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How much should you charge for a photograph?Cop Block Founder Seeking Donations For Upcoming Legal Battle
Despite already facing a two-year jail sentence for two resisting arrest convictions and up to 20 years for three wiretapping charges if convicted on those, Cop Block co-founder Adam “Ademo Freeman” Mueller is still not afraid to stand up to police officers in New Hampshire.
In the above video, he is recording a Londonderry police officer in the Manchester airport who tells him it is a crime to record audio without his consent, which we all know is hogwash.
But Mueller turned off the camera after he was threatened with arrest because he frankly doesn’t need any more arrests on his record at this point.
But shortly after, Mueller returned with a buddy who was carrying the camera to teach the cop a lesson.
“You didn’t really threaten my friend here for video recording, did you,” his friend asks the cop on camera.
“Nobody was threatened,” the cop responds.
Mueller reminded him that he did, in fact, threaten him with arrest.
The cop then walks back inside the airport, proving he was only bluffing when he threatened Mueller with arrest.
If only all of Mueller’s legal battles were that easy.
Last month, he was indicted on three counts of wiretapping charges after he called police and school officials to ask them about an incident that took place at a local high school.
Mueller unfortunately failed to inform the officials that he was recording, which gave them enough evidence to indict him. After all, New Hampshire law makes it a crime to record telephone conversations without consent from the second party.
Now he is trying to decide whether to hire a lawyer, which he calls the “defensive” route, or to just try to win the battle in the court of public opinion, which he calls the “offensive” route.
It really boils down to funding. He needs to raise between $4,000 to $6,000 to hire a lawyer.
But if he raises $3,000, he said he can try to win the case by defending himself while having fellow activists create a public relations nightmare for the officials trying to convict him.
“We’ve done twice before, in Jones County, Mississippi and in Greenfield, Massachusetts,” he said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime Monday.
“We would spend a good amount of time demonstrating outside the courthouse, distributing DVDs and flyers, highlighting that this isn’t really about a victim.”
The ideal thing would be to go both routes, but if he has to choose, I strongly believe he needs to go the defensive route and hire a lawyer.
After all, it’s easy to go the offensive route when the written law is already on your side as it was in the two cases he mentioned when he was arrested openly recording cops in public.
That is not the case here.
Click here to read his description of his dilemma. There is also a link to donate to his cause, to which I hope people contribute.
Below is him describing the resisting arrest charges and his pending jail sentence.
Comments
This is a jury nullification issue to me. Yes he is guilty but I don't think public officials talking to a citizen about public business should have an expectation to privacy. If he did it to Joe Blow citizen then that would be another matter. I don't feel like they are obeying the spirit of the law in this matter. It's just payback for causing them some grief.
I think that Carlos and the rest of you need to read more about Ademo. He is simply an voluntaryist/anarchist who uses the Bill of Rights when it suits his needs. I stopped checking out Copblock because of the extremism of these assclowns.
The openly support a tax protester/scam artist Larken Rose who continues to sell a bogus tax avoidance scheme on his website even though he served 13 months in prison after failing to convince a jury that wages are not income.
Ademo and his group were also arrested for vandalizing the side of a police station during a protest. They claim that since it was children's chalk, it was no big deal. In response to a post that I put on copblock, Ademo stated that since he is forced to pay taxes he believes that he should be able to write whatever he wants on the inside or outside of a public building. I asked if he would have a problem with someone writing "fuck the police" on the inside of a public school. He replied that as long as the building was public he thinks anyone that pays taxes should be able to write on the walls, inside or out.
These guys are not protectors of the first amendment.
Agreed, merlin10. They are infantile and do more harm than good. How ignorant or foolish that he couldn't recognize the threat posed by the wiretapping law.
Here is an excerpt from an article posted on Cop Block by a Military Vet and now a Cop Block Virginia activist.
Nathan Cox served his country in the military because he [initially] felt it was his duty to fight for liberty abroad, yet soon realized the greatest enemy to liberty is right here within our own borders. He now works as an activist informing others of the aforementioned organizations and issues because he feels that is his duty as well as to fight for liberty right here at home.
Indeed as we all know here at PINAC the real battle for liberty is here on the streets of America.
