7 Rules for Recording Police

I've seen many stories lately about persons arrested for daring to record police activity on their smart phone. Is it legal or not? The answer depends on where you live. For Simon Glik of Boston it was legal and he was awarded $170,000 in damages and legal fees in a civil rights lawsuit against his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. The First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public.”

Reason.com gives this advice for filming the police ...

1. Know your local Law
   The law in 38 states allows citizens to record police (provided you don’t physically interfere with their work.) The police don't always agree and may still object, take your camera, or arrest you.
   
   Twelve states, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington, require the consent of all parties for you to record a conversation but all but two of these states, Massachusetts and Illinois, have agreed in Court that the “expectation of privacy provision” does NOT apply to on-duty police.
2. Don't record Police Secretly
   "Massachusetts is the only state to uphold a conviction for recording on-duty police, but that conviction was for a secret recording where the defendant failed to inform police he was recording."
3. Be careful what you say if challenged by Police
   Don't piss off a policeman. Be polite.  For example, “Officer, I’m not interfering. I’m asserting my First Amendment rights. You’re being documented and recorded offsite.” Don't try to argue the law with a policemen. See the Reason article for more details on what to say or not to say.
4. Don’t Share Your Video with Police
5. Be Prepared to be Arrested
   If you refuse to stop filming or surrender your camera you may be arrested (perhaps wrongly). Do not resist arrest. You have the right to remain silent until you speak with a lawyer.
6. Protect your Your Phone
   Passcode protect your smartphone. You may be forced to hand it over but you CANNOT be forced to surrender the password protecting it. Turn OFF your phone before surrendering it.
   
   Consider using Qik or Bambuser which immediately store your video offsite in case an officer "accidental" breaks your phone.
7. Don't point the camera like a gun
   Don't make any moves that could get you shot

Reason concludes with the following,

If you’ve recently been arrested or charged with a crime after recording police, contact a lawyer with your state’s ACLU chapter for advice as soon as possible. (Do not publicly upload your video before then.) You may also contact Flex Your Rights via Facebook or Twitter. We’re not a law firm, but we’ll do our best to help you.
If your case is strong, the ACLU might offer to take you on as a litigant. If you accept, your brave stand could forever change the way police treat citizens asserting their First Amendment right to record police. This path is not for fools, and it might disrupt your life. But next time you see police in action, don’t forget that a powerful tool for truth and justice might literally be in your hands.

Get a Silly Answer

Yesterday I talked about Topoi - a collection of stock issues that can be used in any debate. Issues have the potential to invalidate a claim by showing that it's irrelevant or poorly defined or that the cure is worse than the disease. When a claim is made and is disputed, the focal point of the disagreement is called a stasis (stases in the plural).

According to the lecture series, "Argumentation", in the classical theory of rhetoric and law there are four types of stases, four types of counter-claims. Consider the claim: "You stole my car".

1. Stasis in Conjecture - dispute the "fact" of the claim
(I was never near your car.)

2. Stasis of Definition - dispute the interpretation the claim
(I did not steal your car, I borrowed it)

3. Stasis of Quality - cite a greater good to justify your action
(Yes I "stole" your car, but it was to drive someone who was dying to the hospital)

4. Stasis of Place - dispute the forum for discussion; this is not the time nor place for debate
(How dare you accuse me of theft in public! I'll see you in court!)

The fourth stasis, Place, is like a trump card; it postpones debate to a future time & place and makes no admission of guilt or innocence. Stasis type 1, Conjecture, is total denial. You lie sir! With type 2, Definition, you admit that you did something but disagree on the interpretation. With type 3, Quality, you admit guilt but claim extenuating circumstances.

Bottom Line

This lecture showed that your reply to a claim is very important. You can safely refuse to reply (#4. I want my lawyer or I plead the 5th Amendment) but if you issue a denial (#1) which is proved false, then you've blown your reliability and won't have much credibility to make a defense using stases 2 or 3. Likewise you lack credibility if your reply is ambiguous, "I did not use your car, but if I did use it then I only borrowed it, and if I did steal it then it was for a good cause." To be credible you have to pick one stasis, 1 or 2 or 3, and stick with it.

What mailing method should you use?

“Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.”
- Tom Wilson

If you are involved in a dispute and you want to make sure that your letter is received, what type of mail should you use to counter the other party when they claim they never saw the letter?

