Week 2: The 1st amendment

In todays day and age there is a whole lot of controversy involving the police and people's safety. Most people think that a lot of this is simply blown up by the media with all of the videos we see nowadays of altercations with the police. There are numbers that back up the fact that more people are being killed by the police yearly (see article linked below) but a lot of these videos unfortunately lack context which makes them useless in my mind. 

It feels like I see videos of these altercations almost every time I open twitter now and have always wondered if people are even allowed to record them. Most people who record these tend to have an agenda against the police even when the video shows no wrong being done. And I'm not saying that police brutality and wrongful murder doesn't happen because it definitely does. I have just always wondered if the police are supposed to be protected by the first amendment since a lot of these people are intentionally trying to record them in a bad light which could negatively impact their career or even their personal lives.

In an article written by David Hudson, it is stated that the right to film police has become a clearly established first amendment right. There was even a case called "Fields vs the City of Philadelphia". In this case a man named Richard Fields was taking pictures of police breaking up a house party. When he was confronted by an officer and told to stop taking pictures and leave, he refused and was arrested. The case was later reviewed by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and in conclusion they said “Today we join this growing consensus. Simply put, the First Amendment protects the act of photographing, filming, or otherwise recording police officers conducting their official duties in public.”

I think this conclusion is a positive one. I think it is best for everyone's safety that we have the right to film the police and I feel like this result shows good integrity in protecting our first amendment rights.
rights to film article

Fields vs Philly

police brutality stats