Officers’ safety comes first, and not infringing on people’s rights comes second.
— Lieutenant Fran Healy, Special Adviser to the Police Commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department
(Via Radley Balko.)
By Carlos Miller
George Donnelly, the Pennsylvania videographer who was arrested last week for videotaping federal officers in front of an Allentown courthouse, is facing eight years in prison for his deed.
He is specifically being accused of striking one of the officers.
Anybody who has seen the two previous videos where Donnelly was confronted by federal officers in front of a courthouse will find these charges hard to believe.
After all, Donnelly has a tendency to remain courteous even when getting threatened with violence.
Nevertheless, the federal government is charging him with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain United States Government officers or employees, which carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.
The evidence, of course, lies in the videotape they confiscated from him. We’ll be lucky if that ever makes the light of day.
When contacted by Photography is Not a Crime today, Donnelly said he was not commenting about his case.
But Libertadedia, described as the libertarian encyclopedia, offers detailed information obtained from court records.
The site states he has been subjected to the following conditions under house arrest, even though he has not been convicted:
Donnelly was arrested on May 11th when he was accompanying activist Julian Heicklens who was passing out literature on jury nullification.
This is how Heicklens describes the incident:
At 12:10 pm, six federal marshals approached us in a confrontational manner and said we could not pass out literature nor take pictures. They stood right in front of each of us, no more than 6 inches away, so that we could not communicate with passersby. These were 6 of the most obnoxious people I have ever met.
We asked the marshals to identify themselves, but they refused. We would not identify ourselves.George attempted to take a picture, but they seized George’s camera. He attempted to retrieve it, but they they threw George to the ground. Then they decided to arrest him for assault. They were joined by a 7th marshal.
Heicklens states that Donnelly was released after spending two days in jail, forced to wear an electronic bracelet because he was unable to meet the $50,000 bail.
Last month, Donnelly was harassed twice for videotaping outside a federal courthouse, including one time when a federal officer got into his face and stated the following:
“If you get too close to me with that camera, I’ll take it out of your hand and ram it down your throat”
Although this was clearly a physical threat and there is no doubt who it came from, the officer was never disciplined because he was still working his beat since then, according to an interview with Donnelly a couple of weeks back.
The second time he was harassed, a different set of officers threatened to confiscate his camera.
Both times, he responded politely yet firmly, insisting that he was not breaking any laws, which he wasn’t.
So I’m looking forward to see how he responded in the video we have yet to see.
On his blog, Donnelly says he does not have an attorney and is asking for legal assistance, so hopefully people come through because this is an important matter. Here is the link to donate.
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