According to Comsumerist.com, registered mail is not necessary, "that's just for shipping valuables that you want insurance on if they get lost."

"Instead send it by certified mail, which guarantees and tracks delivery, including date and time it was delivered. You can check on the status online and the post office keeps a record. Request an additional return receipt to get a signature back from the recipient"

Bottom Line

Return receipt is great way to prove that your mail was received and by whom.  Or you can show that delivery was refused.

Many years ago the radio had a story about lawyers trying to sue NYC for damage done to cars by potholes. NYC responded that they would only accept responsibility for negligence for not fixing holes in a timely manner that they were aware of, i.e. for potholes that they were "formally" told about.  So lawyers en mass began mailing the DPW with return receipt notices of every big pothole they saw. The city refused to sign the receipts or accept the letters.

Trade Schools

“College is like a fountain of knowledge - and the students are there to drink”

A Washington Post story notes that More college-educated jump tracks to become skilled manual laborers.

"They started out studying aerospace engineering, creative writing and urban planning. But somewhere on the path to accumulating academic credentials, they decided that working with their hands sounded more pleasant -- and lucrative -- than a lot of white-collar work. So bye-bye to term papers and graduate theses, and hello to apprenticeships to become plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics
and carpenters."

The poor economy has been a boon for trade schools. The electricians' union program in Washington D.C. has 2,500 applications for 100 slots. And nearly 4,000 are competing for the 300 slots at a plumbers and pipe fitters school.

Pay for trade jobs is good. Apprentices start out at half salary with raises every six months. After five years licensed journeymen can expect to be paid $65,000 to $85,000 a year, depending on the amount of overtime. That beats four+ years of college, graduating deep in debt, and with no job.

In Europe many students begin an apprenticeship at age 18 right out of high school. But in the US, high school counselors rarely recommend trade school (except for their worst students). So American youth try college first and then switch to blue collar. The average age for beginning apprentices in the US is 25.

Bottom Line

This weekend my wife and I bumped into an old friend who is moving in the opposite direction - from blue collar to white collar. He was a long-time union employee at a TV station. However with better technology and greater automation, the station was able to layoff 38 technicians. Now my friend is completing a BS degree in Labor Relations and then plans to study law so he can go back and sue the pants off big companies.

There is merit in having some real-world experience before graduating from college.

Challenging Tickets

"I fought the law and the law won"
- song title & lyrics

Unlike the song, it is possible to fight the law and win when the law is wrong. Consumerist.com has three recent stories of individuals challenging errors in law.

In the story, Judge Fired In The Case Of The Overdue DVD, a teen was arrested for failing to return a DVD to the library (it was accidently packed when the family moved to a new town. The straw that breaks the camel's back is the DVD had been found and returned BEFORE the arrest occured. The Judge never rescinded the warrant after the library notified the court that all was forgiven. This and 71 other similar mistakes led to the judge being fired.

In, Teacher Defeats Traffic Ticket With The Power Of Math, the victim of a traffic ticket did more than just complain that the yellow light is too short. Her husband measured the light with a stop watch (several times to get an average) and found that it was .8 seconds below the time limit set by the state. The ticket was challenged in court and thrown out.

In Man Receives Ticket While Walking From Car To Parking Meter, a motorist it given a parking ticket before he has a chance to get out of his car and pay the parking meter. His letter to the DMV is a classic and resulted in the ticket being dismissed.

Bottom Line

When challenging a ticket or arrest, keep calm, don't get mad, and gather all the facts and evidence you can.

Webcams

“I've always wanted to be a spy, and frankly I'm a little surprised that British intelligence has never approached me.”
-Elizabeth Hurley (British actress)

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
-song lyrics by Police

Now here is a scary story if it proves true. A family in Pennsylvania has accused their son's school district of installing spyware on school-issued laptops that students take home. Each laptop includes a built-in web-camera. The family claims in their lawsuit that,

...the School District in fact has the ability to remotely activate the webcam contained in a students' [sic] personal laptop computer issued by the School District at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam, all without the knowledge, permission or authorization of any persons then and there using the laptop computer.

Bottom Line

Personally I avoid buying any computer with a built-in webcam. I've read stories of computer hacks that can turn these on remotely so you have no idea you are being watched. So I use a webcam via a USB port that I can unplug when not in use.

