“It has always amazed me that, with the constitution worded the way it is, that anyone could seriously suggest that somehow members of the press had more rights in areas like this than the rest of us.”
I’m confused. To what part of the constitution are you referring? Is videotaping the cops somehow speech? Is tape recording a cop covered under the 2nd amendment?
No, just that a member of the press has a right to record things that the rest of us don’t. I think the only reason that the press has “special rights” is that there are many things/events that simply don’t have the room for everyone to attend, so the press sort of represents everyone.
But that has nothing to do with what one can record in public spaces. A few years ago some guy was caught videotaping underaged girls in bikinis at some Florida beach, and a judge said that since it was in a public place it was legal.
And the guy who had a video camera on his motorcycle helmet and left it on after the stop, and the cop comes after him with gun pulled. And after the video went viral the cops hauled the guy back in for videotaping the cop while performing his duty.
I believe that anything that happens in a public place in the US is, legally speaking, fair game in the US for recording, both video or audio. This includes public officials doing their duty. It is because we are all equal and one of the things that makes the US constitution a unique document. It is literally one of the things that separates us from a banana republic or the old Soviet Union.
In public, if you can see it, you can record it. The only challenge may be if you try to present it for a paid audience (which is why people are asked to sign release forms).
—Is videotaping the cops somehow speech? Is tape recording a cop covered under the 2nd amendment?—
I wasn’t really talking about videotaping or audio recording, per-se. I was talking about the idea that the press had the right to do things that the rest of us don’t. The only exception is when there is simply not enough room in the venue to invite the world, so the press has to be our proxy.
But recording events that happen in public? Whether a person is a member of the press or not is really irrelevant.
Sorry. Between the time my first response was posted and it was reviewed and then showed up, I forgot that I had already responded.