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Alabama ACLU and Newspaper Criticize Police for Arresting Citizen Journalist by Bama Camera
The Alabama police department that had a man arrested on a felony charge of jamming up their emergency lines – even though he did not make a single call – is now taking heat from the local ACLU as well as the local newspaper.
But the Wetumpka Police Department is still sticking to its guns, threatening to arrest anybody else who posts their non-emergency phone number of (334) 567-5321.
They claim that by calling that number, it somehow leads turns into a 911 call, which they claim makes it difficult to respond to actual emergencies.
But all they were doing were exercising their First Amendment right to petition for redress of grievances by complaining about how officers ripped a camera out of Keith Golden’s hands for recording the police department from public property.
First Amendment Audit (Wetumpka PD) "I don't care about your 1st Amendment Rights"
Arrest Update by Bama Camera
**UPDATE**FPS-USMS-BAM CAMERA by News Now Houston
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Tuesday June 14 2016, @03:29PM
I live here in Alabama, not far from Wetumpka. At a simplistic level, it's ironic that the institution who's job it is to keep me safe makes me feel as though I'm a prisoner in my own community. However, don't just blame the cops for this martial law-esque situation we have down here. The pervading mindsets of the community, including the cops, start at home. I was raised a conservative, Republican, Southern Baptist, and let me tell you from experience that it's a horrible, horrible upbringing to have. The racism, bigotry, and perverse reverence people have for police brutality, all instilled into their minds at childhood, feed into an attitude of paranoia and hopelessness. The paranoia manifests itself in isolationist, NIMBY-style attitudes towards everything around you. I've had the police called on me for walking around my own neighborhood because apparently I wasn't supposed to be outside in the sunshine. I never see people going on walks here, interacting with one another or engaging in any sort of communal activity which requires so much as an inkling of trust on the part of those around you. People go to work, operate as capital-generating cogs in a machine and then return home, too scared of media-sensationalized terrorists and black people to even walk out onto their own lawn. The hopelessness is seen in the defeated attitudes people here have towards everything. They've been taught that disobeying the arbitrarily-defined laws of the establishment will send them to hell, and that's just sick. In summation, the police here in Alabama believe they are ordained by God himself to do whatever they hell they want, and pity on you if you defy them with such heinous acts as exercising your freedoms, questioning why certain laws are on the books, attempting to be sociable or pointing out the inherent evils of perpetuating this sorry state of affairs. My solution to the problem is to place a higher emphasis on eduction. The teachers here are so neglected and underpaid that the critical-thinking and reasoning skills which one should develop via an education are never being cultivated, leading to a society ruled by ignorant, blind faith and dogmatism, doubly enslaved by a police state they created in their own homes.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 14 2016, @07:29PM
You should check out these YouTube channels:
BamaCamera [youtube.com] (AL)
HonorYourOath [youtube.com] (FL)
NewsNowHouston [youtube.com] (TX)
TheBattousai [youtube.com] (TX)
PINAC [youtube.com]
The individuals above are typically the most polite and courteous to the police that I've found, the gold standard. These channels will also post "boring" videos where they were not bothered or had positive (short) encounters with the police. There are plenty of other channels I either haven't heard of, are more rude to the cops, or have crappier camera quality. The barrier to entry for doing a First Amendment audit is low... all you need is one camera/smartphone and one sidewalk.
It's really interesting to see blue privilege in action. Reflexive demands for ID [soylentnews.org], officers failing to give their name and badge number (not the law, but often a department policy), officers shining their flashlights at photographers to try to "blind" the footage, again often in contradiction with dept. policies, and the terrorist card/ISIS card played all the time for filming from a public sidewalk or right-of-way. Worst case scenario, you are being arrested for filming or the "crime" of failure to identify.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 14 2016, @07:32PM
I can't help but think that the population density and public transit situation has something to do with it. Everything is too spread out. Walking? That's unnatural and you must be up to something.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Tuesday June 14 2016, @08:16PM
You're absolutely spot-on regarding everything being too spread out. I live in Birmingham, AL, which is a city connected by interstates, so there's no way you can function here without a car. I'm not sure how many other Alabamians are on SoylentNews, but I'd love to hear from others, just to hear their opinions regarding my claims and whether or not they agree with them. Before moving here, I lived in Mobile, AL for 6 years and grew accustomed to walking everywhere there, as it's a port city and a little more in-touch with the rest of the world. Walking from place to place isn't frowned upon there. Mobile is a bad example of a typical city in Alabama though, and is definitely an anomaly. Anyway, the transition has been difficult. I had no idea people were, on-the-whole, so unfriendly and paranoid here in the middle of the state. It certainly makes me miss the laid-back attitude of people on the Gulf Coast.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 19 2016, @04:18PM
Mobile vs Birmingham, through the eyes of a traveler?
Mobile is a nice clean city, probably has it's share of crime, but it doesn't stand up and slap you in the face on your first visit.
Birmingham is Sin City. Drugs, prostitution, robbery, you name it.
I suppose that if you were a cop in one of those two cities, and transferred to the other, your life would be turned upside down. Living in one, and moving to the other, ditto. Racism is far more obvious in B'ham than in Mobile. To my eyes, racism is subdued all along the Gulf Coast, but runs rampant in various cities and towns inland. Birmingham is one of those cities.
I wouldn't want to live in Birmingham, that's for certain! It's right at the bottom of my list of cities to live in.
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