Facing 15 years in jail for audio recording of encounter with cops

Seriously this is sick. The government and the cops are watching everyone 24/7/365, listening and recording phones conversations, opening the mail, recording your internet history, reading the emails, ect... But eh, citizens cannot do it!

Doesn't matter that all those CCTV cameras... and those cop car dash cams, ect... eh, when the government does it, it's legal!

After all, it's the cops who always say... if you're not doing anything wrong or have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear uh?

Eavesdropping Laws Mean That Turning On an Audio Recorder Could Send You to Prison

Christopher Drew is a 60-year-old artist and teacher who wears a gray ponytail and lives on the North Side. Tiawanda Moore, 20, a former stripper, lives on the South Side and dreams of going back to school and starting a new life.

About the only thing these strangers have in common is the prospect that by spring, they could each be sent to prison for up to 15 years.

“That’s one step below attempted murder,” Mr. Drew said of their potential sentences.

The crime they are accused of is eavesdropping.

The authorities say that Mr. Drew and Ms. Moore audio-recorded their separate nonviolent encounters with Chicago police officers without the officers’ permission, a Class 1 felony in Illinois, which, along with Massachusetts and Oregon, has one of the country’s toughest, if rarely prosecuted, eavesdropping laws.

“Before they arrested me for it,” Ms. Moore said, “I didn’t even know there was a law about eavesdropping. I wasn’t trying to sue anybody. I just wanted somebody to know what had happened to me.”

Ms. Moore, whose trial is scheduled for Feb. 7 in Cook County Criminal Court, is accused of using her Blackberry to record two Internal Affairs investigators who spoke to her inside Police Headquarters while she filed a sexual harassment complaint last August against another police officer. Mr. Drew was charged with using a digital recorder to capture his Dec. 2, 2009, arrest for selling art without a permit on North State Street in the Loop. Mr. Drew said his trial date was April 4.

FIFTEEN YEARS IN JAIL FOR THIS. FIFTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even the SOVIET UNION during STALIN gave only THREE years in the gulags for spying, which is way worse than eavesdropping, and if recording devices existed for the common man when it was written it would have been in the spying category.

SOVIET UNION CRIMINAL CODE

58-6. Espionage, ie. the transmittal, seizure, or collection, with the purpose of transmittal, of information, being a specially kept state secret due to its content, to foreign governments, counterrevolutionary organizations, and private individuals, shall be punishable by--

deprivation of liberty for a term not less than three years, with confiscation of all or part of one's property, or in those cases where the espionage brought or could bring especially severe consequences for the interests of the USSR-- the supreme measure of social defense-- shooting or proclamation as an enemy of the workers with deprivation of citizenship of one's union republic and, likewise, of citizenship of the USSR and expulsion beyond the borders of the USSR forever with confiscation of property.

Transmittal, seizure, or collection for purpose of transmittal of economic information, not consisting by its content of specially preserved state secrets, but not subject to publication either due to direct legal prohibition, or due to the decision of the management of the department, institution, or enterprise, whether for a reward or for free, to organizations and persons listed above, shall be punishable by--

deprivation of liberty for a term up to three years. [6 June 1927 (SU No 49, art. 330)].

America, worse than the Soviet Union!

Seriously, this BS law is freaking unconstitutional and should be thrown out.

reply to post by Vitchilo


idk exactly how to quote but this is from the article of your link.

Mr. Donahue added that allowing the audio recording of police officers while performing their duty “can affect how an officer does his job on the street.”

That basically says to me that the police officers will have to actually abide by the law, if they are going to be recorded. If they did everything "by the book", then why would they even worry about an audio tape in some way incriminating them?

we should all walk around with audio recorders, whenever you encounter a LEO, turn it on and let them see it. Arrest us all... they cannot.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Seems to be a new trend in warfare. Toss a grenade at the victim and if they dare to toss it back, use an uzi on them, in court of law. Glad you brought this to our attention.

If you look, and not even deeply, you'll see the hand of zionism at work. That's why obama keeps sayin 'rule of law' over and over. It begs the question of his legitimacy, while at the same time, strengthening his grasp on power.

This is a police state man. Expect things to get much worse than this

There are some class issues going on when it comes to the law. Blow up a few buildings killing 3000 odd people and the law is unable to touch you. Legislate some bad accounting practices that loose billions of dollars and puts a nation into massive debt and you get some big pay bonus. From another thread on this topic a recording can do more damage to an organisation than an individual. Humans are second class citizens to corporations as the government has sold out. Corporations claim entity status when it suits them, they then use there power to crush any competition for times that it does not.

Wait just a minute...
You think this is the only unconstitutional law in Chi-town?
Banning law-abiding citizens from carrying guns is this extreme also!
The city, and it's ruling elite, think they are above the law.

Chicago is one of the worst cities when it comes to constitutional law.
The lawmakers act as if this city is separate from anything in the US Constitution.
Maybe the are that stupid.
Bad thing is, the citizens are complacent...
So you won't see anything done about it.

