Statement in Support of #RightToRecord

In an open letter to the documentary community published today at The Talkhouse, filmmaker David Felix Sutcliffe describes a disturbing pattern of citizen journalists – those who document police killings of black and brown civilians – being targeted and arrested by law enforcement in response to their reporting. Most recently the pattern includes Diamond Reynolds who livestreamed the aftermath of Philando Castile’s shooting, Abdullah Muflahi who documented Alton Sterling’s shooting, and Chris LeDay who uploaded a video of the shooting. Other targets of arrest – and harassment – include Kevin Moore, who filmed Baltimore police dragging Freddie Gray into the back of a van, as well as Ramsey Orta, who documented a Staten Island officer asphyxiating Eric Garner.
http://www.documentary.org/righttorecord


Read the Guardian Report too:
Film-makers demand inquiry into ‘targeting’ of people who record police
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/10/filmmakers-citizen-journalists-justice-department-investigation