Texas bill threatens to criminalize photographing police

[Optimistic Paranoid]

http://www.diyphotography.net/texas...ust-stay-25-feet-away-from-police/#more-22377

Regards
John

 

[RVTravel]

25 ft is not very far. It likely is so they can conduct their business without feeling threatened by someone not appearing to be professional media?

 

[Wabbit]

Lol you got me with the title of this post! I don't see an issue with the 25ft rule as long as the rule/law doesn't apply to enclosed spaces. Out in public if the area accommodates it, 25ft sounds reasonable. How do you see this as a negative?

 

[Wabbit]

An additional thought from me would be that the 25ft rule/law would only be applied if the filming threatened an officers safety. Some people feel the need to keep car cams running for whatever purpose, including filming police interactions. This type of camera in no way would threaten an officers safety, thus would not break the 25ft rule.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

It's 25 feet UNLESS the person doing the photography happens to be armed, then it's 100 feet.  But apparently it's not illegal for me to be that close to them when I'm armed, as long as I'm not trying to photograph them.  

Regards
John

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

25 ft is not very far. It likely is so they can conduct their business without feeling threatened by someone not appearing to be professional media?

So only someone employed by a media conglomerate has First Ammendment rights?

Regards
John

 

[akrvbob]

My guess is it's specifically aimed at the professional media to keep them from continually creeping forward.

When you put a camera to your eye it changes your perspective and you can find yourself getting closer and closer like it wasn't really you. It gives you a sense of fearlessness. I think this is probably a very good thing for everybody.
Bob

 

[mockturtle]

This is one instance where I'll side with the cops.

 

[cdiggy]

My question would be how they decide what 25 feet means to them. Guy could get hemmed up for being 30 feet away and busted. Hard to distinguish 25 from 30 and the way cops have been behaving lately it wouldn't take much for an over zealous officer to overstep "his" bounds and lock someone up unlawfully.

 

[Bdog1]

Someone watched Nightcrawler. Maybe?

 

[RVTravel]

What it better not mean is an attempt to stop citizens from outing police bad behaviors. I'm sure it will be abused on their end.

 

[mockturtle]

This bill has been introduced but there is no indication it will pass. 

 

[Almost There]

This bill has been introduced but there is no indication it will pass. 

It sounds like it was an ill thought out knee jerk reaction made to pacify some cronies over a couple of beers in a pub.

From the article in the OP:

When asked how this bill came about, Villalba responded that “It came about because my brothers/sisters in blue asked for my help to protect them. I did what I could to help”.

Hopefully more reasonable heads will prevail in the legislature. There are already laws to prevent interference with a police officer carrying out their duties that can be used.