'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
A pair of Metropolitan Police Department officers illegally seized a man's camera phone after the man photographed officers trying to intimidate witnesses of an arrest, the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The District's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is concerned that D.C. firefighters facing departmental disciplinary hearings are not receiving fair trials, according to a letter it sent to the D.C. attorney general's office.
"Officers must learn that people have a right to photograph them in public places, and that trying to cover up police misconduct is worse than the initial misconduct," ACLU legal director Arthur B. Spitzer said in a statement.
"I think that sends a very clear signal to people in the department who are asked to act as judges in a sense that they better put the chief's desires ahead of independent judgment or they may find themselves personally injured," Mr. Spitzer said in an interview. "There are not many people who are going to put their own careers at risk by saying to the chief something else."
