Lawyer gets last laugh after filming police

A Boston lawyer who was arrested and prosecuted for using his mobile phone to film the arrest of another man has been awarded $170,000 in damages and legal fees.

Digital • 04 April 2012 • SME Law

Lawyer gets last laugh after filming police

After recording police officers’ use of force while arresting a man, Simon Glik had to defend himself against criminal charges of aiding the escape of a prisoner, illegal wiretapping and disturbing the peace, reports the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts.

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Perhaps recognising the slight overreaction to Glik’s documenting in a central, public park in Boston, a judge dismissed the charges, allowing Glik to begin a civil rights suit against the officers and the city.

With the help of the reasonable-minded folk of the Massachusetts ACLU, as well as Boston lawyers Howard Friedman and David Milton, the City of Boston ended up paying $170,000 to settle the dummy-spit case.

Amusingly, Glik said he was perfectly aware that openly recording public actions on video was not a crime.

A landmark ruling in Glik v. Cunniffe last August found that the right to record police carrying out their duties in a public place is protected by the First Amendment. The ruling also found that officers violated the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against false arrests.

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That rule is binding only in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico, according to ACLU, but has been cited by lawyers across the US facing the apparently common phenomena of police arresting people for filming them.

Folklaw kindly suggests police familiarise themselves with the laws they’re supposed to be aware of in the first place, before arresting people for made-up crimes.

Warren Saturday, 20 April 2013

<p>Some Australian police are trying to force people to illegally give up their cameras for filming, which is an offence for police to take that action (it is not an offence in Australia to film the police), every photo or video I take automatically uploads to icloud, so if they take my camera, I still have a copy. I also have a car cam which has saved me from false charges and arrest from two detectives</p>

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Contrarymary Tuesday, 17 April 2012

<p>I'm not happy really. Glad he proved a point that he knew the law and could sue, unlike most of us, who couldn't get a lawyer to even return our phone calls! But the fact is that "the city of boston" is tax payers. How do we know this wasn't a set up?? Hmmm...gasp! Yes, just another way to steal money from the tax payers, possibly. I'm glad I look at everything with a critical eye. </p>

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