right to film or photograph anything on public property or on the street. It caught my attention at first because I thought of all the instances where police get angry at bystanders for filming what's going on, and sometimes even take people's cameras or phones away from them. My interest was further provoked when I read the article titled "Artist Could Face 15 Years in Prison for Recording His Own Arrest." This man is facing an outrageous amount of time in prison for recording the actions of the police. In other articles, discussions are present about it slowly becoming illegal across the U.S. to tape police on duty,
If we have the right to record what goes on in public because of free speech, the police shouldn't be given any kind of special treatment. These are men and women who have jobs as public service workers and whose jobs and actions are played out in the public eye, just the article about the artist mentioned. We should be enforcing the same free speech law to everyone under it. That's just what I think.
2 comments:
I totally and 100% agree. The police exist to serve the public. That is their job. Without the public, they don't have a job. As public citizens, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be allowed to record the way they do their job.
I think you make a very good point. Police officers are indeed public service workers, therefore documenting their actions visually should be allowed. The very definition of “police” is “the civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of *public* order. The irony in this situation is that police officers are hired to prevent and detect crime, meaning find those violating laws such as the first amendment, yet they are making efforts to deny these rights to citizens. We are expected to trust police officers because ideally they are here to protect the community, but that trust is violated when our only solid way of proving police misconduct is taken away by officers themselves.
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