First Amendment audits. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Gericke refused to tell him. One auditor stated that the goal of an audit is to "put yourself in places where you know chances are the cops are going to be called. They are about the auditors right to openly film law enforcement personnel and other public officials as they perform their. I know what these people do, so when I heard it was a First Amendment audit, I thought, Oh, no.. Key Players Jason Gutterman is an alleged First Amendment auditor and owner of the Amagansett Press YouTube channel. Due to mounting political pressures, harassment, and even death threats, some teachers and administrators have had to recalibrate their curriculum plans and determine if such texts will be viewed as unpatriotic, anti-police, pornographic, or anti-white. At first glance, a first amendment audit may appear to be a pointless action. There are restrictions that outweigh a citizens right to film such as public safety and when statutes and other laws outweigh First Amendment Rights (such as in Gericke). Law enforcement officers took an oath to . Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues, Last updated December 16, 2020 9:34pm EST. He acted as his own attorney and won the case! Gericke was subsequently arrested, her camera seized, and she was charged with disobeying a police officer, obstructing a government official, and unlawful interception of oral communications, the New Hampshire equivalent of a wire-tap charge under Massachusetts law. While staffers are not featured in the viral video, the library has been the target of harassment through Facebook, Google reviews, and phone calls. 11 News first shared the video in November. Circuit Courts of Appeal have ruled, and the U.S. Department of Justice has taken the position, that citizens have a First Amendment right to film police performing their duties in public. And money is their motive. Ninth Circuit Affirms Anti-Abortion Activists Illegally Infiltrated Planned Parenthood Activities, First Amendment Protections Dont Apply. Jason Gutterman, amagansett press files a lawsuit against BCSO and Lynn Police Departments in Florida for unlawful arrest and violation of 1st and many more amendments of the constitution. ", "They roam public buildings, making videos. The 1st amendment protects your freedom of speech and expression (including cuss words) and freedom of the press (who is anyone that collects information for dissemination to the public). At one point his original video stops and a new video he shot on his cell phone starts in the backseat of a squad car where a conversation takes place between Clayton and an officer. The second officer asked for Clayton's ID and Clayton refused. [19], The practice is predominantly an American concept, but it has also been seen in other countries including the United Kingdom,[20][21] Canada, India[citation needed], and Russia. According to Colorado Community Media, First Amendment auditors have made headlines in the state in recent years, including for disrupting city council meetings, winning settlements for wrongful detention, and one instance when a judge was allegedly threatened with his life. All the charges were subsequently dismissed for lack of probable cause. Caldwell-Stone advises that staff refrain from intervening unless an auditor is violating behavior policies or harassing staff members or patrons. Clayton says he was filming as part of the First Amendment Audits movement. This is the transcript of LIAs first appearance in the Danbury criminal case, where the judge found probable cause despite the police report being devoid of facts to support such finding. President Trump Shares HUGE Win For Election Integrity! Staffers should be familiar with these policies to mitigate behavioral violations that may occur during an audit. Republicans in Florida County Pass Resolution to BAN COVID-19 Jab. But there may also be a relationship to the fact that libraries are open again.. Stopping of suspect (1) A peace officer may stop any person who he reasonably suspects is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a crime and may require him. In this case, Boston police officers arrested the defendant Simon Glik when he recorded an incident with his smartphone where officers were taking another individual into custody on the Boston Common. The officer requested her li-cense and registration. (The judge has ordered a supplemental memorandum of law, which will be posted here and court argument on October 29, 2021). [22], Auditors typically travel to places considered public property, such as sidewalks or public right-of-ways, or places open to the public, such as post offices, police stations, public libraries[23] or other government buildings, and visibly and openly photograph and record buildings and persons in their view. This is a complete copy of the Danbury Police Department Internal Affairs InvestigationReport over the Danbury Library incident on June 9, 2021, C.T State Police Internal Affairs Investigation Report from the incident at Bradley Airport on July 23, 2021. This further complicates how to handle these auditors because they may not actually break a law. The officer added he was "making a threat assessment.". Truly, audits can often have unpredictable results. On December 28, 2018, Jedon Kerr and Dean Schiller stood on a public sidewalk across the street from the Boulder County jail, filming the area on their cellphones. . On Feb. 24, 2020, a YouTube channel called Amagansett Press posted a 51-minute video of a man and his son entering the post office on a First Amendment audit to test their right to take video and photographs in public and from publicly accessible places. After police asked the man filming inside the post office to desist and leave the premises, the man threatened legal action, and the town of Silverthorne, Colorado, eventually agreed to pay a $9,500 settlement, as per Summit Daily News, a local newspaper serving Summit County, Colorado. ", "Blind Justice escorted out of meeting by police in latest free speech test", "Lawmaker Who Pushed Bill to Protect People Filming Police Arrested for Filming Police", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First_Amendment_audits&oldid=1142292803, Freedom of expression in the United States, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 16:18. When she asked a colleague what had happened, she learned there had been a First Amendment audit., My heart sank, Ryan says. Several US Courts of Appeals have upheld a private citizens right to record audio and video of public employees carrying out their duties in a public space regardless of their consent. Know when to engage. In a decision handed down last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed that Wingate's rights were violated. Thats what one man did when he took to the streets to conduct a First Amendment Audit. The officer asked Clayton if he had a name, Clayton said he