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[ussoccer26]

A congressman from Ohio had cops grab the cameras of constituents during a town hall meeting. Steve Chabot, a Republican, had cell phones and cameras confiscated in order to “prevent an embarrassing Youtube video from making the rounds."

Police said the cameras were taken “to protect the constituents.” A local television station, however, was allowed to videotape the meeting and the brazen move by Chabot and the cops.


What in the hell is going on in this country? Just because he is a congressman, doesn't mean his word is law. Yet.

Chabot Censors Town Hall - Police Seize Cameras

 I pulled the link off of reddit.

http://www.infowars.com/cops-confiscate-cameras-at-ohio-congressmans-town-hall/

[Monrover]

Regardles of party affiliation; vote the bas****s out of office.

[Baggins]

This is pretty f***ed up...

Regardles of party affiliation; vote the bas****s out of office.

Damn straight...!  This kind of fascist nonsense has to be stomped out, no exceptions, no way anyone should be putting up with that in this country.

[blue2]

It was his meeting.

[Baggins]

The cameras and phones were private personal property...

NO ONE has a right to "take" your property...

[BigRedDog]

It was his meeting.

Last time I looked he was an elected representative and therefore 'he' works for 'us' and is paid by 'us' and therefore it was 'our' meeting...

The interesting part is that the only cameras that were confiscated belonged to democrats attending the meeting

and even the Tea Party got after him for trampling on rights of the citizens

Here's some video of the scene from a different perspective...  perhaps from one of the TV crews that were there.

Chabot town hall camera ban

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/steve-chabot-tea-party-cameras-town-halls_n_936465.html

[BigRedDog]

I would be curious to know if guns were banned at this meeting too

I've read several articles and it doesn't mention any signs banning weapons being posted...   only cameras...

I wonder just what he was (or maybe still is) afraid of?

It kind of shows that a video camera can be more dangerous in the opinion of 'some elected officials' than weapons  

They used to say "the pen is mightier than the sword" but I guess with modern technology you have to say "the camcorder is mightier than the 9mm"!

[NewDawn]

He was giving a speech that was paid by 'us', in a building paid for by 'us'.

I am sure the officer was just doing what he was told to do...but I think his chief needs to be notified of this action.

Anybody else to call, that needs to be aware of this??   

[BigRedDog]

It's interesting that one of Chabot's spoken objectives was to prevent any "embarrassing YouTube moments"...

I'm not sure he ultimately succeeded

Steve Chabot as Hitler (A Parody)

 

[BigRedDog]

It was his meeting.

Here's someone else that disagrees with you blue2...

and he's a noted conservative blogger:

By MarcusPorcius

In what has to be the dumbest move he could have possibly made, Republican (so-called) Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio had cops confiscating cameras during his “town hall” meeting.

Left wing blogs went nuts, and for once, I’m totally in agreement.

The really ironic thing is that while private cameras were being confiscated “to protect constituents” – whatever that means – the press was there filming and got it all, including the bonehead cop taking the cameras.

Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot Has Cops Confiscate Cameras During Town Hall Meeting
August 24, 2011
By MarcusPorcius

In what has to be the dumbest move he could have possibly made, Republican (so-called) Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio had cops confiscating cameras during his “town hall” meeting.  H/T Alex Jones’ Infowars.

Left wing blogs went nuts, and for once, I’m totally in agreement.

The really ironic thing is that while private cameras were being confiscated “to protect constituents” – whatever that means – the press was there filming and got it all, including the bonehead cop taking the cameras.

I say bonehead cop because as a law enforcement officer you should have the sense not to enforce an illegal and unconstitutional request from this knucklehead’s staff.

Two things come to mind “Representative” Chabot, and I put it in quotes because apparently you think your title is “prince” or “his royal majesty.”

One, if you were worried about being embarrassed by a question or answer put forth by Democrats in the audience, you sure took care of that.  Now you’re going to be embarrassed by the fact that you had your staff use local police like personal enforcers to illegally confiscate private property in order to prevent them from exercising their rights under the Constitution.  You remember the Constitution, don’t you Rep. Chabot?  It’s that thing you swore an oath to when you were elected.

Two, and I can’t stress this enough, YOU USED POLICE AS YOUR PERSONAL GOONS TO ILLEGALLY CONFISCATE PRIVATE PROPERTY IN ORDER TO KEEP CITIZENS FROM EXERCISING THEIR RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !

You do not deserve to be a congressman, you pantywaist.  I hope somebody sues, presses charges, whatever is legally possible and nails your sorry butt to the wall.  Further, if there is a recall process, I hope your constituents use it.

For violating your oath of office, for not protecting the rights of your constituents and for being a dumb***, you get a big stinking fat F.

P.S. If you’re a left-winger, feel free to spread this.  Unlike liberals, conservatives don’t have any trouble pointing out the losers on the (R) side of the aisle.

From:  http://www.theconservativereview.com/2011/08/24/ohio-congressman-steve-chabot-has-cops-confiscate-cameras-during-town-hall-meeting/

[BigRedDog]

He was giving a speech that was paid by 'us', in a building paid for by 'us'.

I am sure the officer was just doing what he was told to do...but I think his chief needs to be notified of this action.

Anybody else to call, that needs to be aware of this??   

Sounds like the officer involved got the proverbial "slap on the wrist"

A five-year member of the Cincinnati Police Department who confiscated the video cameras who were taping Rep. Steve Chabot’s North Avondale town hall meeting Aug. 22 has been told by his supervisor that his action was wrong, according to a police department spokeswoman.

The Cincinnnati Police Department sent Officer Tyrone Hall to the event at the North Avondale Recreation Center after Chabot’s office had asked for police presence at the event, which drew about 100 people.

A video of the seizing of the video cameras can be seen here.

Hall, at the request of a Chabot staff member, confiscated video cameras of David Little of ProgressOhio, a liberal group; and Liz Ping, who was videotaping the event for the Democratic National Campaign Committee.

The police department spokeswoman said Hall was not disciplined for taking the cameras, which were returned to their owners after the meeting. He was given an “administrative insight” in which his supevisor talked to him and told him that was not the proper procedure. Documentation of the meeting was placed in the officer’s personnel file, said police department spokeswoman Fran Cihon.

From:  http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/20/officer-who-confiscated-cameras-at-chabot-event-gets-administrative-insight/

[Baby Hitler]

It was his meeting.

That is a pretty disturbing statement.

[ussoccer26]

That is a pretty disturbing statement.

I agree.

Then again, the whole occurrence is pretty disturbing.

List of disturbing things:

1. A congressman being able to order a police officer around.

2. A police officer stupid enough to let himself be ordered around by a congressman.

3. The congressman thinking he is above the 4th amendment.

4. The police officer not knowing what a citizen's constitutional rights are.

5. The illegal seizure of private property without a warrant. At best all that officer could have done was polite ask the audience to stop recording.

I'm sure I missed a couple things but I'd say that's quite a list. Kudos to the people that kept filming and embarrassed the hell of this jack hole politician. I'm also happy to see people in both parties standing up for our constitutional rights.

[livewire]

I would have refused to give up my phone, or camera.

Who the HELL do they think they are?

Arrest me.  I would have a LOT of fun with that one!

[blue2]

the local television station was allowed to video tape the meeting so it wasn't like they were trying to hide anything.  They apparently were attempted to stop people from creating video and editing it to damage the politician.