In the latest attack
on the first amendment, a shocking video has emerged of the NYPD
attacking a protestor and stealing his camera and footage at a
demonstration demanding justice for an independent video journalist
who was shot and killed earlier this year.
The filmmaker,
Flux Rostrum,
was filming the interaction between protestors and police outside
the Mexican Consulate in late October at a demonstration protesting
the murder of journalist
Brad Will,
who was shot and killed on October 27, 2006 during the teachers’
strike in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. His murderers are believed to
be local officials.
Flux was not
arrested, nor did he receive a receipt for seized property. 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. A
police officer then snatched the camera out of Flux’s hands. As Flux
attempted to protect himself and his equipment from being trampled
and beaten, the cop with the camera conferred with another officer
and scurried back into the building to hide the camera.
Video of the events
quite clearly shows the cop saying “I want that camera” before Flux
is jumped and attacked. View the video below.
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.
In an email message
sent to me by Flux he states:
I would NOT
have released the video below that details the incident from
about 7 different camera angles if I thought others with a
vested interest would not help spread the word.
I am seeking to get the
camera and footage back.
I am seeking
to punish them in any way possible in order to send the message
that cops can no longer get away with smashing and stealing
people’s cameras.
Everyone who films in
public needs to toss my case a little attention about now… it
could make us all a little safer out there.
The PD are
using a variety of stall tactics and so we’ve decided to go
public with this video in order to pressure them into admitting
guilt and righting their wrongs. … But mostly so they think
twice about doing this again. Camera smashing & stealing by the
cops has become routine and this is a great opportunity to put a
stop to it.
The actions taken by
the police in this video are indicative of the attitude of
authorities towards peaceful protest in America today. They seek to
make the demonstration violent simply as an excuse to break it up,
we see this over and over again.
Imagine what would happen to
protestors if they reacted this way when police film them at
demonstrations. Filming in public is a right every American citizen
has under the first amendment, which is why the cops in this
instance had to steal the camera and the footage, because there was
no legal basis to seize it.
It seems that filming and
photographing is now deemed to be a threat per se. Pick from any
number of stories archived at
www.freedomtophotograph.comfor example.
In Seattle, police banned a
photography student from a public park. He was taking photographs of
a bridge for a homework assignment. The officers who ban him from
the park do so without the knowledge of park officials and have no
authority to do so.
In Texas a man was first
threatened by neighbors and then reportedly accosted and sprayed
with pepper spray by police. He was walking around his neighborhood,
filming with his new video camera.
In New York, National Press
Photographers Association members stage a protest in the New York
subway system to bring attention to a proposed law to ban
photography in the subway system.
In Philadelphia a magazine
photographer was detained and questioned after a parade for taking
architectural shots while waiting for a subway train.
In Harrisburg, PA a man was
swarmed by 8 Police and accused of being a member of Al-Qaeda after
shooting pictures of his new car under a bridge.
We have recently exposed how
some police now do not understand that they are
violating the rights
of individuals. In other cases we have witnessed police pull out
pocket constitutions from cars and question their legality.
Earlier this year journalist
Greg Palast,
whilst working for ABC, had charges brought against him by the
Department of Homeland Security for videotaping the thousands of
Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park
encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans.
The DHS deemed this to be
unauthorized filming of “critical infrastructure”. After exposure in
the alternative media, the charges were dropped. One would also hope
that exposure of Flux’s case, in the context of other blatant
attacks on freedom of speech and the right to assembly, will lead to
a back down on the part of the NYPD.
