Obama’s Home State Criticizes Citizen Journalism

Photo credit: Great Beyond (Creative Commons)

Leave it to the Illinois General Assembly to do the wrong thing again. This week they voted down House Bill 3944, a bill to amend the state’s brutally antiquated Eavesdropping Act. The Illinois Eavesdropping Act makes it a Class 1 Felony that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison if you record police officers on duty (as well as some other state officials, such as judges, state’s attorneys, etc.)

Earlier this month, Judge Stanley Sacks, assigned to the Criminal Courts Building in Cook County, became the second county judge to recently rule the law unconstitutional. However, that in addition to the recent acquittals of Illinois residents Tiwanda Moore andMichael Allison who violated the act, was not good enough to convince 59 representatives in the Illinois House. Only 45 voted in favor it. The amendment would have modified the exemptions under the current act to allow citizens to record police on public duty on public property. It states:

A person who is not a law enforcement officer acting at the direction of a law enforcement officer may record the conversation of a law enforcement officer who is performing a public duty in a public place and any other person who is having a conversation with that law enforcement officer if the conversation is at a volume audible to the unassisted ear of the person who is making the recording. For purposes of this subsection (q), “public place” means any place to which the public has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, sidewalks, parks, and highways (including inside motor vehicles), and the common areas of public and private facilities and buildings.

Read more at Breitbart.com. By Rebel Pundit.