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George Thompson is a man from MA who has recently found himself in the middle of a bit of a police controversy. As he was walking along recently, he noticed an on-duty police officer having quite the conversation on his cell phone. Apparently, the officer was cursing loudly and behaving rather rudely for an officer who was on-duty. Taken aback by his behavior, Thompson started to record the officer using his personal iPhone. (He did let the officer know he was recording him).
What went down next is a little hard to believe. The officer (Thomas Barboza) went over to Thompson, arrested him, and charged him with illegal wiretapping. It’s even more difficult to believe because in MA it’s fully legal to videotape public officials while they are publicly working. So why was he arrested? That’s the question many people would like an answer to. But the story doesn’t stop there.
Bad Boys…Bad Boys…
The police department took his phone and kept it for 2 days. When he received the phone back, he noticed that the video of the officer’s tirade had been deleted. The police believe Thompson deleted it himself, but that explanation doesn’t make too much sense in the grand scheme of things. As part of the investigation, Thompson admits to giving them his passcode so they could access the video – which would also give them the ability to easily erase it from the phone if they wanted to do such a thing. The police state they are trying to work with Apple to see what really happened to the footage.
Do you think we should live in fear of recording the activity of the police in public? Do you believe Thompson did anything wrong by recording (legally, we might add) the officer in the first place?
What is this world coming to?
[Image via dailydot]