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Illinois Passes Bill to Silence Video Recordings of Police

December 12, 2014 Kidman J. Williams News 0

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By: Kidman J. Williams

In light of the holiday season, Illinois politicians are willing to give residents a new law that they slipped through as a surprise during the battle for a higher minimum wage.  It seems that these little fat pigs decided that it was fine to pass a law against recording police officers on the street.

Springfield Illinois State Capitol BuildingEarlier in the year the Illinois Supreme Court stopped the eavesdropping law because of just how unconstitutional it was.  Well, Illinois with all of their wonderfully ego driven politics decided, “Hey, why don’t we amend this and shoot it right back through the backdoor.

The Amendment to Senate Bill 1342 was introduced on December 2nd.  They masked it as an amendment to an already existing bill on a totally different subject.  The House passed it 106 – 7 and the Senate managed to pass it with an equally overwhelming number of 46 – 4 – 1.  This also shows that Republicans and Democrats are finally on the same corrupt page.

This bill discourages private citizens from recording officials like police, an attorney general, judge; just to name a few.  If one of these people were to make a recording without consent it would carry a heavy sentence.  The sentence for this would be a class 3 felony which is two to four years in prison.  Good luck getting those chest cameras for the police now!  The bill also states that a private citizen who records unknowingly will be looking at a class 4 felony charge.  This is a bit lower, carrying a sentence of one to three years in prison.  Keep in mind that these are first offences.

Here is an excerpt from the bill itself that states the sentencing:

“(a) Eavesdropping, for a first offense, is a Class 4 felony (from Ch. 38, par. 14-4) and, for a second or subsequent offense, is a Class 3 felony.

(b) The eavesdropping of an oral conversation or an electronic communication of any law enforcement officer, State’s Attorney, Assistant State’s Attorney, the Attorney General, Assistant Attorney General, or a judge, while in the performance of his or her official duties, if not authorized by this Article or proper court order, is a Class 3 felony, and for a second or subsequent offenses, is a Class 2 felony”

If you care about your first amendment rights you may want to give the office of Governor Quinn a call at 312-814-2121.

It should be noted that there has been some controversy over what this bill is actually stating.  There are conflicting opinions on this amendment, but if people actually took the time to read it and understand it, there probably wouldn’t be.

The law clearly states that:

“For the purposes of this Article, “private conversation” means any oral communication between 2 or more persons, whether in person or transmitted between the parties by wire or other means, when one or more of the parties intended the communication to be of a private nature under circumstances reasonably justifying that expectation.”

Is that clear enough?

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