It takes nerve to suggest that the way to preserve a free press -- the very phrase connotes a press free of government -- is to have government get into the news-and-opinion business. With your money, naturally, Gentle and much abused Taxpayer.
Under such a proposal, newspapers that accepted public funds would no longer be allowed to run their own editorials, at least openly. They'd have to do what NPR does -- insinuate opinions into their "objective" news coverage.
Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police By RAY SANCHEZ July 19, 2010 Prosecutions Draw Attention to Influence of Witness Videos
Across the country, arrests such as these highlight the growing role of witness video in law enforcement. A dozen states require all parties to consent before a recording is made if there is a "reasonable expectation of privacy." Virginia and New York require one-party consent. Only in Massachusetts and Illinois is it illegal for people to make an audio recording of people without their consent.
"The argument is, 'Well, can a police officer beside the highway have a private conversation with somebody that they pull over?'" said Joseph Cassilly, the Harford County prosecutor handling Graber's case.
Cassilly added, "Suppose a police officer pulled you over and he wanted to have a talk with you. 'Sir, I smell alcohol on your breath. Can you talk to me about how much you've had to drink? Would you want somebody else to stop by and record that and put it on the Internet?"
Rocah of the ACLU disagreed. "It's not that recording any conversation is illegal without consent. It's that recording a private conversation is illegal without consent," he said. "So then the question is, 'Are the words of a police officer spoken on duty, in uniform, in public a 'private conversation.' And every court that has ever considered that question has said that they are not."
Rocah said actual wiretapping prosecutions, though rare, are happening more frequently. But intimidation with the threat of arrest for taping the police is much more common.
"Prosecution is only the most extreme end of a continuum of police and official intimidation and there's a lot of intimidation that goes on and has been going on short of prosecution," he said. "It's far more frequent for an officer to just say, 'You can't record or give me your camera or give me your cell phone and if you don't I'm going to arrest you. Very few people want to test the veracity of that threat and so comply. It's much more difficult to document, much more prevalent and equally improper."
In many jurisdictions, the police themselves record encounters with the public with dashboard cameras in their cars.
"Police and governmental recording of citizens is becoming more pervasive and to say that government can record you but you can't record, it speaks volumes about the mentality of people in government," Rocah said. "It's supposed to be the other way around: They work for us; we don't work for them."
Victory for California free speech at The Center for Individual Rights May 20, 2010 Housing agency agrees to implement Julie Waltz Free Speech Policy
Washington, D.C.—California resident Julie Waltz' long fight for free speech for opponents of state subsidized housing policies came to a victorious conclusion today, when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing agreed to implement the "Julie Waltz First Amendment Policy."
The new policy prohibits the Department from investigating citizens for housing discrimination solely on the basis of free speech activity, including speaking at public meetings, writing and displaying flyers, signs, or newspaper articles critical of public housing projects, even if they appear to advocate discriminatory policies or positions. ...
The dispute grew out of a 2006 housing discrimination investigation of Waltz that lasted for nearly a year. Waltz had posted yard signs and expressed opposition in other peaceful ways to the state's efforts to place sex offenders and other individuals with a history of behavioral problems in residential group homes, including homes in Phelan, CA, and one next door to her home in Norco, CA. Despite the fact that the complaint did not allege specific facts constituting a violation of housing discrimination laws nor any specific facts that would show that Waltz had illegally threatened group home residents, Department officials inexplicably continued to investigate her.
During the year-long investigation, state investigators told Waltz that her speech violated state fair housing laws, requested that she refrain from her speech activities, and threatened her with prosecution. An investigator also told her that the investigation would end if she removed signs from her yard objecting to the next-door group home as well as signs posted by other people in her neighborhood. Waltz declined to remove the signs.
Show Trial by David Warren June 05, 2008 A group of Islamist fanatics, claiming to speak for every Muslim in Canada, charged Maclean's magazine with "spreading hatred against Muslims" for having printed a lucid and reasonable (if controversial) excerpt from Steyn's bestselling book, America Alone. This is a news story that should be on the front page of every newspaper in Canada, every day until it is resolved. ... Before Canada's "human rights" tribunals, a respondent has none of the defenses formerly guaranteed in common law. The truth is no defense, reasonable intention is no defense, nor material harmlessness, there are no rules of evidence, no precedents, nor case law of any kind. The commissars running the tribunals need have no legal training, exhibit none, and owe their appointments to networking among leftwing activists.
There is Protest, then there is “Protest” by George Koukeas August 16, 2008 All radical leftist groups tend to violate the rights of others under the guise of “free speech”. The American Democratic Convention preparations in Colorado show in microcosm how most leftist groups act, whether they are found in America, Canada or elsewhere.
With the Democratic Convention arriving soon, it is especially important to realize protests are not necessarily constitutional. Genuine protest adheres to the “peaceful assembly” clause of the First Amendment. Unlawful protest is what leftist groups have historically done: interfere with other peoples’ rights to use their public spaces, inciting violence with the police, rioting, violating people’s property rights, and assaulting conservatives who disagree with their group. The former is based on liberty. The latter on license. License is the abuse of one’s freedom via the violation of another’s rights by giving unlimited reign to one’s own agendas. Today’s leftwing “protest” groups definitely worship license.
'DIRTY' WORDS IN ADS NIXED FOR REALTY 'BIAS' by JEREMY OLSHAN March 12, 2009 Here are seven dirty words you can't say in real-estate ads: exclusive, quiet, private, bachelor, kids, walking and playroom.
Despite repeated warnings in state-mandated training sessions that such language could violate anti-discrimination laws in the context of selling or renting an apartment, the seemingly innocuous terms continued to appear in ads.
So this week, real-estate giant Corcoran officially banned more than 200 potentially "offensive" words and even installed new software that makes it impossible for brokers to type them into their ads, according to a memo e-mailed company-wide.
Laws such as the Fair Housing Act were written to prevent discrimination against buyers or renters on the basis of their race, gender, occupation, religion, sexual orientation, marital status or disability.
Now, due to a slew of recent court cases and increased enforcement, companies such as Corcoran are taking pains to strip terms such as "bachelor pad," which may discriminate against couples, and the terms "couples" and "family-friendly," which may offend singles.
Severin suspended for
comments about Mexican immigrants at Alipac May 01, 2009
Jay Severin, the fiery right wing talk
show host on Boston's WTKK-FM radio station, was suspended yesterday after
calling Mexican immigrants "criminaliens," "primitives," "leeches," and
exporters of "women with mustaches and VD," among other incendiary comments.
Heidi Raphael, a spokeswoman for the station, said Severin had been suspended
indefinitely from his afternoon drive-time show. She declined to say which of
his comments - made since an outbreak of swine flu was linked to Mexico in
recent days - sparked the suspension.
Apartment residents told to take down U.S. flags By Melica Johnson KATU News and KATU.com Staff ALBANY, Ore. - At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all. ...
Even long-time residents like Sharron
White, who has flown a flag on her car for eight years, has been told to take it
down.
White said management told her that "someone might get offended."
"I just said to her 'They'll just have to get over it,'" White said.
Resident we talked to who had been approached to take down their flags all told
us the same thing: that management told them the flags could be offensive
because they live in a diverse community.