I AGREE:

There’s been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it’s a disturbing development. . . . As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they’re given extraordinary power and authority we don’t give to other public servants: They’re armed; they can make arrests; they’re allowed to break the very laws they’re paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us without our consent.

It’s critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they’re on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you’re treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses. In the age of YouTube, video of police misconduct captured by private citizens can have an enormous impact.

That’s why they’re making (futile) efforts to shut it down. But suggesting that the police have a right to “privacy” while performing a public duty in public is ridiculous. In fact, it’s worse than ridiculous — it’s an effort to place the police above the law that applies to the citizenry, their employers.