One of the most important parts of the lawsuit is that it is seeking “an injunctive relief to prevent police from keeping the press further back than the general public,” according to Osterreicher.
This is part of a much larger and thoroughly troubling trend of Americans being beaten, arrested and harassed for exercising their right to legally film police, which is just part of the growing American police state and the general erosion of our most essential liberties.
“Suffolk County police officers have a pattern of unlawfully interfering with the recording of police activity conducted in public view,” according to the NPPA. “As a journalist, Mr. Datz has a responsibility to cover police activity in public places. The police department has a constitutional obligation to respect his First Amendment to perform this important public service.”
The first time I met Al Jazeera’s Gaza team lead, Tamer Almisshal, was in July last...
