Chalk One Up for Our First Amendment Rights

Chalk One Up for Our First Amendment Rights

thomashawk.com

Jury Clears Photographer Who Refused to Stop Photographing an Arrest

Jury clears former Galveston photographer | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

I was pleased today to see an article about photographer Nick Adams being cleared by a Galveston jury of misdemeanor charges of interfering with police while photographing an arrest at a Mardi Gras celebration in 2007.

While I'm amazed that any prosecutor would actually take this kind of a case to trial (in this case prosecutor April Powers)...cont

(visit the link for the full news article)

In a climate of reducing our rights in this country, this story is refreshing, except for the part where the police feel it is OK to delete a citizens photographs, essentially FALSIFYING evidence, or at the very least tampering with evidence.

That part is most definitely disturbing! I think the photographer who was cleared should bring CHARGES against the officers and the city police dept for clearly a criminal charge.

What do you think?

thomashawk.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what you could charge the police with in a lawsuit. Perhaps destruction of private property, but even then, since there's no actual evidence, its just the photographer's word against that of the police. The advantage goes to the defendant.

reply to post by vor78

Yeah it may be difficult but perhaps an undelete software or technique can be used to retrieve the deleted shots, the police are not the smartest lot of the bunch normally, chances are that the data exists still on that card.

If so, I believe that he's got a great case! They also took other shots with his camera AFTER they took it from him, I think these are still on the card. The other shots possibly were of the photographer BEHIND the police line, which he wasn't, so they tried to fabricate evidence as well! Amazing the gall!

In addition, if anything, they damaged his $4,000 camera in the process (crack the screen) and need to pay for that.