It's your data

"God heals and the doctor takes the fee" - Benjamin Franklin

CNN has a must-read story "Patients demand: 'Give us our damned data'". It describes how individuals suffer while hospitals dither or refuse to transfer patient data to another hospital.

CNN recommends these tips.

1. Know your rights
   The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, gives hospitals and doctors 30 days to respond to a request for medical records, although some state laws provide for a shorter time frame. In urgent situations, such as a transfer to another hospital, it's customary for hospitals to move more quickly.
2. Be prepared to make your request in writing.
3. Confirm that the hospital receives your request.
4. If you have a choice, select a medical provider who uses electronic medical records. These can be emailed to you or accessed via a secure web site.
5. Get the new hospital or doctor to help you by having them make the request.
6. Remember the limits of the law
   Your doctor doesn't have to give you access to to information he or she thinks might cause you or someone else substantial harm. Some states allow even more information to be kept from a patient. For example, the New York Department of Health Web site says doctors may deny you access to "personal notes and observations" they've made in your record.
7. Get angry - be firm, don't accept no.
   You may need to bring in an attorney.
8. File a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Bottom Line

It's your data. You paid for it.

Knives - friend or foe?

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” - 2 Corinthians 3:6 KJV

It’s funny how topics of interest sometimes merge. I’ve been following two stories of upright students (both scouts) suspended for having a knife at school. The first is a six-year-old who likes to eat with a folding knife-fork-spoon he got from cub scouts. The other is an Eagle Scout who kept a 2-inch knife in his locked car’s emergency kit. Both were given maximum suspension sentences under “zero-tolerance” before the media made the school boards look foolish.

Completely unrelated is my current commuting lecture CD of Eastern Religions. Did you know that Sikhism is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world with 23 million adherents? Since they don’t proselytize for converts, little is know of them outside of Punjab in India. Sikhs are often confused with Hindus (because they come from India) and Muslims (because they wear turbans). The religion began in the early 1500’s when Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539) could not decide whether to be Hindu or Muslim. The religion professor compared Nanak to Joseph Smith (1805–1844), the founder of the Mormon faith. Both men prayed for insight to know which of the competing faiths was “the true church”. Both received revelation that it did not yet exist, and were inspired to create a new religion. For Guru Nanak it was the revelation that "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" but just one God and one faith.

The religion of Sikhism evolved under ten gurus from 1538 to 1708. It was the 10th and final guru, Guru Gobind Singh, who established the rule of the “Five K’s”, five items that all baptized Sihks must wear at all times:

kēs (uncut hair which is kept covered by a turban)
kanghā (a small hair comb)
karā (an iron bracelet)
kacchā (a special undergarment)
kirpān (a small dagger)

Now at last you see how the two topics in this post cross paths. In today’s paranoid world, dagger wielding Sikhs are not tolerated. Children are banned from schools. In New York City, a compromise was reached with the Board of Education; the kirpan is allowed IF the knife is impossible to draw by being glued to the sheath. Naturally, the kirpan causes alarm at airport security checkpoints. In 2008, Sikh leaders opted out of interfaith meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in DC because security insisted they remove their kirpans before entering.

Ironically, to Sikhs the kirpan is a symbol of "Ahimsa" or non-violence. The kirpan is a tool used to prevent violence against a defenseless person when all other means to do so have failed. The kirpan also represents the power of truth to cut through untruth. It is the cutting edge of the enlightened mind.

Bottom Line

As the apostle Paul notes in 2 Corinthians 3:6, the letter of the law can be a very bad thing. Laws without common sense “killeth” freedom and personal initiative. The NY Eagle Scout mentioned above said he was amazed that school officials freaked out over a tiny knife in his car emergency kit. He pointed out that baseball bats were easily available at school and far more lethal than his small knife.

On a flight (after 9/11), my wife & I were amazed to see metal knives given to first class passengers for their meal. A pair of knitting scissors and nail clips had to be surrendered but knives were handed out. What’s the common sense in that?

Common sense says that knife paranoia is bad for preparedness. One of the best survival tools is a good knife. Use it to make kindling and strike it with flint to start a fire. It can help build a shelter, prepare food, and so on. What a shame that all persons with knives must be treated as criminals.

