CHICAGO – Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras is calling on Governor Pat Quinn to veto the new eavesdropping law that passed both houses of the General Assembly last week and includes felony criminal charges for recording police officers and other public officials.
“We are calling on Governor Quinn to veto this bill to give the public time to work with the legislature on including first amendment protections covering protest on the public way,” said Mark Wallace, Director of Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras.
The group experienced an incident this past summer where a CPD Sgt. Brown tried to convince them they were not allowed to protest at 119th and Halsted without a permit due to the nature of their “slanderous signs”. When activists asserted their first amendment rights, the officer threatened arrest. The entire incident was caught on video and the police sergeant seemed to back down once he became aware he was being filmed. (video HERE)
“Given our experience at a protest this summer ... we feel very strongly that the exceptions to the new eavesdropping law, which criminalizes the recording of police, do not clearly state whether interactions with police at peaceful protests are exempt from being filmed,” Wallace said.
The eavesdropping bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate with an overwhelming majority of votes last week; 106-7 in the House and 46-4-1 in the Senate. Democrats and Republicans seemed to slip the bill through while citizens were unaware the legislation was even planned to come up for a vote during a Springfield veto session.
“A few of our members have taken the time to ask their representatives if this law applies to peaceful protesters on the public way, to which they have been told to ‘educate themselves’ and read the bill,” said Wallace. “We've read it and we still can’t tell if it was a Class 3 felony for members of our group to record Sgt. Brown this past summer. If our elected officials can’t answer that simple question, then this bill should be vetoed and there should be a public debate before drafting any new eavesdropping legislation,” said Wallace.
