Philly Police Radio Broadcasting 1st Amendment
The police scanner, a staple of every newspaper office, is a constant source of usually troublesome news. But this morning, Philadelphia Police Department dispatchers are airing something you don't typically hear: The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Philly Police Radio Broadcasting 1st Amendment
Chris Brennan
The police scanner, a staple of every newspaper office, is a constant source of usually troublesome news. But this morning, Philadelphia Police Department dispatchers are airing something you don't typically hear: The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
This comes as a group of protesters is rising after spending the night on the apron of City Hall, the "Occupy Philly" event an off-shoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement still going on in Manhattan. We just took a tour around City Hall. The waking protest had a jamboree quality, with people starting to staff public safety and medic stations while officers from the Police Department's Civil Affairs kept an eye on a group of people waving signs at intersections.
We're betting the First Amendment broadcast has something to do with Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey's memo to his officers, reminding them that people have the right to record sounds, pictures and video of police actions in public spaces. As the Daily News reported, that policy hasn't always been followed.
Here's what the First Amendment says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Commish Ramsey is a class act and a true patriot who values the Constitution. But is this "Occupy Wall Street" movement really a psyop by the Homeland-mil-intel-defense contractor security complex? This entire affair reeks of a contrived "movement" generated to bring out the alleged "dissidents" so they can be identified, possibly provoked, and thrown into the multi-agency/command fusion center based extrajudicial persecution matrix. The NYC Mayor's gal-pal is on the board of the private park where the demonstrators are encamped -- how convenient. And what happens when the property owner decides it's time to clear the park of demonstrators? "Round up the usual suspects." And the Security State gets a fresh list of "targets" to feed the torture matrix adminstered by major defense contractors who profit from the war on dissent. Read this, by a veteran Philly journalist:
http://nowpublic.com/world/thugocracy-u-s-fed-police-vigilantes-persecute-citizen-targets
— aviben- wow aviben, you have been reading too much infowars.
you are off the deep end, dude.— ambiguator - Whether the blurbs about the 1st Amendment itself are new or not, I don't know. What I do know, and it's from listening to Philly PD scanner feeds at night, as that the dispatchers regularly give out PSA's to their officers on a variety of issues to make sure they're informed.— phillybits
- If the protestors respect the rights of all other citizens to engage in their daily activities, while excersing their right to assemble and protest, there should be no problem— BucksBoy
- Being from philly i can't tell you how proud I am of our police. The police in NY need to learn something from our guys. Let us be the example of how the police should act towards their citizens when people gather to protest. Like the one post says - Commissioner Ramsey - you ARE a class act.— ines
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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