holy shit. I'm...stunned. As an aside, in the era of video cameras on cell phones, isn't seizing video pretty futile? I mean, even in this situation, the seizing was captured on video.
-halcyon pinkbroadcasting.com On 12/12/06, ~ FluxRostrum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The War on Journalism > > http://fluxrostrum.blogspot.com/2006/11/war-on-journalism.html > > description from I-Witness Video > http://iwitnessvideo.info > > On October 30, 2006 at a demonstration protesting the murder of journalist > Brad Will in Mexico, members of the NYPD assaulted an independent > videographer and stole his videocamera. > > That's right, stole. The filmmaker, FluxRostrum, was not arrested. He did > not receive a receipt for seized property. He was not even directly asked > for his camera. Instead, without any warning, he was jumped by two police > officers, one of whom is an NYPD captain, and knocked down onto the asphalt > of 39th Street. One police officer was succcesful in wrenching the camera > out of Flux's hands. As Flux crawled around on the ground looking for the > eyeglasses which had been knocked off his face during the attack, the cop > with the camera quickly conferred with another officer. Then he ran off to > hide the camera. > > When Flux attempted to get his camera back after the demonstration, he was > threatened with arrest by a Lieutenant at the 17th Precinct. His lawyer was > told that camera was found "abandoned" at the scene and that it had been > turned over to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to be used as > evidence against people arrested at the Mexican Consulate demonstration that > day. > > Someone at the 17th Precinct told the D.A. that the camera was found > "abandoned" on the sidewalk. Now the D.A. is insisting on keeping a copy > of the stolen videotape to use as evidence. > > Is this the new normal? Is it legal just because the police say so? > > If police do not have their own videocameras at events will they simply > bonk one of us over the head and steal our gear and videotapes? What if they > decide that they do not like what the videotape shows? Will they then > destroy it as has happened to so many cameras seized by the NYPD over the > past couple of years? > > This story is a little hard to believe, isn't it? Fortunately, you do not > have to take my word for it. Not to be denied his voice, Flux made a > videotape about his experience at the hands of NYPD. > > This is the first blog installment in an ongoing I-Witness Video > investigation, The War on Cameras. > > POSTED BY > Eileen Clancy > > Solidarity, > ~FluxRostrum > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > VLOG~FLUX > http://FluxRostrum.BlogSpot.com > ~~~ > Syndicate Flux > http://feeds.feedburner.com/VLOGFLUX > ~~~ > Old School > http://Fluxview.com > ~~~ > NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency > may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do > this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor > protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President. > ~~~ > > -- > _______________________________________________ > Get your free email from http://www.graffiti.net > > Powered By Outblaze > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
