Supreme Court Says It’s Okay To Record Cops In Illinois
The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order Monday that essentially allows people in Illinois to record police officers, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The justices declined to review a lower court ruling that found the state’s “anti-eavesdropping law” to be in violation of a person’s free speech rights when used against anyone who records police officers.
By refusing to review the case, the high court leaves the ban on the law in place.
The law set out a maximum prison term of 15 years.
In 2010 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places.
Harvey Grossman, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, said the organization “continues to believe that in order to make the rights of free expression and petition effective, individuals and organizations must be able to freely gather and record information about the conduct of government and their agents – especially the police.”
Photo Caption: A Chicago police officer threatens to arrest a man for recording him at a checkpoint (video)
Source: anarcho-queer


![Update: U.S. Forces Ex-Marine To Stay In Psych-Ward For One Month Without Charges For Facebook Post
Brandon J. Raub has been ordered to stay in a mental health institution for a month without charge – and contrary to the American constitution, his defense says. His supporters are concerned any American could end up in Raub’s shoes.
US police detained Raub, 26, a Marine Corps veteran, on Thursday, without presenting any charges and even without reading to Raub his Miranda rights, and took him to John Randolph Medical Center, where he is currently being held involuntarily, his defense said in a press-release.
A video of his detention emerged online, triggering outrage online, including among American citizens and human rights activists.
“For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights [to freedom of speech], but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon,” said John Whitehead, executive director of the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group that has come to the Raub’s defense.
The statement on the veteran’s situation posted on the Rutherford Institute website points out that Brandon Raub is no different from the majority of Americans “who use their private Facebook pages to post a variety of content, ranging from song lyrics and political hyperbole to trash-talking their neighbors, friends and government leaders.”
Raub’s mother Cathleen Thomas told in an interview with CBS 6, a local news network, that the evaluation, as she was told by her son, “was 15 minutes long, and basically the evaluator said that he was not ready to go back into society and he needed additional psychiatric treatment.”
At a hearing on Monday held in the mental institution, government officials confirmed Raub’s Facebook posts as the only reason for his detention, paying no attention to his comments that those online messages were wrongly interpreted.
Security forces are said to be using a piece of legislation called Virginia State Code §37.2-808 Emergency custody, under which it is permitted to detain a person in a mental institution without presenting any charges against him, only upon a medic’s recommendation.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m96ercSx2e1r4vpxio1_1280.jpg)
![thepeoplesrecord:
Report: NYPD broke international law with OWS brutalityJuly 25, 2012
A report by a group of civil and human rights attorneys released Wednesday morning paints the clearest picture yet of the New York City police department’s aggressive tactics and over-policing, all of which resulted in the systemic suppression of the basic rights of Occupy protesters.
The report, which chronicles events from late September 2011 up to July of 2012, extensively documents numerous ways in which the NYPD acted with excessive force, attempted to intimidate and harass members of the press, expelled activists from public space due to the content of their speech, and ultimately concludes that authorities broke international law in their handling of Occupy Wall Street.
The executive summary states, in plain language:
“The abusive practices documented in this report violate international law and suppress and chill protest rights, not only by undermining individual liberty, but also by causing both minor and serious physical injuries, inhibiting collective debate and the capacity to effectively press for social and economic change, and making people afraid to attend otherwise peaceful assemblies.”
The authors of the report make several recommendations. First, they call for the city to enact a new, public protest policy, to be created in coordination with civil rights groups like the ACLU. Second, that Mayor Bloomberg establish an independent review of the policing of Occupy Wall Street since September 2011. Third, that New York State create an independent inspector-general to oversee the NYPD, and, if the state fails to do that, the report calls for the U.S. Department of Justice to step in to investigate the NYPD.
“The report calls for investigations and prosecutions of officials, and for new protest policing guidelines that ensure the NYPD respects core civil liberties and human rights,” said Sarah Knuckey, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law and Research Director of Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law, one of the report’s main authors. “If these things are not done, the U.S. Department of Justice needs to step in and investigate official misconduct, and bring charges where appropriate.”
The authors have filed the report – which focuses primarily on New York City, though subsequent reports will focus on other cities – with the DOJ, as well as with the United Nations as a formal complaint. They have also submitted it to the mayor’s office, the NYPD, and the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB).
Many involved with Occupy will be familiar with much that’s in the report, but its sheer scope makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. And for international authorities who may be less well-acquainted with the less covered – though equally important – aspects of police repression, the report will likely prove a valuable tool.
“[This report] should serve as a wake-up call to the sleepwalkers who have not yet realized that the serious problems with the way New York City has been exercising its police powers are a real public health emergency that we have to deal with head-on and collectively, in a comprehensive and sustained way,” Gideon Oliver, president of the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, told AlterNet.
Most shocking is the section titled “use of force”, and the accompanying 36-page table that documents 130 incidents of violence police committed against Occupy activists. The list of incidents by its very nature couldn’t be exhaustive, but is intended to show the wide range of force police used against activists. Some of the incidents are quite serious; punching, over-hand swinging of batons, and “intentionally applying very hard force to the broken clavicle of a handcuffed and compliant individual.” Reading through the table leaves one with a dizzying sense of brutality, as ten months of condensed violence flash before one’s eyes.
Source](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7qc01Su1m1r6m2leo1_1280.jpg)