citizen journalism

A Maryland man convicted by a judge last year on questionable charges after a sheriff’s deputy accused his girlfriend of breastfeeding their unrestrained baby in the passengers’s seat as he pulled into a gas station had the conviction reversed on appeal last month after taking the case before a jury.
But the Charles County Sheriff’s Office is still refusing to return his girlfriend’s phone that recorded the incident.

The Project Veritas Action Fund, a conservative nonprofit known for releasing undercover videos, filed a federal lawsuit last Friday seeking to overturn aspects of the Massachusetts wiretapping law, which criminalizes secretly audio recording conversations.
Stephen Gordon, a spokesperson for Project Veritas, provided the following statement:

A West Virginia woman who stood between her dog and a cop who was about to shoot it was acquitted by a jury of obstruction charges on February, 29th, 2016.
West Virginia state trooper Seth Cook testified that he was not afraid of the dog, but was following training that required him to kill all dogs that approach him, even if it was chained and wagging its tail as Buddy was doing in this case.

A North Carolina police officer is under investigation for using excessive force during an arrest in an incident caught on camera.
The excessive force situation transpired on Tuesday, when 26-year-old Malcolm Glenn Elliott II fled the scene of a hit-and-run.
When the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers caught Elliott, he was told to put his hands up and get on the ground. All the officers then descended opon Elliott to make the arrest.
But one officer, as seen in the video, decides to repeatedly hit Elliot in the face and backside.

A Baltimore City School police officer was seen beating a student on a video that surfaced Tuesday.
In the video, the student is with his back against the wall as the officer is cursing and yelling at him.
The officer then pushes the student against the wall, strikes him three times, then kicks him, telling the student to “get the fuck out of here.”
The Baltimore City School Police Force is a separate agency from the city’s police department.
The school board said that the officer was reassigned, but would not identify him.

PINAC reported back in April of 2013 about Jonas Correia who was arrested in Massachusetts for recording Northampton police arresting alleged “unruly bar patrons” outside of a downtown bar.
The city of Northampton has since settled a civil rights claim in the amount of $52,000.
Video of the incident was taken by an attorney and bystander who accused police of arresting the man because he was black.

It’s been ten days since since a federal judge ruled that photography is no longer protected by the First Amendment and cops are already using that decision to intimidate citizens from recording them in public.

Less than two months after a Texas law went into effect allowing citizens to open carry handguns, Texas police arrested a man for doing just that Saturday afternoon.
Brett Sanders, an open carry activist who has written for PINAC in the past, drew the attention of Southlake police after he stood on the side of a highway holding up a sign saying, “cops ahead,” warning drivers of an upcoming speed trap.

Stephen Ruth, dubbed the “Red Light Robin Hood,” has made it his mission to rid his New York county of its red light camera program, claiming it has led to several fatal accidents after the duration of the yellow lights were shortened to trick cars into citations.
The Suffolk County man has posted several videos to his Facebook page documenting the timing of the lights throughout the county. His videos seem to offer proof that yellow warning lights are much shorter at intersections where red light cameras are installed.

Taking a page from law enforcement, University of Missouri professor Melissa Click told investigators she was in fear for her life when she assaulted a student journalist, calling for some “muscle” to have him removed because she was under the impression that he was packing a gun and could have pulled it out on her.
She also claimed she found Mark Schierbecker “suspicious” because his camera was too small.