ACLU Guide For Snapping Pictures In Public

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about snapping pictures in public, especially of police officers while they are eating doughnuts and beating people up....er...working. Police officers will often tell people that it is not lawful to take pictures of police officers when they do their jobs, and will even confiscate cameras of bystanders and arrest journalists and reporters when cameras have clearly caught police officers with their pants down. But the truth is, taking pictures in public is perfectly legal. On private property, one must have permission of the property owner in order to take pictures, but in public, one may snap pictures of anything one can see. Police may not confiscate anyone's camera or SD card without a warrant, and police officers have even been brought up on charges of tampering with evidence for doing just that. The American Civil Liberties Union has published a guide for photographers for reference.

Pictures of police in action, taken by citizens, provide an independent record of the photographed or recorded incident. Such evidence reduces the prevalence of faulty memories and lies, and is important for transparency of those who represent authority. No one should have to worry about police confiscating photographs or cameras, and no police officer should do anything in the line of duty that he or she would not want photographed.

Police In Motion Pictures

Something law enforcement should remember is that police officers cannot assault and batter anyone they choose without abandon anymore, thanks to the advent of the digital camera and the cell phone. Even if one eyewitness with such a device is pounded to the ground, law enforcement cannot possibly interfere with every filming witness or surveillance camera. Google even snaps random pictures. Finding each and every possible camera isn't even possible, anymore. No matter how loudly police officers threaten those with recording devices, it remains perfectly legal, under the Constitution, to photograph and record them, as long as said police officers are in public. The ACLU has graciously provided us with a guide for gathering such photographic records here. For further enjoyment, there is a picture below of former police officer James Kinsella, at his bond hearing in Omaha, Nebraska, after being charged with felony tampering with evidence because he snatched cameras and SD cards from men who attempted to record evidence of their local police at work. It isn't legal at all for a cop to snatch a cell phone, camera, or an SD card from a citizen.

ACLU Addresses The Rights Of Photography

It's become abundantly clear, lately, that police officers in America do not like added scrutiny provided by amateur and professional photographers and cell phone users. Unfortunately, this finding also coincides with a massive revelation that police officers often think that they are above the law, and can inflict violence whenever their little hearts desire, even to the point of murder. Many of them do not even understand the United States Constitution, much less respect it.

The good news is that those of us who take pictures of police officers and grab cell phone video of our tax dollars being spent are, according to the law, within our constitutional rights. No police officer has a right to shut down a news team or a private citizen taking pictures. The only loophole, in certain states, has to do with wiretapping laws: recorded audio cannot be deliberately captured and shared in all locales. But then, an officer carrying out his duties in public is not a private conversation, so the wiretapping laws do not apply in those instances.

The American Civil Liberties Union has found itself defending cases involving private citizens with cell phone and corporations such as television stations because of this issue with police officers and photography. As recently as the second week of August, police in Ferguson, Missouri did not want their tear gas activities photographed and recorded by journalists, so they handcuffed and arrested a couple from the Huffington Post and the Washington Post. As it happens, the only laws broken were broken by police.

Why is accountability so difficult for law enforcement to accept?

An Arrest Might Help

In the gloomy retrospect of young Micheal Brown's funeral yesterday, a question seems to keep getting asked here and there, on various news websites and on local TV news: now that the funeral is over, what can we do to effect productive change and ensure justice for Michael Brown and his family? Here's a quick answer that could have saved quite a bit of trouble in the first place.....arrest Darren Wilson, the officer who murdered Michael Brown almost three weeks ago. Had an arrest been made immediately, and had the officer been held just as accountable as Michael Brown would have been, had the situation been reversed, no one would have ever felt the need to riot.

In other news, the ACLU got involved in the career of Officer Gofuckyourself, featured in the video above, and effective August 20, he is no longer on the force. Unfortunately, the citizens of Missouri are probably still paying his salary.

Rest in peace, Michael Brown.