So in a massive way, this doesn't surprise me a bit.
If I was a Chicagoan, I'd rally a march and shut the city down.
The most corrupt lawmakers reside there and with Rahm Emanuel....
Well you get the idea.

To me, it's just another hard-driven point to get out of the city.
When it gets this bad...it's time to go.

This is one of the most horrifying thinges i have heard off .You can't be serious a maximum of 15 years for just audio recording some of the police. The person did'nt even know it was the law.So all you do is to just record them and get years in jail.That is truely sickening.For doing that you should'nt get jail time infact at the most you should only get a fine.What has happened in today' society.Now that poor person may spend 15 years of his life behind bars because of that minor incident.Shame on you all for using this law to you're advantage..

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
reply to post by Vitchilo

 

idk exactly how to quote but this is from the article of your link.

When you reply to a post look along the top of the reply box, just below where you can change font and there is a row of buttons that allow you to do various things like change font, link, quote, insert google and yahoo videos etc. Hope this helps.

Here in the UK I was threatened with arrest last year when I was videoing a hotel on fire down the road, the police woman told me if I didn't shut the camera off it would be confiscated and I would be arrested. As I was unsure of the new laws they have brought in I complied.

This is one law that I believe requires physical defense to combat. People who face these charges should refuse to appear in court and physically defend themselves when police come to serve the warrant. No change will come otherwise and honestly, is it not completely justified? The old "well it is the law" doesn't fly anymore, it hasn't for a long time and people need to exercise that truth on a large scale. Refuse arrest for outlandish laws! When both the federal government and the states have turned their back on the constitution and the people they serve, it is time resist them on their level.

Thinking about this for a bit, a recording can be like attempted murder for a corporation. With all the hype around the wikileaks insurance file and how it might bring down the Bank of America, it does go to show the power that a recording can hold. It might not hold the final straw for their collapse but it could help get the ball rolling. Recordings of cops beating up people in the past has cost the city a lot of money and embarrassment. It is unfortunate that the law has become so complex that no one knows it all and most people can be charged with something even while being decent and honest citizens. With privacy disappearing for the citizen, the same does apply to the corporations even if the courts want to recognise this or not. Society does have a lot of problems and pretending they do not exist will only prolong and reinforce them.

I use to believe that only unscrupulous lawyers would twist the law and use loopholes to get their criminal defendants off the hook. I now believe that the only place you can find any civil rights left in the justice system is the loopholes. Loose ends in the laws are the only civil rights you have left, except you need an expensive and dirty lawyer to utilize the loopholes. OJ taught us a valuable lesson that if you have an expensive "dream team" of lawyers you can get away with murder. Having favors with the justice system or the cops helps too.

This punishment is very harsh. Here in Ma. where we have the same law punishment for the first offense is a fine. I am all for this law as long as it works both ways. This law also protects you from being audio taped without consent......and IMO it is constitutional. I think the problem with it is that the only time it's brought up is when someone is taping the police and not civilians. The company I used to work for wanted to send in "secret shoppers" who were going to record us and our customers with audio. They sent out a form for employees to give consent but were not going to let customers know they may be audio recorded upon entering the store and on the telephone which is illegal in Ma. . We were told if we didn't sign we would be fired. Everyone (100's of people) signed except for me and I was fired. The company said to me "that law does not apply to us" and "whats the big deal? They are notgoing to know theyre being recorded." . I called everyone I could think of to get something done about it but no one knew where to send me or what to do because even though they intended (in writing) to break the law they hadn't done it yet , or just hadn't been caught. So I do agree with the law but It does frustrate me that the only time people enforce it is when the police are being recorded.

On a side note for people in Ma. , you are possibly being audio recorded in most major retail stores without your knowledge or consent.

Yes you can get arreted for that. I'm still waiting for even a one conviction on this wiretapping law that includes someone who has no expectation of privacy being recorded. They charge in hopes of settling or something. This cannot stick in the end.

How about if you notify the police that you will be recording? Then is it legal? How about COPS, they should arrest the camera man too LOL

reply to post by Vitchilo


It is no longer unconstitutional. Last week in a midnight vote, the congress, senate and hosue then signed by Obama created a new bill that ends the constitutional pull in a court of law. The constitution is void in a court...

reply to post by sbc650mike


how about not notifying any one, and if you have to upload audio/video recordings just do it anonymously taking all necessary precautions.IMO most of these folks got in trouble 'cause they let their ego get in their way.

just operate on the premise that we are already in a police state/dictatorship and proceed from there.

stop thinking the law is on your side, it's only a club used to beat you

they can cheat, lie, steal, frame up, & murder. and get away with it. you aren't allowed to, it's called "double standard"; one for you and three for me.

reply to post by prexparte


Oh for the love of god we debunked that already, frigging start READING the crap articles you are quoting, some dumbass had a claim, it was rendered void, NOT the constitution.

In Capitalist America, law breaks YOU!

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