More Misleading Food Labels

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little. ~John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society

Here are more misleading food label tricks from the Women’s Health magazine article, the “18 Worst Packaged Food Lies”.

Some products use sneaky serving sizes so they can boast, “100 calories a serving!” But check the number of servings listed on your bag of chips, candy bar, etc. Is it 2.6 or any number other than one? Who doesn’t eat the entire bag, or bar, or “individual” frozen pizza? On many cooked foods the official serving size is very small, usually a 1/2 cup for mashed potatoes, stuffing, pasta and similar carbs. I typically eat two or more of these “servings”. My wife & I laugh at processed foods that say "feeds 6-8".

Watch out for fake foods. When something is "strawberry-flavored" or “cheese-flavored” the flavoring will be 100% artificial; i.e. no strawberries or cheese. I once saw a product labeled “authentic pancake syrup”. What does this mean? It was hoping you would think “100% maple syrup” but that product contained no maple and was all sugar. Another product labels itself as “original pizza” and shows a lovely crust covered in cheese and sauce. But there is a reason this product is “original pizza” instead of “cheese pizza”; the “cheese” is imitation mozzarella made from soybean oil. It contains no cheese at all.

“Zero gram tans fats” does not mean trans fats free! Manufactures are allowed to round off so anything less than 0.50 grams is officially zero. To check if a product has trans fats, look in the ingredient list for the words "partially hydrogenated", "shortening", or "interesterified".

The fat fake-out will claim "25% less fat than regular product X". But since fat gives food flavor and texture, something is needed as a substitute. In some cases fat is replaced with maltodextrin, a cheap, carbohydrate filler with empty carbs. Sometimes extra sugar and/or salt supplies the missing flavor. Check the calorie count. You may find that the substitutes are no healthier than the original fat.

"Lightly sweetened" is another unregulated phrase. The Kellogg's Smart Start Cereal is "lightly sweetened" with more added sugars per serving than Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, or Apple Jacks.

Organic junk food: organic originally meant produce grown without “non-organic” pesticides, insecticides and herbicides. It was sold as healthier and so the word organic became equated with healthy. But this is carried to extremes with Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese labeled as "USDA organic". Does it matter that the refined flour and powdered cheese is “organic” and then mixed with chemicals in the box? For more information, see The Truth about Organic Food.

Bottom Line

"Food companies are only as honest as the labeling laws force them to be," says a University student in the Chicago Business story, What is 'Real Kraft Cheese'? It notes that “real Kraft cheese” is processed cheese (made in a laboratory, not on a dairy farm) from natural and synthetic ingredients.

The story mentions several food labeling lawsuits:

A woman in California sued Kraft for a “guacamole dip” that contained less than 2% avocado. Kraft’s response? Change the label to a “guacamole flavor dip”.

Quaker’s Strawberries & Cream and their Peaches & Cream Oatmeal contain neither strawberries nor peaches but instead dried apples and artificial color. When challenged in 2001, the labels were changed to indicate artificial ingredients (but the false names remained.)

Ben & Jerry’s had to drop their “all natural” claim when it was discovered that some ice cream contained hydrogenated oil and artificial flavors.

Aunt Jemima Blueberry Waffles mix contains no real blueberries. In 2005 the company agreed to mention “imitation blueberries” on the front of the package.

In General Mills’ Betty Crocker Stir ‘n Bake Carrot Cake Mix, the carrot powder appears last on the ingredient list AFTER salt, cinnamon, red dye and other additives. The company changed the package to say, “with carrot flavored pieces.”

Atlas Shrugged

“Sales of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year [2009] compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.” – the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

In the words of the director of the Ayn Rand Center,
“There are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and the events of our day. Americans are rightfully concerned about the economic crisis and government’s increasing intervention and attempts to control the economy. Ayn Rand understood and identified the deeper causes of the crisis we’re facing, and she offered, in ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ a principled and practical solution consistent with American values."

‘Atlas Shrugged’ was published in 1957 by Russian-American author Ayn Rand. She was age 12 during the Russian Revolution, attended a Soviet University, and at age 21, while visiting relatives in America, decided never to go back. Her works reflect the struggle of creative individuals versus corporate and government bureaucracies. Of those who are productive versus “second-handers” who live off the work of others.

