Chicago Cops Overrule First Amendment

Gary North - September 03, 2021

The Chicago police arrested a pair of NBC journalists in front of a hospital. Their crime? Being there.

If the cops are not afraid of primetime exposure on NBC, they surely are not afraid of ordinary citizens.

“What upset me about last night was this was not an active crime scene,” Ponce said on WLS Radio. “This is in front of a hospital. The reporters and photographers were standing on the median sidewalk when the officer started yelling at us, telling us to get further away. We decided to take a stand.” . . .

“Your First Amendment rights can be terminated if you’re creating a scene or whatever,” the officer said.

When asked how they were creating a scene, the officer said, “Your presence is creating a scene.”

The two reporters were released without charges being filed. No muss, no fuss. The cops had made their point. They are in charge.

This is standard operating procedure in large cities. The police do not regard themselves as under Constitutional law.

In a time of national crisis, the public will accept these acts of lawlessness from on high. When that happens, you would be wise to stay out of their way. The courts will not be able to protect you.

Continue reading on nbcchicago.com.

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Published on March 22, 2012. The original is here.

The two were arrested on Saturday, March 18. In Illinois, it was illegal to record anyone's voice without his consent. This law was applied to photographing on-duty police officers. The Illinois legislature on March 21 voted down an amendment to this law allowing such photographs.

The audio recording law was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court exactly two years later. The legislature immediately replaced it with a similar law, with this change: the illegal recording had to be made in a surreptitious manner. That legalized video recordings in public places.