Yup, there have been two cases reported in Minnesota media recently of
"observers" being taken away to jail. In one, in Duluth, a guy who had drunk
several beers, was walking home, thru an alley, saw a guy laying on the ground
with a rent-a-cop standing nearby. He asked what was going on, the wannabe-pig
said he had called 911, so this fellow talks to the guy on the ground, telling
him that the pigs were on their way, would he like to get up and walk, etc.
Then the pigs arrived, told the observer to move on, he asked why, wouldn't
go, they took him to spin-dry, where he spent several days, at his expense,
and was released with the warning that next time it would be a minimum of 60
days. Nice write up in a local alternative paper.
The other was a retired sheriff of a rural MN county. He was talking a
writing class, saw some Minneapolis cops rousting a homeless person, stopped
to observer, was taking notes, got himself arrested and spent several days in
jail. Nice piece on it on Minnesota Public Radio awhile back.
Obviously little concern for the Constitution these days by pigs, eh?
Tim May wrote:
> At 4:06 PM -0400 7/26/00, David Honig wrote:
> >At 01:03 PM 7/26/00 -0400, Tim May wrote:
> >>
> >>(I once tried to video tape a police bust in Santa Cruz with my shiny
> >>new camcorder, in 1987. As soon as the cops saw me, one of them came
> >>over to my vantage point across the street and did the usual
> >>cop-threat thing: "Do you have an involvement in this matter? No,
> >>well then move along." No doubt Brin and others would point out that
> >>the idea is to keep the camera hidden, or have multiple cameras, etc.)
> >
> >You must have been in a good mood, or sedated. The proper answers:
> >"No" followed by "fuck off, I'm not obstructing" while still filming.
> >
>
> I remember reports at the time that folks had been busted--or "taken
> the trip downtown"--for interfering with police business by
> videotaping.
>
> (What saved the photographer in the Rodney King case was of course
> that he was taping from an upstairs window, unknown to the cops.)
>
> I don't know what would have happened to me back then if I'd said
> "Fuck off, I'm not obstructing." But taping some street people being
> busted by the cops wasn't enough of an issue for me to find out.
>
> --Tim May
> --
> ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
> Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
> ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
> W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
> "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
--
Karla M. Seaver Datura is pretty, wolfbane is nice,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] either one will put you on ice.
