Big Brother is Marching with you

Two worrying stories on the civil-rights front. Firstly, we have the charming fact that the police are no longer content with merely infiltrating demonstrations and acting as riot bait. They are actually leading the demonstrations and planning the routes . Perhaps soon all our protests would consist wholly of police officers. (HT: L.Krub)

While the ability of police officers to spy on us seems to know no bounds, our ability to turn the tables in the most desultory manner is being violently challenged -- a man was arrested in Philadelphia for taking a picture of a big police drug bust that was happening in his neighborhood...right in front of his property.

Cruz said that when he heard a commotion, he walked out of his back door with his cell phone to see what was happening. He said that when he saw the street lined with police cars, he decided to take a picture of the scene.

"I opened (the phone) and took a shot," Cruz said.

Moments later, Cruz said he got the shock of his life when an officer came to his back yard gate.

"He opened the gate and took me by my right hand," Cruz said.

Cruz said the officer threw him onto a police car, cuffed him and took him to jail.

A neighbor said she witnessed the incident and could not believe what she saw.

"He opened up the gate and Neffy was coming down and he went up to Neffy, pulled him down, had Neffy on the car and was telling him, 'You should have just went in the house and minded your own business instead of trying to take pictures off your picture phone,'" said Gerrell Martin.

Cruz said police told him that he broke a new law that prohibits people from taking pictures of police with cell phones.

It's not like Cruz busted in on some covert scene. This was happening on his street. If this is how the police treats a curious kid who wants a cool picture to show his friends, I guess budding citizen journalists who might be tempted to take pictures of actual police wrongdoing better watch out.