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I'd like to point out some things. First I want to say that it sounds like the police are overusing their authority, but before I get to the part where I agree with you -
Taking photos of cops. Cops are used to them and their families being threatened on a regular basis. People taking photos of cops is easily a threat, not because of terrorism, but because of simple fear of people wanting some sort of vengeance for a traffic ticket or a drug bust or some other thing the cop was in on. Photos make it easier for people to figure out who they're going to get revenge on, or for gangs to spot out-of-uniform cops.
This isn't some pie-in-the-sky thing, this is a real problem that police officers have to deal with on a daily basis. Taking a photo of a police officer in situations like this is tantamount to threatening the officer with later physical violence.
That being said, it sounds like those police are abusing their authority. I hesitate to make a decision since we're getting only one point of view, but I can believe it - several years back, Florida became subject to a lawsuit that ultimately made it illegal for the police to 'discriminate' by requiring police officers to pass background checks and basic middle-school and high-school level knowledge tests about mathematics and social studies. That is, the courts decided that it was racial discrimination for police to require these checks and tests, since more non-whites than whites failed these 'strict' tests. The police departments had to eliminate the background checks and knowledge tests for their officers. So I wouldn't be surprised to see this sort of thing happening, sadly.
Edited at 2008-08-07 04:23 am (UTC)
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From:  moryssa |
Date:
August 7th, 2008 11:09 am (UTC)
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I agree with Joe's first point, but that probably comes from living my life as a member of a law enforcement family. I don't *want* people to take photos of my dad when he's got someone pulled over, for exactly the reasons Joe stated.
Is taking a photo of a policeman a crime? No. The law states that as long as you are not impeding an investigation and you are on public property, then you can legally take photographs of pretty much anything. The only exception being things deemed of National Security.
Is driving by a policeman who has stopped another motorist, slowing down to take a photograph and taunt the policeman with it while he's doing his job a crime? Well... probably not, but I don't think it's as clear-cut of a "No."
I'm not saying that the police officer was in the right-- he was definitely overstepping bounds and acted in an inappropriate manner, and the case should be thrown out. But at the same time, Conover sounds like an ass. He's repeatedly been in trouble with the law, both in Tennessee and in Florida, where he moved from.
Interrupting an officer while he is doing his job IS a crime-- I believe it would be considered obstruction of justice, although I'm not positive. Driving by slowly enough to take a picture and yell something out the window constitutes an interruption, as far as I'm concerned. Policemen already have to be worried about being shot by the person they pull over, and having a second car full of passengers hanging around lurking is just a Bad Idea. Because of his prior history with this police dept, I'd be willing to bet that Conover wasn't doing any sort of "peaceful protest". I bet there were a lot of 4-letter words and accusations and probably some threats of lawsuits (if nothing else).
Like I said, I do agree that the officer was wrong. But I don't think that Conover was as "innocent" as he'd like to have everyone believe.
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