Know Your Rights!

FBI agents in Texas ripped two cameras out of the hands of a PINAC reporter who was standing in front of a federal building legally recording from a public sidewalk Thursday, claiming they were in fear for their safety.
“I don’t want to be struck in the face,” said Keith A. Byers, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the El Paso FBI office at 660 South Mesa Hills Drive.
However, David Worden made no indication he would strike the agents in the face with his cameras.

Michigan cops arrested six people at a town hall meeting centered around the water system in Flint, where cost-cutting measures led to drinking water tainted with lead and other dangerous toxins, according to MLive.
Flint police say they were charged for disorderly conduct because they refused to remove their hats during the town hall meeting.

Las Vegas police arrested a journalist Saturday who was video recording a protest against President Donald Trump, demanding that he release his tax forms.
Police say KLAS news videographer Nebyou Solomon was arrested for trespassing and obstructing because he was standing on the private property of the Fashion Show Mall, refusing to leave when ordered to do so, then refusing to identify himself.

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the Department of Social Services in South Dakota last week demanding they stop catheterizing children in order to conduct warrantless drug tests, carried out by the department with the assistance of police and hospital staff.
They’re also requesting the department’s written policy regarding the catheterization and searches of children.

The doorman had already paid the woman’s cab fare when a group of Miami Beach cops ordered the driver to return the $20 bill to the doorman.
The cops then yanked the woman out of her apartment in nothing but a bathrobe after she refused to let them inside.

The Sacramento police officer caught on video choking and punching a man for jaywalking was suspended Tuesday after his supervisors viewed the footage.
The cop claimed he feared for his safety because the man removed a jacket and dropped it on the street, indicating he was challenging the cop to fight.
But the man, Nandi Cain Jr., said he was just taking off his jacket to show he was not armed.

It may sound crazy to someone who doesn’t regularly participate in the decision-making process of the government that people like me would feel the need to be informed about what government officials are doing in our name and at our expense.
Those of us who actively participate in the process are generally labeled by public officials and their supporters as being disruptive; unruly troublemakers hell bent on tearing the community apart. It’s a common attitude that people like myself face and it scares away many people who may be interested in what the government is doing.

With that arrogant bravado only a cop can muster, Austin police officer Jamess Maufrais pointed two flashlights into the lenses of two cameras held by PINAC reporter Phillip Turner last November, bragging about how he was “not intimidated” by citizens with cameras, thumbing his nose at his own departmental policy that forbids officers from harassing citizens with cameras.

New Hampshire cops accompanied by a member of the SWAT team escorted a Marine Corps veteran out of city hall last Monday after he attempted to pay a parking ticket with pennies.
Manchester police not only violated the Coinage Act of 1965 that states all coins are legal tender for debts by escorting Billy Spaulding out of city hall, they violated his friend’s First Amendment rights by claiming he needed their permission to record the interaction.

The North Carolina cop who became a viral sensation after telling an Uber driver that it was illegal to record him under a new law – only to learn the driver was also a lawyer – was demoted in rank and pay.
Wilmington Police Sergeant Kenneth Becker is now a corporal whose hourly salary was reduced by $1.38, according to the News and Observer.