Manchester PD Violate Court Ruling

The First Amendment issue here is, as the parties frame it, fairly narrow: is there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative.

So ruled the First Circuit Court of Appeals in late August.

Apparently the two employees of the Manchester Police Department featured in this video were too busy “serving and protecting” the good people of Manchester to have gotten word. Because when Ademo and I were noticed filming their traffic stop at the corner of Armory and Dubuque, they conferred, shone their spotlight on us, then drive off after speaking with a third colleague in a cruiser.

They left before the vehicle they had stopped left. The same thing happened on June 3rd when we watched the watchmen with others.

But, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, seeing as no one employed by Manchester PD has yet spoken out against unjust charges and massive waste of resources being devoted to prosecute individuals who allegedly used children’s chalk on public property. But, someone will be the first.

Pete Eyre

Pete Eyre is co-founder of CopBlock.org. As an advocate of peaceful, consensual interactions, he seeks to inject a message of complete liberty and self-government into the conversation of police accountability. Eyre went to undergrad and grad school for law enforcement, then spent time in DC as an intern at the Cato Institute, a Koch Fellow at the Drug Policy Alliance, Directer of Campus Outreach at the Institute for Humane Studies, Crasher-in-Chief at Bureaucrash, and as a contractor for the Future of Freedom Foundation. In 2009 he left the belly of the beast and hit the road with Motorhome Diaries and later co-founded Liberty On Tour. He spent time in New Hampshire home, and was involved with Free Keene, the Free State Project and The Daily Decrypt.