Enrollment Fees In Public Schools

If you are a parent of a child who attends public school, and you were pressured or harassed to pay enrollment fees, this was never legal and never constitutional. Federal law clearly maintains that public school districts must provide free and equitable education to all students. This includes activities and materials, as well as the right to attend school. Some educators and school administrators in California didn't believe that, and the ACLU got involved. Now, those schools no longer attempt to extort money from parents, and all of the school districts named in the lawsuit were audited. A bill was even drafted to consider punitive fines and other actions against the offenders. How interesting. Dean Dalinghaus, at good ole' Frankfort High School, thinks that parents owe his so-called school monies in addition to their taxes, too. He will even stoop to the level of bullying and threats to force parents to pay him money. If you live in Frankfort, Kansas, and have been pressured by the school board of USD 380 to pay enrollment fees, just say no.

In Case You Missed Church This Sunday

How very interesting. A pastor in Beebe, Arkansas got a permit to open his church, and then is told to close it because his god is not the god of his alderman, whose help the church has sought. As long as the city thought the church would be Christian, no one had a problem, but the minute the city discovered the church is Pagan, the unlawful discrimination and bigotry as usual started. The battle cry is that the church is not "zoned properly". But then, the church was "zoned properly" for Christianity....just not for any other religion. That's okay; now that the story has aired on KARK, there may be assistance from other Pagans who can help Beebe in it's quest for the Old Religion.

As for the alderman's "god" being the same as a Pagan god or goddess, of course it isn't.

In Case You Missed Church On Sunday

Ah yes, Oklahoma, the ten commandments, and the impending erection of Satan! Well, Baphomet.....Satan and Baphomet are two entirely different entities, but the point being made by the Satanic Temple is still very valid. In 2012, Oklahoma inserted the ten commandments on the lawn of their capital building, showing obvious favor to Christianity. When asked about displaying symbols of other religions, Oklahoma refused. The state also refused to remove it's statue of the ten commandments. Now, with a win in the Supreme Court, assisted by the ACLU, Lucien Greaves, of the Satanic Temple, commissioned the creation of a statue of Baphomet to also sit on the lawn of the capital building in Oklahoma. If the ten commandments does not disappear, the statue of Baphoment, according to the court's ruling, must also be given a place. Since the ten commandments is still there, Greaves has announced that the statue is nearly complete, and that there are copies of it in case Oklahoma Christians do that Christian thing of which so many of them are fond, and vandalize the statue. It's comforting to know that the Satanic Temple has our backs when state governments try to decide which church we should all attend, and it's nice to know that the ACLU is still willing to go on the defense for us, even in the Midwest, which seems to be the land of misplaced ethnocentrism.

In Case You Slept Through Church On Sunday

In case you slept through church on Sunday and didn't hear, a child at Negreet High School, in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, was bullied by a teacher in class because he failed to understand Christian jargon on a test. When she wanted to know if it was "amazing what the ______ had made", he wasn't able to answer the question or fill in the blank. Besides the fact that this question appeared on a science test, and christian myth has very little to do with science, the sixth grade boy is of Thai background, and his family is Buddhist. Rita Roark, the teacher, will not give students credit for any work in science class reflecting any theory besides creation, and the notion that the earth and all life is only six thousand years old. His parents were already offended by the electric marquee that generates bible verses in front of the school, and when they complained, Principal Gene Wright told the Buddhist parents that "this is the bible belt", and that the law mandating no religion in public school was not applicable because of that prime bible belt location! Wright was not concerned in the slightest that Roark had informed the sixth grader, before the entire class, that "Buddhism is stupid". When the parents took their complaints to the superintendent, Sara Ebarb, she suggested that they change their religion! When they told her they were not going to convert to christianity, she told them that they should send their son to a school in a different school district, about thirty miles away, that had more children from different cultures!

