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'Video Vigilante' Arrested After Filming a Hospital's Emergency Ramp (bostonherald.com) 225

The Boston Herald writes that a "video vigilante faces numerous charges after being arrested outside Massachusetts General Hospital where police say he was recording the emergency ramp at the height of the coronavirus pandemic." schwit1 shares their report: John L. McCullough, 41, was charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace and threats to do bodily harm after police say he refused to stop recording Sunday evening. "I informed him that I could not make him stop filming but I asked him to stop out of respect to patient privacy," the arresting officer wrote in a police report obtained by the Herald through a public records request.
The next day the newspaper's senior editor posted a follow-up: John L. McCullough told the Herald Tuesday evening he is a First Amendment crusader who takes videos of police and posts them to YouTube. That's what got him a June 2 arraignment date. "I understand how people may feel, but that doesn't mean I should be locked up," McCullough said... "Did I break the law? No. I may have been rude," he added. "I understand people may feel jittery, but where peoples' feelings start my rights don't stop...."

Cambridge civil-rights attorney Harvey Silverglate said McCullough will probably have his case tossed, even if what he was doing is seen as crass. "There's no amendment in the Constitution called the humanity amendment," said Silverglate. "It's a free country and you have a right to be a jerk." But taking video outside a hospital during a pandemic and as people try to social distance — and first responders, including the police, face all-too-real health risks — is "pretty distasteful," Silverglate added.

Still, he added the judge will "have to throw it out." He added it's "punishment itself" to go to court in this climate. McCullough, records state, does not have an attorney yet. He did say he's ready to plead his case. "Don't be brainwashed," he added, "and it shouldn't be a problem when a black man has a camera."

The Herald suggests one more interesting detail. "McCullough said '20 other cameras' were probably rolling at the same time as he was — alluding to security cameras in the area."
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'Video Vigilante' Arrested After Filming a Hospital's Emergency Ramp

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  • Won't go nowhere (Score:5, Informative)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Saturday May 09, 2020 @10:34AM (#60040466)

    It is not a lawful arrest, the charges are trumped up, he'll get 1000$ a minute of arrest from the community like all the others before and if the judge is fair, maybe some cops would lose their qualified immunity and they'd have to pay those damages from their own pocket instead of the taxpayer's dime.
    He has everything on video maybe streamed live, even the cop's confession that he isn't breaking any law... the guy will get millions of Youtube hits.

    To get accused of trespassing you have to get officially trespassed, then leave the property and come back uninvited.
    As for 'disturbing the peace' the guy stands quietly there filming, it's other people and the cops who make a riot and it's all on video.

    And the 'video vigilante' is a member of the free press, like we all are.

    The times where you had to buy a newspaper are over.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @10:44AM (#60040490)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by AgNO3 ( 878843 )
        Nothing at all like gawker. People in a non public private space. A hospital is a public space like a Mall. It’s a privately owned public space but there is no expectation of privacy in a hospital or every room would be a single and no waiting areas. Hippa doesn’t apply to anything accept the actual medical facility and your records. But since it’s a privately owned public space once told to leave it might be trespassing. If he had a telephoto and was off hospital property zero could
        • And is that the basis on which the gawker case was decided?

          (Spoiler: No)

          • by AgNO3 ( 878843 )
            Spoiler Yes, "The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages on Friday by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com He filmed a private NON PUBLIC Place with an EXPECTATION of privacy in that place. That is why Hogan won. Google expectation of privacy. It's also similar to if you need a search warrant to get information or you don't. There is usually no expectation of privacy in a public place. Be it privately owned or a true publically owned space like a c
            • Nope. I only read half the first sentence.

              Don't waste your time spewing bullshit.

              You're quoting a media report about the case, you're not quoting the decision. The subject of your post is "opinions of some guy" not "the basis on which the case was decided."

          • by AgNO3 ( 878843 )
            Here is the complete legal explanation. Hogan had a reasonable expectation of privacy. https://gehreslaw.com/gehres-l... [gehreslaw.com]
      • And FWIW, press freedom to violate the privacy of unwilling people isn't absolute in this country, if it was Gawker would still be alive.

        Whether or not the press can violate your privacy hinges on if what they're reporting is a newsworthy event [dmlp.org].

        • If the police and emergency responders wheeling in patients were practicing current PPE guidelines, they were wearing masks and his video couldn't expose their identity, and thus wasn't violating their privacy.
        • If the police and emergency responders weren't pract
      • by hduff ( 570443 )

        But if the arrest was in good faith then yes, it's lawful and no, he wont get compensation.

        It's hard to believe that a police officer is not aware of the Consitutional rights of citizens in circumstances such as these that have been adjudicated thousands of times all over the country. He was being a dick and should be held accountable.

    • As Evelyn Beatrice Hall almost said:

      I disapprove your jerkish behaviour, but I will defend to the death your right behave like a jerk.

      • As Evelyn Beatrice Hall almost said:

        I disapprove your jerkish behaviour, but I will defend to the death your right behave like a jerk.

        Well, no, slow down there, Cowboy.

        Your jerkish speech is protected, no other aspects of your jerkish behavior are.

