Texas Bill Makes It a Crime to Photograph Police From Within 25 Feet of Them
Civil Disobedience-18mm to 200mm Telephoto from 27 feet. Now if they want to tell CCW folks that as a condition of the carry permit they have to stay away from Police activity I could understand that. And this Page is not where I want to debate CCW details. This is about our rights in public with our cell phones and cameras. Our ability to be a true witness to an incident like the Garner killing.
A week after Los Angeles agreed to train its law enforcement that public photography is not a crime, a bill has been proposed in Texas that would make it a crime for citizens to photograph or film police from within 25 feet of where the are.
House Bill 2918, filed in the Texas House of Representatives this past Tuesday by Representative Jason Villalba (R-Dallas), would make pointing a camera at police from within 25 feet a class B misdemeanor. Furthermore, citizens who carry a handgun would not be able to photograph officers from within 100 feet.
The bill calls the behavior an “an interruption, disruption, impediment, or interference that occurs while a peace officer is performing a duty or exercising authority imposed or granted by law…”
Exceptions to the law would be if the photographer is a member of the media with a proper FCC license, or if the photographer is officially working on behalf of law enforcement in some way.
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