Very related case: <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-08-25/news/ct-met-eavesdropping-trial-0825-20110825_1_eavesdropping-law-police-officers-law-enforcement" rel="nofollow">http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-08-25/news/ct-met-ea...</a><p>"In the recording, which the one juror said was replayed several times in the jury room, Alejo was heard explaining to Moore that she might be wasting her time because it was basically her word against that of the patrol officer. Alejo also said they could 'almost guarantee' that the officer would never bother her again if she dropped the complaint.<p>"'When we heard that, everyone (on the jury) just shook their head,' juror Adams said in a telephone interview. 'If what those two investigators were doing wasn't criminal, we felt it bordered on criminal, and she had the right to record it.'"
Of course it is.<p>Now try filing a complaint about the police, but you have to go through the police to do it - good luck with that. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8v7lF5ttlQ" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8v7lF5ttlQ</a><p>No online form, no independent civilian agency, no state or federal oversight - they make you go through them, and you most certainly do not want to do that (warning that video is going to make your blood boil halfway though).
Continuously stunned by the general acceptance of the public to the right of secrecy of those entrusted with the power of life and death over them. Police should be continuously monitored from the moment they pick up their pistol in the public service until they are off duty.
Class 1 felony charge? Something's wrong with law enforcement in Illinois... or I guess slightly less wrong now. But how does this kind of BS pass muster in the first place.
I reviewed the Illinois law a while back -- if you even had a security system on private property you were breaking the law. I imagine that a large percentage of Illinois' business were being run by non-convicted felons.
This sort of story helps restore my confidence in the justice system. Even when stupid (well-meaning, whatever) legislation like this gets passed, it eventually gets challenged and thrown out.
Doesn't matter. Given the authoritarian manner the US federal government has been acting lately pretty much guarantees some sort of ban on recording authorities at "international events" will be in effect for Chicago G8 meeting in May. And when the shit inevitably hits the fan they'll just use the revolt as an excuse to implement similar nation-wide bans.