Citizens vs. Government

Ramsey Orta, the man who recorded the viral video of Eric Garner’s murder by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo that became the catalyst for the mantra “I can’t breathe” for the national police accountability movement, was arrested on Wednesday while recording a traffic stop.
Orta walked out of his home on March 16 and noticed a New York City police officer conducting the traffic stop, so he pulled up to the scene and started video recording.

The appetite for brawls and violence at Donald Trump rallies has now landed five North Carolina sheriff’s deputies in hot water.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office demoted two deputies and suspended three this week for not taking action on the white Trump supporter who threw a striking elbow to the face of a young black Trump protester during a rally in Fayetteville on March 10th.

Cop Block activist Floyd Wallace was sentenced to 210 days in jail Wednesday after Nebraska’s justice system bamboozled the young activist, failing to “Mirandize” him or provide an attorney in court.
Is it legal to carry a tripod around in public?
Is it legal to carry a tripod inside of a rifle case in public?
Plainly, the answer is “yes” to both.

St. Johns County deputies ignored the constitution and followed orders blindly.
They arrested PINAC reporter Jeff Gray this week.

A man who was standing on a public sidewalk outside of a military base in San Diego was told he was breaking federal law by photographing the entrance to the base.
“You are on my property,” said the United States Marine Corps military police officer, who walked more than 100 feet outside the base to confront him.
But the man, who posted his video on YouTube under the username The Junkyard News, insisted he was not breaking any law.

Georgia citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale, who last year won a First Amendment award for fighting for her right to record in public, is now facing five years in prison for recording a Republican political gathering in 2014.
She was arraigned Tuesday on charges of criminal trespassing, misdemeanor obstruction of an officer and felony obstruction of an officer.
She pleaded not guilty.

Co-written with Maya Shaffer
It’s Sunshine Week, the annual national initiative to promote open government and access to public records. Meteorologists have predicted rain and clouds across Massachusetts for the next several days—and the outlook for transparency in the Bay State is equally bleak.

UPDATE III – March 15th, 3:30pm – Jeff Gray has been released, finally, from St. Johns County Jail.  Here is his statement
“I am out of jail and safely at home. I walked out of jail around 1pm today 3/15/16. I was treated well by SJSO Jail staff. I want to thank everybody for their support and calls to the jail. Word got back to me that the phone lines were melting.”
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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.

A new video recorded from inside the car driven by Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was released today, capturing the harrowing moments before, during and after he was shot to death in Oregon last January.
The United States Department of Justice also announced it is investigating a group of “elite” FBI agents for partaking in a coverup of the shooting, according to the Oregonian.
It turns out, one FBI agent shot his gun twice, but claimed he never fired his gun.