A Maryland man is facing 16 years in prison for videotaping an undercover police officer who pulled him over on his motorcycle. Anthony Graber posted footage of the gun-wielding plainclothes cop on YouTube and was promptly arrested. His actions, say the police, violate U.S. wiretapping laws that require both parties to consent before a private conversation can be recorded. That's "a stretch, to put it mildly," says Adam Cohen at Time. Surely a police officer pulling someone over on a busy highway is "engaging in a public act." Not only that, says Chris Matyszczyk at CNet, but the police themselves have a "highly technological penchant for dashboard cams." If they can sell that footage to crime-stopper TV shows, why can't the public do the same? Watch the incident below:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - February 22, 2025Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - bricking it, I can buy myself flowers, and more
-
5 exclusive cartoons about Trump and Putin negotiating peaceCartoons Artists take on alternative timelines, missing participants, and more
-
The AI arms raceTalking Point The fixation on AI-powered economic growth risks drowning out concerns around the technology which have yet to be resolved
