Making First Amendment Violators Pay

Good news today for the First Amendment  in New York City: the city has agreed to pay out $583,000 to fourteen people whose constitutional rights to peaceably assemble, guaranteed under the First Amendment to our Constitution, were trampled by police officers who arrested them on trumped up charges during the Occupy Wall Street protests at the end of 2011.

That's important and welcome news indeed.  But I'm wondering: what will happen to the NYPD cops who made the illegal arrests?   What will happen to the supervisors, to then Police Commissioner Kelly, and then Mayor Bloomberg?

The answer: nothing.  And that's why these violations of the First Amendment continue.   Violating the Constitution should be a pretty serious crime - after all, it's the Supreme Law of the Land.  And yet, pepper-spraying officers in California, officers in New York who claim demonstrators are blocking when traffic when they are not, continue to act if they're illiterate or other can't understand what the right to peaceably assemble means.

Fortunately, in our age of omni-present video, it's more difficult than it was in the past for police to get away with these crimes.   Tim Pool's video, for example, got Alexander Arbuckle acquitted a few years ago, when he was arrested on bogus charges in New York City during an OWS demonstration. Video also played a role in the city's decision to compensate the 14 people wrongfully arrested with almost $600,000, after the DA wisely decided not to prosecute the nonsense charges.

But what can be done to stop this police and Mayoral abuse in the future?   Putting the culprits behind bars, including the former Mayor, would be a good way to start.

The Newsroom 2.2: The Power of Video

The power of video was in evidence in The Newsroom 2.2 tonight - including what can happen in its absence.

At an Occupy Wall Street protest, the NYPD - who in reality and on this show demonstrate a blissful and vexing disregard of the First Amendment - Neil is arrested for doing his job, i.e., reporting on the event.   Fortunately, he live streamed his unconstitutional arrest, so even though the marauding NY cops took and likely broke his phone, the video of his outrageous arrest survived.   Will is able to use it to get Neil released.   Journalists arrested by constitutionally illiterate cops weren't quite so lucky in our reality.  But Tim Pool's video did get the case against OWS reporter Alexander Arbuckle thrown out of court last year. (I was pleased to have Tim Pool guest lecture in my class at Fordham University a few months earlier.)

Video, of course, can also incriminate, and it lands Maggie in increasing hot water - that is, a video of her, recorded by a bystander and put on YouTube, when she was in effect proclaiming her love for Jim. Determined to get the video off of YouTube, Maggie (with Sloan insisting on accompanying her) track down the video poster via Foursquare.   The poster is not prone to remove the video - it's getting lots of hits and is connected to her blog, after all - but Sloan tries to buy the poster's compliance by offering to tweet a pointer to the poster's blog to Sloan's nearly half a million followers on Twitter.  The poster agrees, takes the tweet - only to write a blog post about the whole event, anyway, which of course garners even more to attention to the video, which she hasn't removed, and her blog.  A savvy and amusing lesson about the labyrinthine power of social - or what I can "new new" - media, and the wheelers-and-dealers who try to use these media for their often conflicting purposes.

But the final lesson about video in this episode, about the impact of no video, is not amusing at all. Troy Davis is executed for killing  a police officer in Georgia.   He proclaimed his innocence until the end.   If only a video existed of what really happened to the cop.   Just as justice would have been better served if a video existed of what George Zimmerman did to Trayvon Martin.   We don't yet live in such a world, but we're slowly getting there.

See also The Newsroom Season 2 Debuts on Occupy Wall Street and More ... and (about Trayvon Martin) If Only There Was a Video Recording

And see also The Newsroom and McLuhan ... The Newsroom and The Hour ...The Newsroom Season 1 Finale: The Lost Voice Mail



#SFWApro

If Only There Was a Video Recording ...

As I lament the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the acquittal of his killer in Florida a few days ago, I can't help thinking: if only there was a video recording of the crucial events of that evening.

One thing which everyone agrees upon is no one other than George Zimmerman now can know with 100% certainty what happened that night.   In the absence of eyewitnesses, and, even worse, a video of the events, we are forced to rely on our ever fallible logic and emotions.

Eyewitnesses of course can be mistaken or can lie.  A video can on its own do neither, but can certainly be spliced or pointed in directions which distort the truth.  Still and all, it provides a record of events in general more reliable than eye-witness testimony.

Video recordings have already righted serious wrongs in our society.  A video recording in 1991 brought Rodney King's beaters - Los Angeles police officers - to trial.  And although they were acquitted of assault in state court, two of the officers were found guilty in Federal court of violating King's civil rights, and were imprisoned.  Video recordings brought the cop who killed Oscar Grant in 2009 in San Francisco to at least some justice.  In New York City last year, Alexander Arbuckle was acquitted of bogus charges brought against him by the NYPD during an Occupy Wall Street event.   Fortunately for Arbuckle and the truth, Tim Pool had recorded the event and what preceded it on his smartphone.

Opportunities for video recording are increasing.  Not only does every smart phone come with video recording capability, but developments like Google Glass will make them even easier and less intrusive to use.   We can not go back in time and see what happened to Trayvon Martin.   We can and should fight racism on every level, but we can never rid the world entirely of bad people.   In the difficult course of attempting to bring them to justice, we need all the technological help we can get.