Daily PUMA Column - Commentary by Alessandro Machi

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Why is the state of Illinois the home of some the ugliest news stories? Man charged with filming police, could have served up to 75 years!




I suppose the good thing that has come out of this story is the charges of video eavesdropping were apparently dropped and the judge issued a solid, logical, and reasonable ruling. 
According to the youtube site hosting the video above...The charges were dropped in this case:Sep. 20, 2011
"...a state judge declared the charges unconstitutional. "A statute intended to prevent unwarranted intrusions into a citizen’s privacy cannot be used as a shield for public officials who cannot assert a comparable right of privacy in their public duties," wrote Circuit Court Judge David Frankland. "Such action impedes the free flow of information concerning public officials and violates the First Amendment right to gather such information.""
SputnikFive 20 hours ago 25 
On a personal note, I have been reluctant to film police because it means I am pointing something at an officer who could believe it to be a weapon and respond accordingly. In this instance, the man was documenting police conduct before, during and after they "confiscated" cars he was refurbishing because the cars were not registered.

The state could argue that all cars should be registered so that they can be tracked regardless of their status, otherwise they could more easily be used as car bombs.  

However, isn't there a non-op status in which a person does not have to pay registration fees if the car is not being driven on the road? Or is non-op status not allowed in Illinois as well?


Either way, I wonder what it cost him to defend himself against these tyrannical charges?


Please Download the Chase Bank Protest Flyer for FREE, and then all that needs to be done is just give a few copies out, it is really that simple.

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