Cop Block

Beau Davis, whom I’ve spoken with a few times in the past, recently announced that police in Greenfield, Massachusetts have charged him with “wiretapping” for reasons that are currently unknown to him.

Beau has worked with my friends Ademo (aka Adam Mueller) and Pete Eyre on their project Liberty On Tour. Last year, prior to starting Liberty On Tour, Adam and Pete were arrested by the Greenfield police and charged with wiretapping for recording themselves trying to bail a friend out of the Franklin County Jail. They thoroughly documented their arrest, court hearings, and other interactions with the Greenfield police at Cop Block and Liberty On Tour with blog posts, legal documents, and, most importantly, videos, some of which were made with Beau’s assistance.

It seems likely that Beau’s wiretapping charge has something to do with the work he did with Ademo and Pete during their wiretapping ordeal.

Here’s how Beau described the charges on his new blog which he just launched to raise awareness about his case:

A few days ago, my parents in FL received a letter in the mail from the Trial Court of Massachusetts District Court Department, stating that I needed to be present in court in Greenfield, MA, alleging that I unlawfully wiretapped a member of the Greenfield Police Department on May 20, 2011.  The charge is, as it is written in the letter, “WIRETAP, UNLAWFUL c272 §99(C)(1)”, which is a felony in Massachusetts.  The charge was filed on August 11, 2011.  It is August 21, 2011 and I am just now receiving the letter today from my parents.  The date of the arraignment is September 7, 2011.

I still do not know how Greenfield acquired my parents address back home; I can only speculate at this point.

The court has not stated how I have allegedly committed this offense, so I have nothing to go on at the moment, other than speculation.  Now, why Greenfield, MA is trying this again after they failed to convict my friends Pete Eyre and Ademo Freeman for the same “offense”, I do not know.  This could be to save face or to try and further make an example of one who tries to hold public officials accountable for their actions.  I do not understand their motives as I do not yet know who I’ve apparently hurt in the matter.

– Beau Davis, “The Letter That Came In The Mail,” 5 Years For Filming a Cop, August 21, 2011

As I’ve discussed on this blog numerous times before, the Massachusetts wiretapping statute only prohibits the creation of “secret” audio-recordings. Unless a prosecutor can show that Beau “secretly” recorded the police, (by, for instance, hiding a recording device in his pocket), then it’s unlikely that he will be convicted of wiretapping.

But even if Beau did openly record the police, it’s still likely that his charge will go to trial. When Ademo and Pete were arrested for wiretapping, they held their cameras in plain sight and made it clear that they intended to record the police, but that didn’t stop Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Bengston from prosecuting them nor did it stop Judge William F. Mazanec III from refusing to dismiss their bogus charges.

As soon as more information about Beau’s case becomes available, I’ll post an update.

Originally posted at Massachusetts Cop Block

Pete, Ademo and I were on our way home from a ‘know your rights’ presentation we put on to help inform local citizens of how to stand up to oppressive city ‘authority’.  After the program, we were given an immediate opportunity to once again test ourselves against the illogical power trips of the armed local badge-wearing gang.  I was stopped by an Officer Rode and an Officer McCloud as Rode attempted to extort $25 in the form of a citation for skating on the sidewalk.  They were unsuccessful in their attempts.

Last July Pete and myself, of CopBlock.org, were arrested while attempting to film the bail process of two of our friends. After a year of court room proceedings, consisting mostly of us asking questions, we’re slated for trial on July 18th at 9 am in Greenfield District Court. Together Pete and I face felony wiretapping, trespassing, resisting and disorderly conduct charges – Pete is also being charged with vehicle manipulation and felony ammunition charges.

Before we get the chance to clear our names in court we’ll be spending the week in Greenfield to raise awareness (hopefully you’re here because you’ve met us or received one of our fliers/CD’s) about the Greenfield PD’s actions.  What will we be doing in Greenfield this week? We’d like to meet and connect with as many folks who are willing to share their experience or thoughts on the Greenfield police department. We’ll be hanging out in the downtown area a lot, most Replay’s on Main Street – great music store – but if you see us or MARV (the RV) please don’t hesitate to stop by and chat with us. We’ll also be holding a rally/conference at some point this week, details to come, as well as interviewing those responsible for this continued burden on our lives. After all, we’ve harmed no one and broke no laws. Heck, the police (or state) was filming us at the same time they arrested us for filming!

For those who are unfamiliar with our case, please watch the video below and click on some of the related post listed.

Related Post:

• Meta Post – Complete overview of every post published about Greenfield and this case.
• “They’ve Done Something Really, Really Wrong in Arresting those Guys.” – Penn Jillette – Penn’s Penn Point on Pete & Admeo’s ridiculous charges
• Massachusetts Wiretapping Case (for filming police) Headed for Trial – a video (with summary) and analysis of our court proceedings the day prior by Ademo
• CopBlock.org Contributors Attend Greenfield, MA Public Safety Commission Meeting – In this video and blog post Ademo talks about the lack of accountability he and Pete have suffered thus far and outlines ways he plans to use both the system and public pressure to clear their names of their charges
• Greenfield, MA Documents - the documents (police statements, motions, mug shots, etc.) that we’ve been given have been created since our arrest

Adam Kokesh is a former marine, congressional candidate and activists who has taken his message to RT with ADAM vs THE MAN. The show airs daily Monday through Friday at 7 pm central and tonight I was on the show to talk about CopBlock.org and police accountability.

I’m glad that Adam choose this topic and that CopBlock.org was asked to speak. It means we’re making progress, yet, we have a long way to go. More people need to get involved, question authority and stop paying (taxes) for the government’s protection services. Let’s allow those “good cops” to conduct good business, which most likely wouldn’t consist of caging victimless offenders at alarming rates, instead of the government’s for profit (while being taxed) and control methods.

