Police Smashing/Confiscating Phone Cameras?

[john_h.1]

<p>http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/08/florida.shooting.witness/index.html?hpt=hp_t2</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>I'd need to hear or read a lot more about the incident before drawing any conclusions.</p>

<p>If I'm predisposed to be suspicious of police and police action, I am going to see this as confirmation of those suspicions. If I'm predisposed to honor and give police the benefit of the doubt, I am going to think that they will be vindicated. There's too much that's vague, as of this point, to make any sort of judgment. Someone claiming that the police smashed their phone doesn't amount to much absent further facts. Do I think some police could be capable of this, of course. Do I think these police did it for nefarious reasons . . . no idea.</p>

<p>As a photographic and social issue, it's tough enough to do your job day after day without having the constant prying eyes of cameras which we all know frame things limitedly and often with bias. At the same time, transparency regarding police activity is necessary. There has to be a balance.</p>

<p>Phone cameras can contain evidence. I don't know what the laws are about collecting evidence passersby might have and whether such "confiscation" is legal. </p>

[photo5]

<p>If a normal citizen grabbed a cell phone from someone's hands and smashed it, they would be arrested for theft and assault. The police are NOT above the law, folks. If they do the same to you, they are guilty of the same crime.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<blockquote>

<p>If they do the same to you, they are guilty of the same crime.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The operative word being "If."</p>

[jenkins]

<p>Aiming a gun at a man with a camera phone is not on, if he did that to me or my wife I would be very pissed off.</p>

[Jerry_]

<p>What can be said? It's Florida, it's in the Miami Beach area, and Florida is now a *happy* gun-owner's domain. The cell phone owner should have been more concealed in his photography skllls and evaded the *nice* policeman at the shooting site.</p>

<p>(...or I know a D-SLR with a long zoom is a better tool over those cell phone camera-things.)</p>

<p> </p>

[jay_poel]

<p>I agree with Freg G. but IMO depending on state law, it sounds like Narces Benoit was tampering with evidence considering he took the SIM card out of the phone and hid it in his mouth when the Police wanted it. His girlfriend even said all the Police wanted were the videos. </p>

<p>Not to be racist, but if it was an active crime scene and there was a blacked out SUV with black occupants and they were looking for other suspects, I would have my gun pointed at them too. It was a high tension situation, I'm sure adrenelin was flowing pretty good in everyone present.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Though Jay Poel agrees with some of what I said, I want to completely distance myself from the remarks in his second paragraph. Using the blackness of occupants as any part of a reason for pointing a gun at them? I know what I'd call that.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Whether excessive force was used is always the question.</p>

<p>A shooting occurred in Montreal yesterday. A mentally ill man wielding a knife cutting open garbage bags was shot dead along with a passerby hospital worker on his way to work by 4 officers responding to the call.</p>

<p>The innocent passerby was said by police to be "hit by a stray bullet" and being "at the wrong place at the wrong time". There were no bystander videos or photos. </p>

<p>Could the deaths have been avoided? Circumstances as described suggest yes, but there will always be doubt without documented proof. <br>

[<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/06/08/montreal-police-shooting.html">Link</a>] </p>

[jay_poel]

<p>Fred, that's why I added the racist part to the preface of that sentence.<br>

From the article about Benoit being detained, he "matched the description of one of the subjects just reported fleeing the scene and, further, because he ignored repeated commands as he quickly walked towards and entered his vehicle." And they wonder why a gun was pointed at them? I'm not being racist - I'm being realistic. White, asian, mexican, the officer reacted in a reasonable way. You are correct though, without knowing the WHOLE story, we are only speculating.</p>

 

[craig_gillette]

<p>The one nice thing about photographers is that they will react to this isolated incident calmly and not hysterically place threads about it over and over and over on any forum even remotely related to photography. I think the officers might have needed to be more careful, after all, the guy with the cell phone might have been a congressman.</p>

[john_elder1]

<p>Don't be suprised to learn that the police officers are charged with some type of homicide for shooting and killing the driver of the car. Further,there is no legal justification whatsoever for the officer pointing the gun at the woman. Usually , in most instances, a search warrant is required to take property from any witness without consent.</p>