        If you're going to defend to the death people right to behave you're in for a big surprise how many different jerk things people do that you'll have to die for.

    • Rei: The law probably differs from area to area, but where I live (TX), a trespass complaint is not actionable by police unless someone has returned to your property, and been seen by a cop doing so, after having previously received a verbal trespass warning from the property owner/caretaker, also witnessed by a cop. For first-time complaints, all cops can do is have a chat with the offender. And "No Trespassing" signs are not enforceable. They're merely suggestions. You can sign a waiver which allows cops,

      • Texas Penal Code Section 30.05, criminal trespass:

        the person enters or remains on or in property of another;
        without effective consent and the person;
        and
        when the person had notice that the entry was forbidden or received notice to depart but failed to do so.

        "Remains on the property ... received notice to depart but failed to do so."

        Massachusetts law, which applies in this case, is virtually identical.

        • Exactly, and he was on a PUBLIC SIDEWALK, paralleling a PUBLIC WAY.

          I walk down that sidewalk many times a day. The felonmusk idiot saying it's private clearly doesn't even live here.

    • Wow, it appears that doing anything while black, is pretty dangerous in the USA. He must be thankful that he wasn't shot.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by BKX ( 5066 )

      You're wrong on so many levels. First, even if the arrest were illegal, there's no way he gets compensated for it. For that to happen, the officer would have had to know he was in the wrong when it was happening and do it anyway. Second, just about every state forbids recording at medical facilities, inside and out. Third, trespassing happens when you refuse to leave. He refused to leave, therefore he trespassed. Some other guy is claiming that Mass. is different and requires you to return after being kicke

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      To get accused of trespassing you have to get officially trespassed, then leave the property and come back uninvited.

      Citation needed. At face value, that seems silly.
      "Officer this person won't leave my property."
      "Sorry I can't charge him with tresspass until he leaves and comes back."

      As for 'disturbing the peace' the guy stands quietly there filming, it's other people and the cops who make a riot and it's all on video.

      From the summary and the article, "threats to do bodily harm" and "yelling" does not seem that they were "quietly" filming. The article gives more detail that the person made threats. Now we'll have to see what threats were made, but that it seems you want to ignore facts.

      • Just to expand on this a little, in general these types of "disturbing the peace" or "criminal mischief" laws (often the same thing) generally make it a crime to make statements intended to alarm the public.

        Freedom of speech isn't actually phrased in the 1st Amendment in a way to make it broadly apply to communication; the Courts have extended it to other communications because since some speech is a basic right it shouldn't be taken away unless necessary to balance another right or civic interest. What the

    • by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      I wouldn't even have call him a jerk, I wouldn't mind having some video footage of the last time I ended up in hospital after an accident. The news record footage of people after accidents and incidents all the time, do we all rage and call them jerks? No, very selective that. I hope he gets compensation.

  • -- but I will defend to the death your right to film" -- Plato
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @11:15AM (#60040580)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @11:27AM (#60040618)
    That pretty much sums it up. This is America. It's my god-given and constitutionally-protected right to be a rude idiot, a jerk, a booger-eating-moron, a populist, a rabble-rouser, a racist, a conspiracy theorist, a nationalist or a neo-nazi. I can insult as many people as I want. Some go for broke and check the box titled "all of the above". It's also my right to call out people like this, and call them exactly what they are. Funny, most of the chumps in those categories take serious offense when put on the spot. But too bad. The protections apply to me too.

    This doesn't mean that my actions are free of consequence. In this country, I can pretty much burn my life, career, job, reputation, and physical belongings to the ground at any point in time. Plenty of people do exactly this on a regular basis. And you might respond with "your freedom to swing your fist stops at my nose"....... but the hard truth is that America tolerates an astoundingly high amount of collateral damage in order to sustain these freedoms. See: gun rights.
    • by ghoul ( 157158 )

      What are you smoking? You only have the right to be jerk in this country if you are white. If you are black and armed (even if you have a license or its an open carry state) cops will shoot you dead first and make up a reason later.

    • >"It's also my right to call out people like this, and call them exactly what they are."

      Just make sure if you cast specific allegations, you can prove them in a court... since you could face slander or liable charges...

      >"This doesn't mean that my actions are free of consequence. "

      Exactly.

      >"America tolerates an astoundingly high amount of collateral damage in order to sustain these freedoms. See: gun rights."

      I don't think "gun rights" is a good example to use. We don't create or tolerate "an astoun

  • I can't even figure out how this behavior is even seen as bothersome. He wasn't interfering with anyone's ability to do anything. He was making sure that there was a publicly-available of events with immense public interest. He is basically a journalist in a way that nobody who actually gets paid to be one has done in years.

  • to video stuff from places you have a right to be. This does *not* preclude charges of trespassing, disturbing the peace or threats while taking videos.

    The facts of the case are what matter. Did he threaten someone? If so that's illegal, even if he was doing it with the intent of getting material to publish.

    Likewise was he on hospital property or off? If he was on, was in in a public space or a restricted space? If he was in a public space, was he doing something the landowner told him not to? Suppose s

  • He's not wrong, but he's still a bit of an asshole.

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