Not only does Negreet High School unlawfully overlook Abingdon School District v. Schempp, which guarantees and prescribes that all public school children be educated in a non-religious environment, but Brown v. The Board Of Education In Topeka clearly grants public school children the right to attend the closest public school, un-harassed, with no pressure to convert to any religion and no favoritism of one religion or culture over another. This is very reminiscent of Frankfort High School, in Northeast Kansas. Teachers mercilessly bully any child whose parents are not christians, and have pressured yours truly to convert or attend one of their half baked churches countless times. The minister of one of those churches had the gall to ask me if my Dad was "satanic", and if I had learned my religious and cultural identities from him, which, as a matter of fact, I did; but the suggestion that my father is "satanic" insulted me to the extent that I will never allow my children to enter her filthy church again. Quite a few of the christian young people in Frankfort Kansas, the same ones who drive through the lawns and onto the porches of others in attempts to hit small children and pets, use religion at their PUBLIC school as a fulcrum from which to bully others and make them miserable. Dean Dalinghaus, the principal at Frankfort, clearly states that the 1963 FEDERAL law does not apply to him or to Frankfort School because the "majority" did not wish to obey the law. Curiously, this is his approach when faced with other criminal behaviors among faculty members, too. Predictably, the ACLU does not agree with Dean Dalinghaus, and he is very upset that he is no longer welcome to invite non-christians to "get saved" at school functions anymore. A little less predictably, he whined, complained, and threatened when I stopped holding Frankfort accountable to Brown v. the Board of Education and enrolled my children in USD 497 Lawrence, a considerable distance away. It turned out that he was grubbing for enrollment dollars, and Lawrence got the money granted by the state that my children would have brought this year, rather than Frankfort. Dalinghaus will not be bothered with equality and the lawful administration of a school, but puts on quite a production as an enrollment dollar whore.

The ACLU is now assisting in a lawsuit against Negreet High School in Sabine Parish. I will be following the proceedings with great interest. I predict that all the schools in Sabine Parish will find themselves obliged to become more professional and law abiding in the very near future, and when the case is concluded, I will not hesitate to remind the judicial system in Kansas that USD 380, which pimps Frankfort High School, treated my children in the very same manner that Negreet High School treats Buddhist children.

Stuff That Gets Downplayed In The News

Did anyone know that signaling other drivers by flashing one's headlights to warn of cops hiding with radar guns is protected speech, covered by the first amendment? In November of 2012, Michael Elli of Missouri decided to fight a ticket in court for doing just that, instead of paying the $1000.00 fine. When the local court realized he was going to fight the ticket, arguing first amendment rights and freedom of speech, the case was dropped. But Elli had already filed suit, and the ACLU had already gotten behind him, so the lawsuit went forward. On February 3, a federal judge ruled in favor of Elli. This means that any police officer who tickets a person for flashing car headlights to warn other drivers of a speed trap is interfering with constitutional rights.

While this does not seem monumental, it has huge impact on the entire nation, because this case sets a precedent. It is a very important statement, and a decisive victory for speech and freedom of expression protected by the first amendment. A federal court has, in effect, just told the entire nation's police departments to back off and leave the people alone. Isn't it interesting that none of the local or national media have spoken more on the subject? Why might that be?

The case is styled Elli v. Ellisville, and can be perused, copied, and quoted. Personally, I can't wait to see more people stand up for their rights. Anyone who does not stand up for his or her rights is also failing to stand up for the Constitution. Reporting on the outcomes of cases such as this should not be a problem for the media, either.

Jared Bowes, Kansas, And Axial Tilt

Just when I thought Festivus was finally over, the ACLU in Kansas noted that Jared Bowes, of the Kansas Department Of Commerce had disappointed them in the year 2013 by using his government email account to remind everyone that jesus is the reason for the season and that he is king of somewhere, and that if everyone has been good this year, Santa Claus would leave presents under the Winter Solstice Tree, or something like that. No worries about those who truly don't believe in christianity, and no sensitivity to those who might feel pressured, upon reading the newsletter from the department, to act if they believed in something they do not, in order to avoid any discrimination that may result from not being christian.

Doug Bonney, of the ACLU states that he has received a lot of complaints about the "overly christian-centric atmosphere" in Kansas government. This comes as no surprise to me. It also does not surprise me that Jared Bowes's statements about christianity were edited out of the newsletter; sadly, not before it was read by some of the recipients. Here is what Bowes had to say for himself:

"Let me be forthright in saying that my sole intent was to extol King Jesus as the 'reason for the season."

Here's what Bonny had to say about the whole mess: “People might, for example, say, 'I’m a Jew; I’m not really welcome here,' " Bonney said. "That’s the danger and that's the purpose of the (Constitution's) establishment clause. It’s to keep religion out of government because there is no official government religion in the United States. There cannot be. We’re a pluralistic society, and people have all kinds of religious beliefs.”.....Topeka Capital Journal

We are a pluralistic society. This is what Kansas, collectively, just doesn't understand, from the silly little school my children attended in Frankfort, Kansas, before I found that I could tolerate no more; to the insensitivity of a vocal government employee who uses his government email account for the presentation of imaginary icons as fact. The reason for the season has a lot more to do with axial tilt than it does with Judeo-Christian mumbo jumbo, and the only appropriate way to attribute spirituality to the season is to remember to keep Sol in Winter Solstice!

