Man faces 5 years jail time for recording out of control cop?
Citizens must have the right to film cops out of control like this to prevent hearsay. No one was hurt by filming this situation, but it DOES show an officer who lost control of his emotions. It's a public place, so how is there any expectation of privacy?

Write your Representative!

Dear Representative (Fill In With Your Representatives Name):

I am a person who believes the primary role of government is to protect its citizens. That role shines beautifully throughout the Bill of Rights, a document that rightfully limits the federal government’s ability to encroach on the people. Since then many laws have acted to abridge freedom rather than preserve it. I am asking that you to proactively take a much needed step to, like the Bill of Rights before, define, for the benefit of the citizenry, an inalienable right that should not be ignored: the freedom to photograph and record on-duty law enforcement.

Nearly every police department, if not all of them, employs the use of recording devices during traffic stops by the way of dash-cam videos, in interrogation rooms, inmate telephone calls from corrections facilities, and so on. Since the camera never lies, these recordings are often used to build a case against offenders. Every action is scrutinized, allowing prosecutors to maximize the number of charges against an offender. However, when it comes to the rights of the citizens to protect themselves with an unblinking, ever-truthful record of an interaction with the police, or if a person chooses to peacefully and un-obstructively document the actions of the police, his liberty is trampled on by an officer who acts out of a desire, more often than not, to protect his own image and position rather than protecting and serving the people. Unfortunately, the occasional bullying that citizen photographers receive from law enforcement is supported by the District Attorneys who choose to prosecute such erroneous and fabricated charges as obstruction, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. A recent occurrence can be seen on a report from Baltimore's WMAR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNcDGqzAB30

I am asking you to help create parity when it comes to the rights of both law enforcement and the citizens to record one another. Citizens should be free from interference and bullying from both officers who may decide to step outside of their defined role, and from prosecutors who choose to maliciously punish individuals who want to protect themselves with a recording. Please take the lead in upholding our nation’s tradition of limiting government and protecting its citizens by authoring a bill unequivocally protecting the rights of the people to photograph law enforcement.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml