[NetBehaviour] Cell Phone Picture Called Obstruction Of Justice.

[marc]

Cell Phone Picture Called Obstruction Of Justice.

Man Arrested For Shooting Photo Of Police Activity...

Cruz said that when he heard a commotion, he walked out of his back door 
with his cell phone to see what was happening. He said that when he saw 
the street lined with police cars, he decided to take a picture of the 
scene.

Cruz said police told him that he broke a new law that prohibits people 
from taking pictures of police with cell phones.

"They threatened to charge me with conspiracy, impeding an 
investigation, obstruction of an investigation. … They said, 'You were 
impeding this investigation.' (I asked,) "By doing what?' (The officer 
said,) 'By taking a picture of the police officers with a camera 
phone,'" Cruz said.

Cruz's parents, who got him out of jail, said police told them the same 
thing.

"There is no law that prevents people from taking pictures of what 
anybody can see on the street," said Larry Frankel of the American Civil 
Liberties Union. "I think it's rather scary that in this country you 
could actually be taken down to police headquarters for taking a picture 
on your cell phone of activities that are clearly visible on the street."

Frankel said Cruz's civil rights might have been violated.

Cruz, a Penn State University senior, said that after about an hour 
police told him he was lucky because there was no supervisor on duty, so 
they released him.

"They said if the supervisor was there I wouldn't be a free man and that 
he is letting me go because he felt that I was a good person," Cruz said.

more...
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9574663/detail.html

related story>>>>

Cell Phone Camera Ethics Under Scrutiny.

Cell phone cameras seem to be everywhere and people are using them to 
witness just about everything. An NBC 10 cameraman used his cell phone 
to take pictures of an accident.

A civilian snapped a picture of bombing in Beirut and posted it on 
YouTube.com, a video-sharing Web site.

One man the NBC 10 Investigators spoke with was arrested when he snapped 
a shot of police activity on a public street.

"It's my way to connect to everybody," said Shannon Lundeen, a camera 
phone user. "It is part of my life. Just as important as a handbag, 
eyeglasses, keys."

In fact, camera phones are so widely used, eventually you may even see 
reporters delivering their stories to cell phones or by the cell phone 
to computers.

"For breaking news, people can get there where journalists can't, so it 
gives us opportunities for information that was not seen before," said 
Andrew Mendelson, a journalism professor at Temple University.

The upside is that camera phones help people capture special moments and 
send them to friends and families.

The downside is that the cameras can be a distraction, such as an 
incident at the British Open when Tiger Woods was interrupted at a key 
moment by the sound of camera phones clicking.

more...
http://www.nbc10.com/news/9580607/detail.html