did, but he didn't want to share it at the moment. George Metz, among a growing number of First Amendment auditors who push tolerance limits of public officials, filed the civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The building is just off of North Academy Boulevard and Kelly Johnson Boulevard. Most notably, the First Circuit provided that reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right to film may be imposed when the circumstances justify them. The Court explained that such a restriction could take the form of a reasonable, contemporaneous order from a police officer, or a preexisting statute, ordinance, regulation, or other published restriction with a legitimate governmental purpose. This language from the ruling is particularly important and should provide guidance to officers as to the appropriateness of such restrictions: The circumstances of some traffic stops, particularly when the detained individual is armed, might justify a safety measurefor example, a command that bystanders dispersethat would incidentally impact an individuals exercise of the First Amendment right to film. The major points from this article are the following: 1. Next month, Ill discuss strategies that law enforcement can use when encountering First Amendment auditors. The two officers arrested Massimino in 2018 while he was performing what he called a "First Amendment audit" filming the station from a public sidewalk outside. Transcript of the hearing before the judge in the Berwyn case, wherein case was nolled. A videographer who sued the city and several police officers after being restrained outside of Round Rock police headquarters has received a settlement related to the lawsuit. Likewise, other courts across the country have determined that there may be restrictions placed upon a citizens right to record under certain circumstances, such as in situations during traffic stops, sobriety checkpoints, and at times on public properties. [25][26], An auditor selects a public facility and then films the entire encounter with staff and customers alike. Whats still uncertain is how 2021 numbers compare with those from before the COVID-19 pandemic, when more libraries were open. Second, officers should be prepared to deal with citizens who record them while performing their duties in the field. Libraries have been experiencing First Amendment audits for several years, but there has been an uptick in reported cases in 2021, according to the American Library Associations (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). This Substitute Information contains new charges against LIA in the Danbury criminal case. This is a complaint to the FBI filed against Danbury police Officers Utter and Farrell for civil rights violations that occurred in Danbury on June 9, 2021 and July 15, 2021. She had learned about these encounters in 2020 . Recently, one Colorado municipality agreed to pay a "First Amendment Auditor" $41,000 to settle a wrongful detention claim. Libraries have been experiencing First Amendment audits for several years, but there has been an uptick in reported cases during the first eight months of 2021, according to the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). Oh and freedom to not have your FACE covered 24/7! Kervyn Altaffer, an attorney representing Turner, said the dismissal shows no culpability for either party. She had learned about these encounters in 2020 and knew what they entailed. This letter and memorandum were sent to CT States Attorney Stephen Sedensky by Marc Stout (on youtube as Legalized Drugs) to try to help the State of CT convict Long Island Audit. By the end of the video, the auditor re-enters the facility with the police officers, conducts his audit, and leaves. We have our mailing lists, our Facebook groups, we have all kinds of ways that we talk to fellow library workers, she says. For some, it is about the views and being as abrasive as possible. [10] Police will sometimes charge auditors with disorderly conduct when they engage in behavior that could be considered unlawful. A now-viral video shows a heated exchange between police and the man, who has filed a lawsuit against the city (he was also charged with a misdemeanor). 1983 alleging a violation of his First Amendment rights. Caldwell-Stone says her office has helped individual libraries develop policies and make improvements to existing ones. We have seen a greater number [of First Amendment audits in 2021], and there could be many reasons for it, says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of OIF. Massimino posted his video. Adopt or review written policies. boxes and bulletin boards before proceeding into the main lobby. Officer Ken . A First Amendment audit is a form of activism where an individual seeks to exercise their First Amendment rights. "Is there anything I can help you with," you can hear the officer ask in the video. All charges were dismissed. I dont think working with police is a scalable way of addressing this issue, says Alison Macrina, director of the Library Freedom Project. In the months since the First Amendment audit, Ryans library has continued to receive phone calls and one-star Google reviews from people outside of her community. The caution came after an encounter at a nearby library resulted in a viral video. by Eric Daigle An anti-abortion group of self-proclaimed citizen journalists, Center for Medical Progress, secretly videotaped Planned Parenthood after creating false identities and a fake company to infiltrate restricted areas. Both Gericke and Hanslin pulled over and Sergeant Kelley parked his cruiser between the two. The settlement specifically related to the complaint against the officers, since a district court judge dismissed the complaint against the city. The second officer went on to say Clayton was outside of a law enforcement facility acting suspiciously. Our attorney affirmed the fact that we acted appropriately. The city will also be required to creat and publish a roll-call video addressing the First Amendment right to record police activity. 2017), Fields v. City of Philadelphia, 862 F.3d 353 (2017), Sharp v. Baltimore City Police Department, No. As the video continues you can see one of the officer's take Clayton's camera, saying, "OK, we'll do it my way." This is the actual lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Connecticut on September 17, 2021 for the civil rights violations at the Danbury Public Library. In addition, the Colorado Springs Police Department must add to their General Order "Taking photographs or recording from a public place in and of itself does not constitute suspicious activity." or other government facility or publicly owned space. The below tips are adapted from the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) blog post Auditing the First Amendment at Your Public Library by OIF Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone. 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