Thanks to Beau Davis, newest member of LibertyOnTour.com, for editing this video.

I had the pleasure of being the second guest on my good friend Justin Longo’s self titled podcast. Below is Justin post and the link to our podcast, thanks again buddy.

My friend and fellow voluntaryist Ademo Freeman joined me the other night for a podcast on cops, with a strong focus on police accountability. Ademo is a guy that knows a lot about the cops issue and runs a fantastic police accountability website called CopBlock.org. In it, you’ll find a wealth of information from an array of contributors. They also have a couple of really cool features like podcasts and a sweet interactive map.

In our podcast, we touch on Ademo’s background with the police issue, how Ademo and his crew keep cops accountable, what regular folks like you and I can do to keep the police accountable, some of the more egregious police horror stories, reasons why we see so much police brutality today, why cameras are so important, tips  and techniques  for dealing with cops, what a moral protection system might look like, and finally, we touch a little bit on some of the institutions that might arise in a voluntary society.

So make sure you check out CopBlock and then listen to our podcast – Justin and Ademo on cops.

On Tuesday Pete and I were, once again, in the Greenfield, MA district court to present the motion to dismiss published here last week. The court process itself when as expected with the DA trying to get our motion tossed due to a technicality and the judge refrained from viewing the video. An act that could end this whole ordeal quickly. Anyone who views the video can see all involved knew they were being recorded and that no one was harmed.

The judge seems to be sympathetic to our story and even scolded Jeffery, the DA, about returning our footage from the arrest. I’m still not sure what he’ll rule on the pending motions and I wish he would just watch the videos himself. He seems like the type of guy who does the right thing. Watch the recent court trip below and then tell us what you think. Do you think public officials have an expectation of privacy? Should recording public officials be illegal?

Don’t forget to view the Greenfield playlist on CopBlock.org’s YouTube channel for a complete over view (or this meta post). Let’s end the War on Cameras!

Last week we sent the text below to Justin at The Recorder – Greenfield, MA’s local paper. We haven’t heard back from Justin yet, and The Recorder doesn’t post their op-eds or letters to the editor online, so we’re not sure if it has yet run.

Tto our knowledge, the only coverage of our unlawful arrests and charges by The Recorder - which had superb coverage of Emily Peyton’s case in 2007 (she too faced felony wiretapping, resisting and trespassing charges for engaging in the same activity) – was after our arraignment on July 2nd, 2010. And that write-up was unfortunately full of misinformation.

Hopefully Justin and his colleagues will realize the importance of informing their readers in Greenfield about the unaccountability thus far exhibited by their public officials.

———–

Holding Public Officials Accountable is Praiseworthy

Openly recording public officials is not wrong or illegal. Statutes, court precedent and public opinion concur. Yet that has not prevented Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey A. Bengston from wasting taxpayer dollars pursuing felony wiretapping charges against indie-journalists Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre, who were openly recording last July when attempting to bail out a friend at Franklin County Jail.

Perhaps Bengston is unaware that the same charge levied against Emily Peyton for videotaping an antiwar protest in Greenfield was dismissed because she had not been recording in secret. Or that Simon Glik and Jon Surmacz – both charged with felony wiretapping elsewhere in the Commonwealth – were vindicated based on the open way that they too had been recording.

As Mueller explained, “a camera doesn’t lie and it’s the most effective way to hold individuals accountable.” Yet he and Eyre were arrested, held overnight in jail and have thus far been ordered to appear in court on four separate occasions despite the fact that even the arresting officers acknowledge that the pair was openly recording.

In the eight months since their unjust arrests, Mueller and Eyre have sought accountability. Faxes, emails and well over 100 phone calls to the prosecutor, police department and mayor’s office have been ignored. They pair even reached out to Greenfield-native Penn Jillette, who in one segment about their situation, noted that “They’ve done something really really wrong in arresting those guys.”

Two weeks ago Mueller and Eyre traveled to Greenfield to attend the monthly meeting of the Public Safety Commission – tasked with police, fire and EMS oversight. Budget deficits were a common concern, which Mueller highlighted during the public comment time, drawing parallels between Peyton’s case (charges dropped) and he and Eyre’s identical situation (charges still being pursued).

How many taxpayer dollars have been spent pursuing something that has only one inevitable outcome – dismissal? How many more taxpayer dollars will be wasted before Greenfield public servants are accountable and drop the charges?

Bengston would do well to listen to Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, who penned that: “Citizens have a particularly important role to play when the official conduct at issue is that of the police . . . Their role cannot be performed if citizens must fear criminal reprisals when they seek to hold government officials responsible by recording, secretly recording on occasion, an interaction between a citizen and a police officer.”

For more visit: http://CopBlock.org/Greenfield

Pete and I are hoping that with the release of this footage the states charges against us will be dismissed.

Yesterday the Greenfield district court judge ordered the release of this footage (video coming soon) taken July 1st, 2010. We were unable to transfer footage from one camera (mine), due to a dead battery, but the footage below is from Pete’s angle and it’s enough to show that we don’t deserve 5 yrs in prison for filming public officials. But don’t take my word for it, see the raw footage for yourself.
Videos are in order of the days events.

• Raw1 21min convo inside the Franklin Co. Jail, Eyre & Mueller leave to get the bail money after being told they could film
• Raw2 – 2min convo with Todd M. Dodge in parking lot of grocery store where they went to get bail money from the ATM
• Raw3 – 1min walk back to the Franklin Co. Jail
• Raw4 – 12min convo inside/outside the jail

For more information about the charges and pending court dates, check out this playlist on YouTube.