Police Tape

The right to take video of police encounters in public is clearly protected by the First Amendment but the trend is for police to detain people shooting video and then subsequently drop the charges.

"Exercising this right has consistently and uniformly been upheld by state and federal courts; they have made it abundantly clear that citizens have right to film police in public," he said. "What is alarming is the degree to which police are ignoring this clear precedent and continue to threaten citizens." Jonathan Turley GWU

ABC News

PoliceOne 

“As a basic principle, we can’t tell you to stop recording,” says Delroy Burton, chairman of D.C.’s metropolitan police union and a 21-year veteran on the force. “If you’re standing across the street videotaping, and I’m in a public place, carrying out my public functions, [then] I’m subject to recording, and there’s nothing legally the police officer can do to stop you from recording.”

Atlantic 

The trending police tactic is to detain the citizen, wipe the recording, and charge with obstruction, interference, disorderly conduct, and the like.  Wait... there's an App for that.

Police Tape is a program released by the ACLU-NJ.  The app is simple and allows you to use the Police Tape feature to record video and audio interaction with the police and then it backs up the video so that it can't be deleted if your phone is taken. 

iDigitalTimes

or of the Press

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Reporters without Borders is a non-profit NGO that promotes and defends freedom of information and freedom of the press.  Every year they publish the Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking of countries  based upon the organization's assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It reflects the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations, and netizens enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.

The United States

While the US has been consistently exceeded by the Nordic and Low Countries in freedom of the press rankings, we were 17th in 2002, this year we have fallen to 46th.  This puts us behind countries such as Romania, South Africa, Slovenia, Uruguay, and Namibia.  Makes you proud, don't it?

Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it. Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices.

Congress Shall Make No Law...

In the Church-State debate sidebars that have broken out on the fringes of the 2012 culture wars, a common liberal argument recurs:

"You can’t have it both ways. You can’t demand government stay out of religion, and then attempt to insert your religion into debates about government. The Wall of Separation between Church and State applies to church as well as state."

That is wrong for a couple of reasons. First, there is no such thing as “a wall of separation” in the constitution. Here is what the First Amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So, contrary to progressive arguments, it is legitimate and constitutional to bring one’s religious values to the public square. You can even bring them to the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency,  secure in the knowledge that you are a good American acting in accord with the US Constitution.

The second error in this statement is related to the first. The Constitution prohibits the federal government from establishing or prohibiting religion. It places no such strictures on citizens, so it doesn’t go both ways.

Consequently, We the People can have it both ways, freely exercising our religious rights in all public arenas while demanding government stay out of our business.

NY Times - Rick Santorum isn’t Crazy