Free Talk Live

Chris Drew was finally ready to get arrested. An artist and activist, Drew had spent years protesting a Chicago ordinance that puts tight restrictions on where and how people can sell their art on the street. He was downtown, on State Street, selling silk-screened patches for $1 and defying the city to stop him.

Illinois charges you with a Class I felony for recording cops; it's punishable by 4 to 15 years in prison.

"Federal District Court Judge Suzanne Conlon has dismissed an ACLU challenge to the Illinois law that makes recording someone in a public space without their permission a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison."

Illinois man faces five felony charges and 75 years in prison for recording on duty police officers.

Six men say that 20 Chicago cops assaulted, Tasered and Maced them in a private home, with a helicopter hovering overhead, because the men had shouted that "the kids were OK" as cops patted down a group of 10- and 11-year-old kids on the street.

Radley Balko: So last night’s season premiere of The Good Wife was almost a word-for-word adaptation of my piece on the Terrance Huff traffic stop for Huffington Post from earlier this year. Everything from the setting (Madison County, Illinois) to the falsely alerting drug dog, the bad cop, the illegal traffic stop, the illegal search, the forfeiture corridor, it was all in there. They even threw in a little twist about recording cops in Illinois. They also mentioned Huff’s video, “Breakfast in Collinsville.”

The 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that recording an in-person conversation without the knowledge of all parties is only a violation of federal wiretapping law if the person making the recording intends to use the recording for illegal purposes. At least in the states that do not have explicit laws against recording cops, this should nullify the abuses of wiretapping laws against people recording in public.

On Saturday, Police stopped Darrow once again at a DUI roadblock. Darrow's only recording tool was his cell phone which captured 50 seconds worth of the interaction before the phone was seized and Darrow ordered out of his car. Darrow complied, locking the door while his girlfriend waited in the passenger seat. Officer Lane then took the keys out of Darrow's pocket, entered the car without permission, and proceeded to move it down the street.

" Chicago police retaliated against two officers who helped the FBI investigate police misconduct, warning them they risked "coming home in a box because the team won't help you on the street," the officers claim in Federal Court "

they where dealing with the drug war.. but it goes to show what happens when cops talk out.