Louisiana law will criminalize approaching police under certain circumstances
apnews.com
apnews.com
Feels like this is an admission of guilt by the cops…
Texas example: https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._penal_code_section_38...
Noise cancelling headphones?
You can still film an officer from 25 feet away.
To me this law is clearly overreaching, and seems intended to scare people off from trying to see what their "officers of the law" are doing.
Recording video at 25 feet is plenty good for evidence.
In the real world, the police officer will arrest you for recording him, charging you with:
1) interfering with official duties.
2) Resisting arrest.
3) Felony assault on a police officer.
Remember, in a criminal trial, you have to prove your innocence. How do you prove you did not do something that a police officer, testifying under oath in a court of law, says you did?
So, if I have a constant video recording where the officer is clearly at a distance, wouldn't that be great for my defense? Much better than if that same video showed me walking right up to them, within touching distance, with the video not showing where my limbs are at all times.
If you're worried about unlawful arrest, stay away from the cop and record them -- and if you do that, great, this law wouldn't affect you.
No you don’t, at least not in the USA. The state has to prove you’re guilty. Granted, I gather the word of an officer will usually trump an ordinary citizen, but that’s a great use case for the filming of Officers! It’s hard to prove interference with official duties when you’re quietly filming an officer from 25+ ft away.
“At 25 feet, that person can’t spit in my face when I’m making an arrest,” Fontenot said while presenting his bill in a committee earlier this year. “The chances of him hitting me in the back of the head with a beer bottle at 25 feet — it sure is a lot more difficult than if he’s sitting right here.”
But it's very easy to see how it will also make it harder to record videos of the police. I bet that's at least part of the reason why they're doing it, even if they won't say so.
(I assume that Fontenot is speaking in the first person because he's a former law enforcement officer.)
If that’s really the goal, Louisiana _really_ needs to work on their public education and maybe check the water for heavy metals and what not. That’s stupid on a level where I’m worried if they’re doing alright down there.
The law doesn't deal in excuses. If everyone decides to charge an officer, that doesn't suddenly make it legal. More importantly, these are tried by jury, so anyone that skates on an "excuse" doesn't have an excuse, they have the support of a jury of their peers who do not believe they are "bad people".
This is just fascists who don't like their fascism being filmed. They're a lot like street gangs in that regard.
If the average person, after being told so by the officer, stays 25 feet away, then that gives the officer a nice safety buffer to operate in. Anyone not following that rule now sticks out like a sore thumb.
If there are multiple people crowding the officer, leaning over them as they are kneeling on the ground, it's really hard for the officer to remain safe in case one of them decides to attack.
Just checking some data, the FBI says 48 officers were killed in the line of duty in 2019. Of those, 44(!) were killed with firearms. So we're talking about 4 deaths that this maybe would have helped with. This data also includes prison staff, so there's a fair chance that it's really less than 4.
For reference, 20 people were killed by lightning in the US in 2019. So we're talking about an issue with a scope one fifth the size of "people being killed by lightning".
There were only 75 incidents of LEO's being assaulted and injured with "Firearms, Knives, or Other Cutting Instruments" in 2019 per FBI data. Again, this is not a substantial problem. Bouncers get assaulted at rates far higher than police, and yet nobody seems to mind.
> If there are multiple people crowding the officer, leaning over them as they are kneeling on the ground, it's really hard for the officer to remain safe in case one of them decides to attack.
Then call in backup? They love throwing on their LARP gear, give 'em a reason to use it.
The photo EXIF field for that is called "Subject Distance".
Two arms lengths and an inch would be reasonable at most. Then the cop and citizen can't possibly touch each other.
I'm personally against adding any additional laws to the books that will be abused and misused by the public and law enforcement.
That is a very misleading summarization. It is a short article. The law requires several conditions:
* approach a police office
* approach has to occur "knowingly or intentionally"
* the officer has to be "lawfully engaged in the execution of his official duties"
* the approach has to happen *after* the person has been ordered "stop approaching or retreatIf someone is approaching me, I'm trying to do something else, they're harassing me, should it really be okay?
The other night, I was walking down the sidewalk, and some dude I've never seen held up the first bump and said what's up!? I was surprised, kind of kept on walking and he says "fuck you too". That's okay, but if I'm like get away, and he's getting in my way, following me, then yeah, fuck off. Cop sees that and he still doesn't stop, why not a ticket. That's better luck for fist bump bro than getting popped in the jaw.
It sucks cops abuse some things, and some people harass cops. It's not one way or the other, my read between the lines is this article is one sided.