Another victory for Civil Rights Activists and cop watchers

[Bluespruce1964]

[Bluespruce1964]

[Bluespruce1964]

[HighNDry]

Quite honestly, civil rights activists and cop watchers had always commonly stuck and adhered to the distance of ten feet when filming cops in the course of their duties. The right to film police and ALL government employees in the course of their duties is guaranteed under the First amendment and directly associates with the idea of transparency in government and answering to the people who pay the taxes that government runs on.

So when the government of Arizona proposed a law to come into effect that would restrict the distance at eight feet...I found it curious that the distance would've DECREASED instead of INCREASED and I knew that this wasn't the last this issue would be heard from. Well, A federal judge has struck down the law and while I agree that photographers need to keep a reasonable distance from police to allow them to properly perform their jobs, I applaud the Federal courts in striking down this law that leaves open the question of "how close is to close?". No matter what distance that number may end up being, it still leaves open the question of circumstances ( and discussed by this lawyer in the video) of when a photographer or videographer is a reasonable distance and a cop steps towards the citizen and thus, moves the distance to an unlawful amount? Honestly, in all fairness, if the law would say that the citizen would have to step back to maintain the allowed distance, the preferred tactic would be to basically " run off" the offending citizen by continuing to move towards him or her. The result would be ridiculous and even if the cop continues to walk towards the photographer...when the officer begins to return to the crime scene or traffic stop...the citizen could then move back with the officer towards the scene...and still maintain the prescribed distance. So honestly, that route is riddled with problems! The only way to handle that is for the officer to respect the distance and if he chooses to interact with anyone filming, they accept that the distance will be minimal. No chasing a person up and down the street..no back and forth...just two sides respecting the others room.

Now , I think the Arizona law provided that it was going to be totally unlawful to film police...which would have never flown as it directly violates the First Amendment of the Constitution and blocks transparency and allows cops to be complete thugs with no accountability! The civil rights activists are out there protecting everyone's rights by bringing attention to them. Disallowing them to do that is a blight on every one of the citizens of the United States! In short....another victory for civil rights!!!

I have watched many of this lawyers videos. The guy is entertaining and looks at things logically and with a lawyers mind processing the info. His videos care enlightening!!

So, so, so many words.