Police Retaliate Against "Cop Watch" Groups

[Walter Ego]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/...h-groups-across-the-us?tmpl=component&print=1

Across the nation, local police departments are responding to organized cop watching patrols by targeting perceived leaders, making arrests, threatening arrests, yanking cameras out of hands and even labeling particular groups "domestic extremist" organizations and part of the sovereign citizens movement - the activities of which the FBI classifies as domestic terrorism.

Courts across the nation at all levels have upheld the right to film police activity. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and photographer's associations have taken many similar incidents to court, consistently winning cases over the years. The Supreme Court has ruled police can't search an individual's cellphone data without a warrant. Police also can't legally delete an individual's photos or video images under any circumstances.

ETA:

The police in some states have been using wiretapping laws to prosecute citizens who video record them.

Man arrested for wiretapping after filming police officer. The recording has now mysteriously disappeared.

Police charge a Chicopee, Massachusetts, woman with “wiretapping” for daring to record her own arrest on her smartphone.

Woman charged with wiretapping for filming cops wins $57,000 payout Settlement follows appeals court declaring "First Amendment" right to record.

They're not giving up in Illinois.

Illinois—again—moves to ban recording the police.

 

[mgidm86]

I would think plenty of video would be available?

Here's a video from both perspectives - "cop watchers", then from a police dash cam - from the same incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqZetQNH11k

Where were the cop watchers when these two cops were shot today?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/12/20/2-nypd-cops-shot-in-car-critically-injured/

Two New York police officers are in critical condition after they were reportedly shot in the head at point-blank range on Saturday when a suspect attacked them as they sat in a patrol car. The attack took place in Brooklyn at around 3 p.m., the New York Daily News reported.


“The perp came out of the houses, walked up behind the car and lit them up,” a high-ranking police official told the Daily News.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/...h-groups-across-the-us?tmpl=component&print=1

Does this "news" come from the cop watchers or a neutral third party?