Local Filmmakers Want You To Know Your Rights When Facing Police
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Mar 21, 2016 5:12PM
By Tyler LaRiviere
When is it legal to videotape or photograph police officers? The third episode of Rights Lab by the local Scrappers Film Group and Truthout.org sets out to explain the discrepancy between the law and what actually happens on the ground.
The latest Rights Lab installment will be premiering Monday night at the Music Box Theater on 3733 N. Southport Ave. at 7:00 p.m. After the screening, the event will include a compilation of documentary footage of police and local activists as well as a panel discussion led by Beckie Stocchetti, performance artist Ricardo Gamboa, civil rights lawyer Jerry Boyle and documentarian Tome Weinberg. In previous short films, Rights Lab creators have explained the legalities of flying drones and government phone-spying.
In the latest film, Gamboa and fellow artist and activist Steven Beaudion lead the way, with accounts of people being arrested or harassed by police officers for simply recording or photographing civil servants while they are on duty. The journey starts at Edwin G. Foreman High School in Chicago, where police patrols after school is a common sight for students. The officers patrolling the high school motioned the filmmakers to approach them. The officers made it clear that it was OK to film them, but when asked what might trigger a negative response by police had this to offer:
“When you get right on top of us when we’re trying to do something. I mean we’re trying to break up a fight and you’re right there you seem to fan the fire.”
Boyle, a civil rights attorney interviewed for the film, says it is perfectly legal to film a police officer in public with the caveat that you don’t interfere with them: “A good rule of thumb is to maintain some physical distance.”
But police officers don’t like being recorded, he says, and they will take measures to prevent it—for example, by charging someone filming with one or more of these laws: trespassing, impeding an arrest, obstruction and resisting arrest.
“Understand that the way they analyze these things when they’re doing something on the street, they’re either using or preparing to use force," he says. "The way they are trained is that force begins with physical presence. So the fact that you’re physically present is a use of force by their calculation.”
Knowing your rights is one defense, but Boyle also warns that those that try to stand up for their rights tend suffer for it. “If you start speaking in 'legalese' to police, they see a potential complaint, and to them, the best defense is a good offense,” he says. It's less about your rights and more about “guile and charm.”
Take a look at the trailer for the series: