Normally, I would leave it up to Adam Kokesh to inform you about this sort of police state activity. But as he's been temporarily shut down, I'm going to make whatever noise I can. Nature abhors a vacuum.
Monday night in Cincinnati, two activists had their cameras seized by a police officer at the request of staff for Congressman Steve Chabot. The meeting was a public town hall type event, held in a public building.
Now, there were apparently signs posted saying cameras were not allowed. The congressman's spokesperson claimed they ordered the seizure “to protect the privacy of constituents”. But this is allegedly The Free World, and that's not good enough. If a public representative holds a public meeting in a public building, it's public! There is no right or guarantee of privacy in such a setting, nor should there be! Perhaps the consituents of Cincinnati AND their representatives should all go look up the word "public"!
So, what's the big deal? The two activists were given back their cameras after the event. No harm, no foul, right?
Wrong. The "big deal" is this sort of occurrance is symptomatic of a growing problem in the alleged Land of the Free. Report after report surfaces of police seizing cameras, whether it's because they don't want some act of their own to be visible to the public at large or because they've been told to do it by the hired staff of an elected official who isn't even their boss, it is not the roll of law enforcement to forcibly take footage or video capturing devices!
Our society really needs to ask itself why it values secrecy so much. Who does it really protect? What's the harm in as many people knowing the truth about a particular event as possible? Secrecy is the enemy of freedom. We The People need to demand those hired or elected to serve us stop pretending seizure of cameras and footage is a legitimate use of power. We must nip this trend in the bud, so to speak, before it blossoms into a full on clamp down on the spread of information!
