By Carlos Miller
Two years ago, Dominic Sylvester VonZabern was arrested for photographing a group of homeless people protesting after being ordered out of an encampment by police in California.
About 15 protesters had formed a circle by linking arms, refusing to budge from the encampment. As police tried to pry the protesters apart, VonZabern crossed the street to take some photographs.
According to the arrest report, he was “endangering” police officers with his camera:
But it took police a month to come up with an “obstruction” charge against him, which VonZabern wasn’t aware of until he learned there was a warrant out for his arrest in January 2009.
The trial begins Monday and is expected to last five days. If convicted, he could spend a year in jail.
Source: http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12489102
Popularity: 1% [?]
12 responses so far ↓
1 Jon Biddell // Jun 1, 2009 at 1:16 AM
This is complete and utter bullshit.
But it’s worse in Australia, where we have no “constitutional rights”.
2 sickntired // Jun 1, 2009 at 1:16 AM
what a crock of sh*t, really how does someone taking your picture endanger you. really, today cops are nothing more then street thug with badges
3 Simon Jester // Jun 1, 2009 at 2:29 AM
Sickntired:
He endangered them by stealing their souls, duh!
4 Michaelk42 // Jun 1, 2009 at 4:19 AM
Somehow the article is “no longer available” so I guess I won’t be reading it in full.
Bloody half-arse newspaper sites.
5 Anonymous // Jun 1, 2009 at 8:36 AM
Why do cops fear cameras so much? They represent accountability. The slightest hint of having to be accountable for their actions makes them paranoid and vengeful, as we’ve seen hundreds of times. They have to “neutralize that threat” fast and come up with some BS charge.
This abuse needs to stop and it won’t until enough people get real mad and DEMAND changes from our elected officials.
6 xdamousex // Jun 1, 2009 at 1:00 PM
It’ll be thrown out.
But the police will still have won, because they have cost him time and money and aggravation, and there’s no repercussions for them.
7 Kol. Klink // Jun 1, 2009 at 3:47 PM
The cops are right, in their own perverse way. The accountability of being photographed does endanger their fat pensions when they’re documented beating the serfs.
And no, demanding change from elected officials doesn’t work.
As one Republican Senator said, 90% of people contacting him about the bankster bail-out said “no.” And the other 10% said “hell no!” He still went with the banksters wishes.
And if you voted Obama, how’s that change which you demanded and got (for about 2 seconds) working for you yet?
Cops are tools of the big boys, and you’re gonna get beat down if you’re small people. That’s that.
8 Michaelk42 // Jun 1, 2009 at 4:36 PM
@Kol. Klink
But they can’t beat every one of us down every time, forever. Nor do we have to stay down.
9 genewitch // Jun 1, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Michaelk42: That’s true, but the unwashed masses need to get angry enough about the people getting arrested for these crimes.
In america, i think that a celebrity will need to get arrested for this.
Richard Dawkins is having an investigation of a speech he was supposed to give at a university investigated on the grounds that the “state” was paying for a speech about atheism. It’s also a first amendment issue, but how many people have heard of that case?
10 Jon Biddell // Jun 1, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Kol. Klink is perfectly right – it’s ACCOUNTABILITY that the Police fear .
11 Anonymous // Jun 1, 2009 at 6:24 PM
“the unwashed masses need to get angry enough about the people getting arrested for these crimes”
They don’t care if some gang member gets kicked or some silly photog gets hit with trumped up charges. It’s not bad enough.
I know what will get them though: The number of pedophiles and sex offenders in blue.
I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I read the “sex offenders in law enforcement” section over at Policecrimes.com. These types of crime are #2 according to Injustice Everywhere, yet this fact is not well known. Just recently he wrote about not one, but two pigs who could not leave 14 year old kids alone. Get these stories out. The stories (and percentages) will anger even the dumbest cop supporters. Cops are a danger to women and children and that’s no lie. Spread the word.
12 Anonymous // Jun 1, 2009 at 6:58 PM
Kol I have to disagree, at least slightly. If enough people nag, politicians will have to at least pretend they’re doing something to fix a problem. They fear not getting re-elected, so the masses have some power over them.The economy is a bit different then police abuse. Hmm and with this bad economy, why are we paying so many lowlife cops who only hurt people and cost the taxpayers millions?
For years lawyers have been hitting police forces in the pocket book; that’s not working. Let’s hit them where it will really hurt, their EGO. The number of pigs who prey on kids, what they do to their own families http://www.behindthebluewall.blogspot.com how they don’t get rid of the bad ones–this is not well known enough. We can’t have a defeatist attitude when so many are in the dark about how bad the problem really is. There’s always strength in numbers. When the majority is still under-educated about the pigs how can we expect change?
Leave a Comment