Tag: prince george’s county

Police Accountability in Maryland

By
David Rittgers

Several people videotaped the arrest of a belligerent woman at the Preakness Stakes and posted it online. The woman assaulted another patron of the race and two officers during her well-deserved arrest.

The criminalization of citizens’ recordings of the arrest, which culminates in the woman lying face down and bleeding, is a different matter.

Toward the end of the video, posted on YouTube (warning: violence and language), a police officer approaches the person filming the arrest and says, “Do me a favor and turn that off. It’s illegal to videotape anybody’s voice or anything else, against the law in the state of Maryland.”

Unfortunately, the officer was right.

The Maryland wiretapping law makes it illegal to record a conversation without the consent of all parties involved. The Preakness incident sparked a debate about the wisdom of a law that makes it illegal to provide public accountability of police actions.

This is the latest in a rash of incidents where Maryland police were recorded while using force or making arrests. While the Maryland law makes an exception for police to record their encounters with citizens, Maryland law enforcement officers will arrest and indict anyone who records their encounter with the police.

Case in point: Anthony Graber was riding his motorcycle and recording the experience with a helmet-mounted camera. He was riding recklessly and beyond the speed limit, which warranted a citation, but not his detention by a Maryland State Police officer at gunpoint and the trooper not first identifying himself as an officer of the law. The first few seconds of the encounter look like a carjacking, not enforcement of traffic laws. Graber posted his interaction with law enforcement officers on YouTube and was arrested for it. He now faces felony charges under the wiretapping statute, and prosecutors sought $15,000 bond for a crime that carries a maximum $10,000 fine. The judge reportedly questioned the charges at the bond hearing. Graber goes to trial on June 1st.

This is a questionable policy in the same state where excessive use of force against a University of Maryland student resulted in discipline and possible criminal charges for three Prince George’s County officers. The same jurisdiction knew that Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo may have had nothing to do with a drug trafficking ring, but raided his home at gunpoint anyway, terrorized his family, and shot his dogs. The result of the raid was that there was no wrongdoing by Calvo and his family.

The Maryland wiretapping law is itching for an update. It’s time for the Maryland code to stop acting as a barrier to transparency in law enforcement operations.

Topics: 
Law and Civil Liberties

Surveillance Cameras and Civil Liberties II

By
Roger Pilon

In a piece at Politico today, David Rittgers raised a number of important points on the role of surveillance cameras in law enforcement, about which I blogged yesterday at Politico Arena and Cato@Liberty. To add still more to the subject, David is quite right: the cop on the beat, assuming he’s there, will be better than the camera at preventing crime. In at least two cases, however, cameras can fight crime not only ex post but ex ante as well. First, cameras monitored in real time – as private cameras often are in apartment buildings, casinos, warehouses, and elsewhere – can facilitate crime prevention by alerting monitors to suspicious activity. And second, would-be criminals who are concerned about being caught may think twice if they suspect they’re being monitored. Cameras will not deter suicide bombers, of course; nor will they deter those who are unaware they’re being monitored, as may have been the case with the incompetent bomb maker in Times Square – who seems at this writing (we await more facts) to have wanted to “get away,” all the way to Pakistan.

But to add further to the civil liberties point I made yesterday, not only are surveillance tapes usually more accurate that eyewitness accounts in identifying criminals, thereby lessening the very real problem of mistaken prosecutions and convictions, but they aid also in the equally real problem of police (and even prosecutorial) abuse. Two weeks ago David blogged about the recent University of Maryland case involving the notorious Prince George’s County police department, where a video showed police brutality that the police later falsified in their report. And surveillance tapes can work in the other direction too – to protect police from false accusations of brutality. So the civil liberties implications of surveillance cameras are many, and often not what they seem on first impression.

Topics: 
Law and Civil Liberties

In Before the Ban

By
Jason Kuznicki

From the Washington Post:

Travel along a two-block stretch of Central Avenue in Prince George’s County, and you’ll find a staggering 11 fast-food restaurants.

For community activist Arthur Turner and state Sen. David C. Harrington (D-Prince George’s), the strip is evidence of the proliferation of burger joints and Chinese takeouts in the county, especially in poorer, inner Capital Beltway communities.

Pointing to studies that rank Prince George’s residents among the least healthy in Maryland, Turner and Harrington want to limit new fast-food restaurants in the county, a far stricter approach than what has been enacted in such places as New York City and Montgomery County, which banned the use of trans fats in those establishments…

“Our county is inundated with unhealthy food choices,” Turner said. “In some areas, if someone wants a healthy choice, there are no options. We want healthy options in our community.”

Opponents of such efforts say that what people eat is a matter of personal choice and that it should be up to the free market to determine which restaurant goes where…

Turner said that his group identified Panera Bread and Chipotle as preferable alternatives to a fast-food burger restaurant and that he plans to seek similar compromises with other developers.

Given the weak correlation between dieting and long-term weight loss, and the very, very weak correlation between dieting and the marginal difference between Chipotle and McDonald’s, basically all that we have here are politicians and activists remaking the community to suit their personal tastes, as if Prince George’s County were just SimCity with slightly cooler graphics.

My prediction: This is a very good deal for any fast food restaurant that gets in before the ban.

Topics: 
Health Care, Regulatory Studies