Write 250 words on this topic: “Should the police be allowed to enforce a politician’s verbal restriction against making a video of him at an open meeting?”
To answer the question, my answer is no. I believe the police should not be able to enforce a politician’s verbal restriction against making a video of him at an open meeting. As I will explain, you will see why.
If you simply look up can you record, it will tell you that yes, you can legally record a politician’s speech in a public place. And if you look up, can you record an open meeting? They once again say yes. But why can you record these meetings? Well, the First Amendment generally protects the right to record government officials executing their duties in public. And in open meetings the states have “Sunshine Laws,” or open meeting acts, so they can protect the public’s right to attend, document, and record the politicians.
As you can see, it is very legal to record, so why could police be allowed to enforce a verbal restriction? They can’t. If you don’t break the law, they can’t enforce anything. The police can only enforce enacted laws, statutes, and lawful court orders. Therefore, verbal statements from politicians are not laws. Police should not and can not be allowed to enforce a politician’s verbal restriction.
But this is where it gets tricky; many times the filming has portrayed an individual wrongly or in a harmful way. There have been cases of this happening, and then the politician has to prove that the filmmakers knew their portrayal was false and out of context. So the laws don’t mean you can do whatever you want.
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