Thread: John Stossel - citizens MUST retain right to film police

Caught in the act - why citizens MUST retain the right to film police & government officials

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia0k8_Lq ... e=youtu.be

Jul 6, 2011

Radley Balko, a civil libertarian best known for his work at Reason, Cato, and the Huffington Post, talks with John Stossel about the need for citizens to be able to film the police. In one clip, they show how an officer intentionally throws himself into a bicyclist while proclaiming the cyclist intentionally rammed him. In another clip, a policeman denies drawing his gun at a snowball fight when the video clearly shows that he did. Should the police feel afraid to act if they are filmed? If they are doing their job correctly, why should they? At the end of the show, Stossel dicusses the corruption of Nixon's vice president Spiro Agnew and the corruption he and many other politicians were found guilty of. Isn't it good that we have a record of their corruption so that justice could be served? Shouldn't the same standard be applied to the police? Stossel's final point: individuals deserve privacy, individuals who get public money (such as ACORN administrators) deserve less privacy, and people who receive government money and who have the ability to forcibly control you - and the authority to hold a gun to your head - deserve to be held fully accountable and absolutely should be video recorded.

New Jersey to randomly test police for steroids

An investigative group found officers were able to obtain the drugs because little scrutiny was paid to their medical claims.

Kris Alingod
Trenton, NJ, United States
Published: July 8, 2011 10:08 am EDT

New Jersey plans to test its law enforcement officers for illegal steroid use under reforms announced by state Attorney General Paula Dow in response to a report that police officers routinely used their state health benefits to acquire the drug.

The policy for drug testing officers will be amended to include anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in the list of substances. Local departments, however, will use their own funds for the tests and will therefore have the prerogative when and if to conduct them.

In addition, local jurisdictions are being encouraged to require self-reporting among officers who are using steroids.

Officers who test positive in tests will have to submit a letter from the doctor who prescribed the drug. The letter should certify that the prescription is for a medically diagnosed reason and that steroid use will not interfere with the officer's ability to perform his duties.

The reforms include changes that will require prescriptions for steroids and human growth hormone to be filled by mail order exclusively by the state's health benefits manager, Medco.

Once the drug testing policy is changed, Dow will issue a memorandum detailing administrative action and criminal penalties for illegally acquiring or using the substances.

The attorney general commissioned an investigative panel last December after a Star Ledger newspaper report revealed that hundreds of police officers relied on false diagnosis from a doctor, Joseph Colao, to obtain prescriptions they would fill through their public health plans.

According to the report, the officers used the steroids and human growth hormone for muscle improvement or "lifestyle enhancement."

Dow's investigative group later found that officers were able to obtain the drugs because little scrutiny was paid to their medical claims. Moreover, the panel discovered that there was lack of regulatory action against doctors who issued fake prescriptions.

Like other states, New Jersey is seeking to close a record budget deficit in the wake of the recession. It spent $11.2 million last year to fill anabolic steroids and human growth hormone prescriptions of public employees. Nearly 6,000 workers billed their health plans for anabolic steroids while more than 200 users of human growth hormone did the same.

The reforms will allow Dow to more easily prosecute law enforcement officers who illegally use steroids. The attorney general hopes regulating the way prescriptions are issued and filled will force steroid abusers to rely on the black market.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles ... z1RWoxiXzq

All the laws that ban filming police are unconstitutional and violate the First Amendment which should sound the alarm bell better than any act could that city councils and state legislatures that have passed such laws aren't watching your backs like they're supposed to, they're stabbing them.

Stop all this nonsense now and remove any and all representatives whether city council, county commission, state legislature or Congress who support such laws.