
Obama Administration supports journalist who was arrested after recording cops - wglb
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/obama-administration-supports-journalist-arrested-after-recording-cops/
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tptacek
The Holder DOJ has been sending notices to state AG's and LEO's informing them
that laws restricting the recording of police officers are unconstitutional.
Good for them.

I'm not sure what this has to do with HN, though, so I flagged it. Sorry,
Bill! :|

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drucken
_I'm not sure what this has to do with HN, though, so I flagged it. Sorry,
Bill! :|_

HN Guidelines:

 _"Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate
for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to
its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there
is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that
you did."_

Regardless of whether you're right or wrong, for an old hand, tptacek, not
impressed...

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tptacek
I am prepared to sacrifice 1000 karma points for every comment I write saying
I flagged a story. Please feel free to petition Paul Graham to make that
happen.

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chris_mahan
I would suggest that if the White House was really concerned that these police
officers had violated the Constitution, that the President should order the
National Guards to arrest the officers involved (including their supervisors
all the way to the chief of police for failure to properly supervise) and
deliver them to a Federal Grand Jury and charge them with sedition against the
United States. Then other police officers around the country would think twice
before violating the law.

Right now they're just washing their hands of their responsibility and
essentially saying that the US constitution is not law.

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mpyne
> I would suggest that if the White House was really concerned that these
> police officers had violated the Constitution, that the President should
> order the National Guards to arrest the officers involved (including their
> supervisors all the way to the chief of police for failure to properly
> supervise) and deliver them to a Federal Grand Jury and charge them with
> sedition against the United States.

You cannot possibly be serious. The President is supposed to _mobilize
military assets_ and _compel a grand jury_ to issue his chosen indictment?
You're completely missing the forest for the trees here, not to mention
knowledge of the Posse Comitatus Act.

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chris_mahan
I see this as no different than President Johnson using the Alabama National
Guards to protect the marchers in 1963, to protect their constitutional
rights.

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mpyne
Well that's part of your problem right there, is that you see no difference at
all between protecting citizens from the oppression of a racist state, and
using the Department of Defense to usurp the powers of the DoJ and the
judiciary.

These would hardly be the first cops to have done something wrong in the U.S.,
and we've not needed to use military before. Let the system work as it was
intended to work.

