It's stressful having your picture taken. Just ask a celebrity.
Oh look, here's one now! (That's Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the left.)
Now lots of people are photographing cops, too.
Kind of like paparazzi looking for celebrities to do something "embarrassing," many people take pictures of the police in order to have a record if there are any wrong-doings going on or in case there are any disputes about an incident later.
So I'm not surprised cops might get nervous about people taking photos or videos of them. Especially since so many people are carrying phones that can do both.
Cameras can help us catch bad behavior.
Like this litterbug...
...or the death of Eric Garner at the hands of police officers.
Just because there are plenty of good cops doesn't mean we can't insist on accountability for all.
Making sure only good cops are policing our communities is our constitutional right.
It falls under that whole First Amendment freedom-of-speech thing.
You can take any pictures you want when you're in a public space. (But don't be a creep — that's just manners.)
Some might even say it's our duty.
It's like every time you record police activity, Ben Franklin is by your side.
And so is the ACLU. So don't let anyone intimidate you just because they have a badge — you're doing the hard work of increasing accountability and protecting democracy.
To help you remember all this, the actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt teamed up with some musicians and the ACLU to recap all of the above in a song.
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