Illinois citizens are still being arrested for recording
cops despite a 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last year that blocked the
enforcement of the law on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Following yesterday’s story concerning residents of
Naperville who attempted to resist utility workers invading their private
property to install so-called ‘smart meters’ – which have been linked with
health issues – it emerged that one of the refusniks, Malia “Kim” Bendis, was
arrested on attempted eavesdropping charges for recording cops during the
incident.
The irony of citizens being arrested for supposedly
“eavesdropping” on cops in public where there is no expectation of privacy,
while simultaneously the government forcibly installs devices on people’s
property that really do eavesdrop on them in total violation of the 4th
amendment, is staggering. Remember – this is a state that threatens to send
people to prison for life for recording cops.
Bendis filmed her friend’s confrontation with city workers
and police but at no time attempted to interfere in their actions. The video
clip shows an officer asking Bendis not to film him, an order with which she
immediately complies.
However, the Chicago Tribune reports that Bendis was
arrested and “Charged with two misdemeanors — attempted eavesdropping and
resisting a peace officer.”
The state of Illinois is still directing its cops to enforce
a law that has repeatedly been found unconstitutional.
As the PINAC blog notes, “Bendis was charged with
misdemeanor eavesdropping which indicates they may have kept the law intact but
reduced it to a misdemeanor from a felony. Or more likely means the newspaper
wasn’t very clear in their reporting,” adding that the Illinois legislature
introduced a “technical change” to the law a day before the incident, but that
no one seems to be aware of what exactly the change is.
In May 2012, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked
the enforcement of a law that made it a felony to film cops in the state of
Illinois. This followed a case involving Illinois resident Michael Allison -
who at one point was facing life in jail for recording cops.
“The Illinois eavesdropping statute restricts far more
speech than necessary to protect legitimate privacy interests; as applied to
the facts alleged here, it likely violates the First Amendment’s free speech
and free-press guarantees,” wrote Judge Diane Sykes.
Furthermore, when Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez
appealed the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman
re-affirmed it. In states all across the country, Americans arrested for
filming cops in public have won their cases. In August 2011, the First Circuit
Court of Appeals also ruled that it is not illegal for citizens to videotape
cops when they are on public duty.
Eavesdropping charges against Illinois resident Tiawanda
Moore for recording patrol officers were dropped in August 2011, after a
“Criminal Court jury quickly repudiated the prosecution’s case, taking less
than an hour to acquit Moore on both eavesdropping counts.”
Despite numerous different courts not only in Illinois but
across the United States continually ruling that it is not illegal to record
cops in public, Americans continue to be arrested for doing so.
This sets a dangerous new precedent in America’s decline
towards an authoritarian state, where laws that have clearly been blocked as
unconstitutional are being enforced illegally on a whim for the convenience of
cops to abuse the rights of citizens without their actions being documented.