Texas HB 2918

[Plane]

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/03/21/backlash-grows-against-texas-rep-villalbas-bill-criminalizing-bloggers-filming-cops/

When the news broke about HB 2918, it was criticized all across the political spectrum, including significant opposition from free speech advocates and activists who monitor police activities, and Villalba has remained largely unrepentant in his defense of the bill. When Breitbart Texas interviewed Villalba about the bill, he insisted that his bill “does not infringe on constitutional rights” or “limit liberty in any way.”

In a statement from the ACLU of Texas provided to Breitbart Texas, Legal and Policy Director Rebecca L. Robertson said, “Texans have a First Amendment right to record police officers in public places as they perform their duties.  Many high-profile incidents of police abuse, like LAPD officers’ beating of Rodney King, would never have been exposed to public scrutiny but for the citizen journalists on the scene who dared to record conduct that they believed was wrong.  HB 2918 would deprive us of an important check against abuse of power by the police.”

As Breitbart Texas reported, HB 2918 amends Section 38.15(1) of the Texas Penal Code, which makes it a crime if anyone “interrupts, disrupts, impedes, or otherwise interferes with a peace officer while the peace officer is performing a duty or exercising authority imposed or granted by law.”

What HB 2918 does is add to the definition of what constitutes “interfering” with an officer’s duties, making it a Class B Misdemeanor to film, record, photograph, or document the officer within 25 feet while that officer is performing his official duties.

[Xavier_Onassis]

People should clearly have the right to videotape or film a cop. ^This is a terrible law.

[Plane]

Agreed.

This proposed law is so ridiculously bad I wonder very much who is supporting it and what they could be thinking.

I like that this is getting notice, it might be very beneficial for the police ,if they learn the public attitude about cameras.

Citizens are shopping, driving, banking on camera, and mostly we put up with it , policemen who are uncomfortable can suck it up.

As a caveat , if you are putting a camera on any sort of crime, you motivate the criminal to prevent your leaving with that , discretion counts.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Anything you have a right to watch that is not a copyrighted creative piece, a citizen has the right to record.

This would tend to cause a surge in lawsuits by people mistreated by cops, followed by the police gradually becoming less  brutal and violent.