The Digital Visual has made it a point to persistently share legal news surrounding cases involving infringement of rights and fraud concerning our fellow creatives with you, our readers. The latest case gaining traction comes from American freelance photographer Carlos Miller and his ongoing wrongful arrest battle for taking photographs and video footage of police officers in public at the Occupy Miami protests.
In addition to being arrested, Miller’s photographs and video footage were allegedly deleted by the police officers – an unlawful seizure of a journalist’s equipment and a violation of a citizen’s First Amendment rights to record a public event in a public space.
On Miller’s behalf, Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, wrote to Director James Loftus of Miami-Dade Police and pointed out that Miller was the only journalist arrested. He also stated:
While it may be understandable that your officers had a heightened sense of awareness due to the nature of the circumstances surrounding that night, it is still no excuse for them not to recognize a journalist’s right to take photographs/record video of an event occurring on a public street. In addition to the arrest, the fact that Mr. Miller’s cameras were unlawfully seized, and while it was in police custody, an attempt was made to delete Mr. Miller’s recordings of the arrest are also extremely troubling. We believe that the recovered video of the incident will show that officers acted outside of their authority, in violation of the First, Four, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution as well as the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 and similar protections provided by Florida law.
As shown in the video above, Miller, in an effort to raise money for his legal defense fund and help photographers who find themselves in similar situations, has teamed up with Keith Robertson, founder of Zap Rag who developed photographers’ rights lens cloths and laminated badges back in 2010. The cloths and badges are ideal for Miller’s mission, for Robertson’s products are, as Miller states, “designed to be used by photographers when they get harassed by cops or security guards for shooting in public.”
The lens cloths and badges, which can be viewed below, summarize the United States Bill of Rights on the front and say “Photographers’ Rights” on the back.
The front of the lens cloth and laminated card
The back of the lens cloth and laminated card
More information on how to support a fellow creatives cause can be found in the source article HERE.
