Monday, April 27, 2009

Ignorance of the law is no excuse...

...for threatening to arrest somebody for the non-crime of Operating A Video Camera In Their Own Yard In The First Degree.
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11 comments:

Wolfwood said...

"...unless you can get them at your police station..."

1:14 PM, April 27, 2009
Phil R. said...

Clearly this chap is what we in Blighty call a "wind-up merchant". For those to whom this term is unfamiliar, I'm suggesting that he was deliberately attempting to antagonise the stolid constables.

This is not a bad thing. Britain could be saved, if only more of our wind-up merchants (and I believe our people excel in that occupation) had the stones to make the state their target.

2:05 PM, April 27, 2009
Turk Turon said...

Cops: "Ignorance of the law is our excuse."

2:13 PM, April 27, 2009
Hunsdon said...

"They hate us because we're free."

You can fill in the question of who "they" are, who "us" is, and what "free" means.

2:39 PM, April 27, 2009
Tam said...

Phil R.,

Oh, obviously he was out being deliberately prickly, and I'd probably find him an annoying dinner companion, since between talking about his latest documentaries, he'd no doubt be telling me why the Enterprise-D could blow up the Death Star with no problems.

But the wookie-suiters like him are the grease of a free republic. :)

2:43 PM, April 27, 2009
MrWolf. said...

This is an old clip. Now, of course, it IS illegal to photograph/film/video a police officer in uniform. You may be using it for terrorist purposes. (Nothing to do with modern mobile phones making it easier to record a cop acting like a stormtrooper, by any means. Heavens, no.) The maximum penalty is ten years in jail. Gosh, it must be wonderful to live in Merrie England these days!

5:23 PM, April 27, 2009
Phil R. said...

OK, I am now going to use the word "wookie-suiter" wherever I would previously have used the phrase "wind-up merchant" :)

Oh, and Wolf, it's not as bad as you might think. I still plan to leave before my current passport expires, though. Y'all keep America reasonably good for me, OK?

5:06 AM, April 28, 2009
Ross said...

Too late, Phil... it IS illegal to videotape someone (especially a cop) in the People's Republik of Marxachusetts if there is an AUDIO component to the tape - they get you under the wiretapping laws.

Nice and convenient... you have a vid of a cop breaking the law... but by producing the evidence, you also produce evidence that YOU were breaking the law...

This also applies to surveillance cameras, BTW... disable those microphones! Even if it's one on your front door.

8:57 AM, April 28, 2009
MrWolf said...

Phil, when I left England twenty years ago, I made a sharper turn than you seem to think. I'm in the hills above Perth, Western Australia, looking over the city to the Indian Ocean. Want me to save you a place?

9:33 PM, April 28, 2009
Phil R. said...

Mmmmm... foot.

6:18 PM, April 30, 2009
Tam said...

"Too late, Phil... it IS illegal to videotape someone (especially a cop) in the People's Republik of Marxachusetts..."

Nothing personal to anyone reading, but I wouldn't cross the Massachusetts state line to pick up a hundred-dollar bill laying three feet on the other side.

11:03 AM, May 01, 2009

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