"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

The more I see of these videos, the more I don't feel safe leaving my house without a camera of some sort. I already tend to carry a digital recorder, but an actual camera is beginning to seem justified.

Yeah... That was Timothy McVeigh's favorite aphorism, too.

(He's dead now.)

Absolutely, citizens have the right to film or videotape actions taken by their employees (police or otherwise).

This seems obvious to me. If you do not want to be videotaped, then get off the public dole.

Crid, that's cheap rhetoric. I can poison your well just as easily: "The Soviets called resistance to the Party terrorism or mental illness. They're gone now. 70 million deaths later." This kind of thing is unimaginative, cheap, and unproductive.

So, when police violate the law with physical violence, when is it legal or right or prudent to resist them?

I think everyone should have good faith immunity, just like the cops have now. We should take good faith immunity away from cops. We should expect police to have special knowledge of the law. Believe it or not, the courts do not consider police to be experts in the law they enforce. If they make mistakes (which mistakes are called crimes when we make them), then police are immune from prosecution when they just believe they act within the law. That's not a good policy.

Shit, Everyone has a camera on their phone now, and everyone's got their phones with them all the time. And confiscating the camera's won't work, because you can upload it as soon as a thug cop starts walking toward you. So get out there and film every one of them. Let's do a "Cops Gone Wild" video!

I did not know it was Illegal to vid the cops in Illinois... here are some other stories on this subject.
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/151806

> This kind of thing is unimaginative,
> cheap, and unproductive

First of all, I don't see any reason to trust you to say so.

Secondly (and nonetheless), OF COURSE IT IS, Turtledove... That's why I wanted Tyler to consider the nakedness of his citation.

I agree with Frank:

> Everyone has a camera on their phone now

As a practical matter, this may be over anyway.

I guess the other thing one could do is build a six-foot re-inforced concrete wall around one's home, then stand on the second floor balcony making a video-recording of the police in relative safety. Of course, walled compounds are much more typical in the third world than in American suburbs.

Killing the cops who violate your liberty is much closer to killing British soldiers during the Revolutionary War than killing unarmed government paper-pushers and kids in a daycare in Oklahoma City.

Even though I do agree that there are many Government employees who are out of control- police officers, politicians, child protection services, tsa, etc., I choose to believe that they all entered their chosen careers with the best intentions of "saving the world," so to speak.

I silently cooperate with any request made by an "official." I'm the one saying nothing to the tsa agents groping me and ignoring the sobs of other airline passengers while they are groped too. I'm one of many who would have never turned the camera on a police officer- but if I was filming something else I would turn it off immediately and comply with an officers request. I can't say I'm "proud" of it, but I'm glad I have a calm disposition.

In my experience, an absence of hostility will encourage peace better than aggression.

Well, your enthusiasm for the topic is McVeighish... One might get the sense that you're looking for an excuse to kill somebody, at least in rhetorical space. I'd bet all the other visitors to this blog are only interested in shooting people with cell phone cameras.

Meanwhile, in Scandinavia, it's hoped that a ban on video games will reduce the need for heroic lesbians.

"I choose to believe that they all entered their chosen careers with the best intentions of "saving the world," so to speak."

Unfortunately, most people who want to "save the world" are malignant narcissists. And their "saving the world" will of course involve them imposing their own views on said world. For the world's own good, of course,

In my experience, an absence of hostility will encourage peace better than aggression.

In my experiance - and one shown out time and time and time again thruout every society in history - the absense of hostility only invites further abuses

Meanwhile, in Scandinavia, it's hoped that a ban on video games will reduce the need for heroic lesbians.

Posted by: Crid

So much for Norways pledge not to let the tradgey affect the way the run the country.

On the bright side, due to this obvious violation of free speech, free commerce, and free will, we can now call Norwegians hypocrits and ignore any criticism they make of us and the US from this point onward

Hopefully you all hear about the Canton OH PD (www.youtube.com/watch?v=kassP7zI0qc) who arrested a guy because he didn't allow the alleged "perpertrator" to notify them he was a CCW holder.

It gets even better. The same cop acted pretty much the same way a year ago. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A3umbwBLnc) But even many cops repudiate his actions.

There is a difference between taking control of a situation and going off. This guy just goes off.

Crid,

If that cop was just an armed man WITHOUT a badge, the victim would be justified in using deadly force to defend himself from assault, battery, and unlawful confinement. An agent of the State should be no more able to violate your civil rights than should your neighbor.

Also, notice how there was no Miranda warning in the above clip. He wasn't being arrested for anything; he was just bullied by a thug with a gun.

I almost never watch the videos here. Too much like homework. (If you choose to kill people, we'll judge you afterward, OK?)

But does anyone remember that video from the curly sex blond that Amy linked a few years ago, with the velvety thighs, the Hungarian accent, and the treacly sincerity? She'd stare right into the camera and say all these weepingly earnest things, and I'd stare straight back at her and pretend not to be thinking she'd be fun in bed. From behind, where the sincerity wouldn't be so intense.

Ah, here's girlfriend!