From the Dissenter:
Think
Progress reports that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
last week that police can secretly videotape the inside of your
home without a warrant.
The case involves an undercover officer who entered a suspect’s
home under false pretenses (claiming to be an interested buyer of
contraband bald eagle feathers and pelts), carrying a concealed video
camera. The footage from that camera was used as evidence in the
suspect’s prosecution.
The suspect claimed that the method for gathering the footage
constituted a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights and that the
evidence should have been suppressed. The court ruled that because
what was revealed to the undercover officer during his visit was in
plain sight, the fact that he was secretly recording it is
irrelevant.
Earlier this year, Iowa and Utah became the latest states to
approve “Ag Gag laws” that criminalize undercover investigations
of animal abuse on factory farms. When activists enter a Concentrated
Animal Feeding Operation under false pretenses (usually by getting
hired) for the purpose of secretly videotaping the daily gratuitous
atrocities committed against pigs, cows, chickens and other
livestock, their conduct in states with Ag Gag laws is criminal. The
FBI has recommended they be prosecuted
as terrorists.
So:
Cops lying about their identities and shooting undercover videos
in your house = no problem.
Animal rights activists lying about their identities and shooting
undercover videos of animal abuse on factory farms = terrorism.