The plot of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ shows the sometimes fatal impact of stupid policy decisions made by politicians and managers. Eventually the hero, John Galt, says enough, and calls for a strike of entrepreneurs to stop supporting a dystopian United States. The “creative people” retreat to a mountainous hideaway where they build a Utopian free economy. Without "the men of the mind," the US economy collapses and society falls apart. The title is an allusion to the titan Atlas who, according to Greek mythology, carried the Earth on his shoulders. What would happen if Atlas (like John Galt) decided to "shrug" and stop carrying the weight of the Earth?

In the past few months, there has been increased blog traffic about going “John Galt”. To escape the US laws and regulations that have become hostile to creativity and individual capitalism by retreating from civilization to some private utopia like a cabin in the woods or Walden’s Pond. However if you were a true John Galt you’d establish a colony or compound of like-minded individualists.

Personally I’d be reluctant to join a compound given the many bad examples:
- the Jonestown cult who committed suicide via purple kool-aid
- the "God Salvation Church" flying saucer cult
- break-away polygamy sects in Utah
- the FBI assault on the Branch Davidians cult in Texas

Still there are some positive examples of people living by their own rules:
- the Amish & Mennonites
- the Amana Colonies

Bottom Line
I like Ayn Rand's writings for her support of “individualism, laissez-faire capitalism, and the constitutional protection of the right to life, liberty, and property.” For her fierce opposition to “all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, and the welfare state.”

Since the time of FDR and his depression era programs, US law and government focus has switched from protection of property right to protection of personal welfare. In the ‘World is Flat’, Thomas Friedman points out that it was strong property rights laws that made America a world power. The ability to own land, mortgage it, use the money to start a business, and hire/fire who you want and run it as you deem fit, has allowed for the flourishing of American creativity.

Yes some government regulation is needed as was pointed out of the meat industry in “the Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. But rules should be limited to prevent the worst cases instead of micro-managing the majority. Many think that when regulation fails, the answer is yet more rules. After a century of FDA rules, a bad apple like the Peanut Corp of America factory in Georgia never registered itself with State and Federal regulators and so avoided all the rules. It is similar to gun restriction laws that prevent “good” law-abiding citizens from owning a gun while criminals have no problem buying weapons on the black market. Criminals don’t follow rules and the result of extreme regulation is less productivity for everyone else.

Update

A recent quote by Congressional Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.)

“People are starting to feel like we’re living through the scenario that happened in ‘Atlas Shrugged, The achievers, the people who create all the things that benefit rest of us, are going on strike. I’m seeing, at a small level, a kind of protest from the people who create jobs, the people who create wealth, who are pulling back from their ambitions because they see how they’ll be punished for them.”

Renters Insurance

"Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates... - Steven Wright (1955 - )

As a home owner I never considered NOT having home insurance. A house is too expensive to replace if lost to a fire. However as a college student I never once considered renters insurance.

The topic pops up now-a-days as one of the questions I must ask fire victims on the Red Cross forms. According to a pamphlet I picked up, renters insurance covers the cost of your belongings (not the apartment room) in case of fire, smoke, theft, storm damage, water/plumbing damage, etc. Your landlord's building insurance does NOT cover your personal stuff - for example my record collection that got warped and ruined when my basement apartment at college was flooded by heavy rain.

The pamphlet claims that rental insurance can be inexpensive, $12/month in many areas. But you'll need to check the policy to see what it covers and perhaps pay extra for some coverage like flood damage. Your car insurance company might give you a discount for buying another policy from them.

Also, keep in mind your need for liability insurance. Say your roommate's clumsy cousin trips on your sneakers, falls down the stairs and hurts his back. Like it or not, he could sue you for that. Whether or not he wins, fighting that suit could be an expensive nightmare.

Bottom Line
If you own an apartment you may be thinking - I don't have much, why insure it? But if you add up the cost of your big screen TV, your computer, your stereo system, clothes & shoes, cooking supplies and equipment, books, jewelry, CDs & DVDs, electronic toys, etc you may be surprised at how much it would cost to replace.

Here are the top links I googled for rental insurance:

Geico http://geico.com/getaquote/renters/

Liberty Mutual http://www.libertymutual.com/pmcampaign/landing_renters.html

State Farm http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/renters/renters.asp

Allstate http://www.allstate.com/renters-insurance.aspx