Kris Kobach Cries The Blues

Last week, Sarah Kessinger, of the Marysville Advocate, wrote this editorial about our renowned Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, and his contributions to Arizona SB1070, which was signed into law by Governer Jan Brewer in 2010 in an ongoing effort to keep Arizona white. It is disguised as a law to curtail illegal immigration, but it assumes that all illegal immigrants are of darker skin complexion than the average Northern European and required that police officers everywhere in Arizona stop and harass anyone with dark skin or dark hair and demand to see a birth certificate or a passport. This law also sought to restrict voting. The problem in enacting this law had to do with the concept of "probable cause". Anyone whose descent happened to be African, Indian, Asian, Mediterranean, Native American, Middle Eastern, or Latin was naturally suspect. Because so many problems were created by the application of this law and the Kobachian hate with which it is associated, quite a bit of it either has been repealed, or is being repealed. Sarah Kessinger simply stated that Kris Kobach's work appears consistently to contain a racist and oppressive slant, intimidating legitimate voters. She certainly is not the only American to point that out.

In his rebuttal to Sarah's editorial, Kris Kobach denies his contributions to Arizona SB1070 and throws out obscure references to Arizona citizenship laws enacted in 2004, which are not the subject of this editorial. He also confuses the issue by complaining about the editorial's statement that Kris Kobach helped to "convince" lawmakers and the Governor in Arizona to "pass laws" by claiming that no one was actually "convinced" because not all of his ideas were passed into law! Seriously, Kobach? Arizona SB1070 most certainly DID get passed; the ACLU would never have involved itself if it didn't!

Another point Sarah Kessinger ponders in her editorial, which has been pondered before by one or two Kansans, is this: how does Kris Kobach have so much time, while doing the job of Secretary of State here in Kansas, to hire out as a legislative word twister for any state in this country wanting to bring back the days before the Civil Rights Act of 1964?  It seems in many ways to be a conflict of interest for someone in Kobach's position to be more concerned about side interests than the postion to which he is elected. Is representing Kansas simply not lucrative enough for him?
 

Very Smart School Board Decision

 

A Jackson County, Ohio middle school used to have a stupid looking, White-Jesus picture hanging from a railing on a staircase, until the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the school on behalf of the more intelligent parents and students to take the offensive thing down. The superintendent of Jackson County Schools pointed out that the school insurance company refused to insure the school against lawsuits inspired by the subtle expression of a preference for one religion over another, so he removed it. That was very smart. It's too bad Northeast Kansas schools will not learn a lesson about lawsuits, insurance to cover damages won by parties with reasons to sue the occasional erring school, and the dumb shit fundamentalist Christian teachers and administrators often do to encourage lawsuits.

If that picture were to stay, there should be other pictures alongside it. Perhaps one like this:

 

 

ACLU Writes Cease And Desist Letter To My Old School

Yesterday, I noticed this article on Yahoo News, about a high school student in Maryland who was sanctioned for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegience at school. Because I went to high school in Maryland, I read the article. In order to find out more, I clicked on this link. When I noticed the words, "Montgomery County", I became a bit more interested, because I lived in Montgomery County as a child. Then, I noticed that the school was the very school from which I graduated. My jaw dropped in shock, because back in my day, anyone who said the Pledge of Allegience would have been suspected of indulging in hallucinagens. Not that anyone was disloyal, or ungrateful for where we lived, but no one at my high school forced anyone to recite anything that even remotely resembled a religious prayer or chant. Apparently, my old school has changed, and not for the better.

The biggest complaint most well educated people have with the Pledge of Allegience is the "One nation under 'God' " part. While I agree with the offense thereby taken, the reason I taught my own children not to recite it has to do with the ending of it........"with liberty, and justice for all". To me, that part of the Pledge is nothing short of a giant sham and lie, as we do not have, support, or even attempt liberty and justice for ALL in this country. Why pretend that we do? We are still a great country, but I do not see the need to encourage my children to believe that we have attained a level of greatness and benevolence that we actually have not attained......so my children do not have to recite the Pledge of Allegience at any school they attend.

