Boston, MAMembers of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Boston alleging that three officer who arrested a man outside of Boston Commons violated his civil rights.
Thirty-three-year-old attorney Simon Glick was walking along the park line in October 2007 when he happened upon a group of police officers arresting a man. Another man watching the arrest reportedly yelled that the police were hurting the suspect, at which point Glick produced his cell phone and began recording the incident on the device's video camera.
Police arrested Glick on the scene for allegedly violating the Bay State's wiretapping laws that forbid secret audio recordings.
Though criminal charges against Glick have been dropped, the defense attorney and the ACLU have brought civil rights charges against the arresting officers and the city claiming violations of Glick's first and fourth amendment rights.
"Just because it's upsetting to the police officers and they're unhappy about being recorded, doesn't allow them to make an arrest," said Howard Friedman, an ACLU attorney representing Glick, to the Associated Press. "If a person is standing, as Mr. Glick was, many feet away and simply recording, that's not a crime, even if the officers don't like being recorded."
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