The student who was punished and publicly humiliated in Maryland got the American Civil Liberties Union involved in her case, and they have written the school a "cease and desist" letter. The administrator and faculty would be wise to heed it. While we are on the subject of constitutional rights, here is another disturbing case, from Florida. The father of a fourth grader found the beginnings of an essay in the little boy's backpack. The teacher had assigned an essay on this subject:

 

And to that, Benjamin Franklin had this to say: “He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.”

 

That little boy is now home schooled. Thank the Gods his father was paying attention. Hopefully, more parents will open their eyes.

 

 

Marysville Kansas Cop Was Wrong To Make Threats

Yesterday, I finally had an opportunity to speak with an attorney about this encounter, which I had on Monday, with a policeman in Marysville, Kansas. The cop had just arrested a young woman, and while she was waiting for him to do his coply duties of figuring out which crime she had probably not committed but with which he could yet charge her, she told me her children had been left alone as a result of her arrest. She asked me if I would call her mother on my cell phone and ask her to babysit, and the cop manhandled me and threatened to arrest me when I obliged. As it turns out, there is no crime in the annotated code of Kansas to be found suggesting that it is unlawful for a bystander to telephone a child's grandma to babysit while a parent gets arrested or otherwise hounded by law enforcement. I committed no crime, and any arrest would have been a false arrest. Any subsequent detention would have been false imprisonment. The police officer was making empty, stupid threats.

It was also suggested to me that such ploys are standard procedure at the Marysville Police Station whenever a woman with children is arrested. The goal is to force the mother to choose, when making her phone call, between calling a lawyer, or calling someone to care for her children. The mother will almost always choose someone to care for her children, and with no legal representation, the police are free to harass and bully her for a longer amount of time. Who ultimately pays for this? The children, of course.

Go ahead and continue your tactics, big badass cop. Have you heard of what's been dubbed the "War on Women"? Kansas officials are not looking terribly positive, of late, in any area involving women. How do you think the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center will react to documented instances of women being forced to give up legal representation while in your custody?

 

Karen Spillman Vs. Banana Man

This is a GREAT story! A high school student, with lots of intelligence and a brilliant future, but also diagnosed with autism, (one wouldn't know it from his dialogue with news reporters, though) decides to don a Banana Man costume and run down the sidelines of his Stafford, Virginia high school during half time at a football game. An angry, heavy handed, authoritarian principal, Karen Spillman, gets on her high horse and suspends him for ten days! The average suspension for a fistfight in schools on the East Coast is three days....but I guess something as victimless as running in the sidelines in a costume is much more serious...........where's the eye-rolley when I need it?

Ok....making a long story short: the other children at Bryan Thompson's school thought this was assinine and completely wrong. So a large number of them got "Free Banana Man" shirts made, and wore them to school. But Free Banana Man is a terrible message for a young person to wear on a shirt, so these shirts were also banned, along with Banana Man. Enter the ACLU. The Free Banana Man shirts were reinstated as school appropriate apparel. But poor Mrs. Spillman just couldn't take any more. So she resigned. And Banana Man is back, his suspension cut short, because the heavyhandedness was finally deemed not fit for the situation. Here's the statement made by the superintendent:

"My staff, under my direction, has reviewed the recent actions at Colonial Forge High School relating to the wearing of yellow tee shirts and other activities in support of a student who had been recently disciplined. We have concluded that many of the actions that were taken by the school were inappropriate. We are sorry for any embarrassment or inconvenience incurred by the students who were appropriately exercising their freedom of speech and by the families of those students. This administration and the School Board fully support the First Amendment rights of our students."

And here's Bryan Thompson, in his unforgettable Banana Man get-up...

Just reading that a child diagnosed with autism has the self confidence and fun-loving sponteneity required to be such a great class clown is encouraging. Shame on Karen Spillman and anyone who supported her in her unkind, unteaching decision to punish this child for his commendable social skills. (yes; class clowning is a social skill) Anxiety often goes hand in hand with the different forms of autism, and Karen Spillman decided to compound this by calling the police and having this child handcuffed and thrown into a squad car after he did NOT commit a crime. This was reprehensible of her. I am so glad that none of those children have to see her every day, anymore.