Ademo is a leader in this battle and I personally consider him to be an American hero. Ademo risk his life, his treasure, and his liberty every day fighting for our rights and government accountability
Please help Ademo any way you can.
God Bless,
HONORYOUROATH
PARDON ADEMO!
Excuse me sir, the oath you are referring to is to protect and defend our constitution. I would assume. I am pretty sure Ademo is a anarcho-capitalist and openly seeks the destruction of our constitutional republic. He uses the laws of the constitution as a means to a end to destroy it. He does not recognize the validity of the constitution how can you claim he is honoring any oath to protect it. He states over and over again NO victim NO crime. Like him or hate him the person secretly recorded was a victim. The letter and the spirit of the law was to protect people on the phone from invasions of privacy. Ademo has no respect for any law. NO respect for the Constitution our soldiers died defending.
Cop Block would be better served if first they checked the propaganda they spew on there website for actual facts half the time.
Lies are lies, bullshit is bullshit. Well a enemy of your enemy is your friend. Unless your friend has victims. I think you need to pick better friends.
Harvey,you must be kidding about the cop who was being recorded is a victim! Are you aware that the police were recording Ademo at the very same time and every citizen who calls? Why do you support that double standard? Do you agree that recording public officials should be a crime? Public officials should expect to be recorded while on the job,during the discourse of their duties, and I believe the law should support that.
Also, like you said you can like Ademo or hate Ademo it's your personal choice.But do you believe 20 years in a government cage is reasonable or just? If you were on the jury of his trial would you actually feel comfortable convicting Ademo to 20 years in a government cage? People talk big stuff on the internet but I hope you are not really that hardhearted!
I believe that the law should make it clear the public officials should not have a expectation of privacy. It does not. I would nullify if I were on the jury for his case.I do not support any double standard and if the police have violated the law, the Judge should throw the book at them .They KNOW what the law is. I believe Ademo deserves Mercy,without mercy there can be no justice. I do not think that he is a evil person, I believe he is very misguided. People should be aware of what he is and what he supports before they start throwing him money. He has no interest in any oath. We live in a world that DEMANDS honesty. Not Propaganda and bullshit that Cop block Spews. We have real problems that require REAL solutions. Mixing truth with bullshit does not solve problems.
Harvey,thank you for the clarification and the respectful debate.I'm glad to hear that you would dispense mercy and nullify.
HONORYOUROATH is my youtube channel name.I never claimed Ademo was beholden to any oath. I use that in reference to public officials,LEO's,and military personnel and their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Honoryouroath is certainly more original then Harvey. Thanks for helping defend our Constitution.
Very nicely said. Ademo goes out of his way to force police into overstepping limits. He also believes that cops are obligated at any and all times to stop what they are doing to provide a name and badge number and description of their business on demand. It's ridiculous. I have no sympathy at all for him.
In Maine it is not a crime to voice record someone as long as one party is aware they are being recorded. What about all the NHDea agents recording all of there drug bust's . Do they inform the person they are recording that they are being recordded. I highly doubt it.
It seems there is only a crime if you speak up against the police and the judges. It has become a big brother society. George Orwell was right except for the stench of cabbage. It is a stench of BS from the corrupt cops and corrupt Judges. Do as i say not as i do. Halt and the civil liberties might be whom people need to call in reguards to Ademos case of wire tapping.
I had a serious problem with my divorce in york county , maine. Being a white heterosexual i got screwed. Does anyone think a divorce lawyer should be able to be on the board that oversee's the judge? My ex wifes attorny is on the board that oversee's the judge in my divorce. Conflict if interest. I found that out 2 months after my divorce.
Corruption. I think so. Bought and paid for.
Depriving someone of their rights, in this case to record as in the top video, under the color of law is a Federal offence.
"Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death."
http://bit.ly/wTFHJY
Why isn't the ACLU all over this?
I despise cop abuses of authority and lying and all the shit they have pulled in a great many Youtube videos. I applaud the people who record it and who stand up for their rights in defence of the constitution and in educating the cops about the law. This Ademo and his Copblock people however appear to me to be total tools. I have no use for him at all. I think he's just out to get attention and that he's a self-serving egotist. No sympathy for his charges at all. Useless immature twit.
People like Carlos and Discarted and Honour Your Oath are good at what they do. Ademo and Copblock are arseholes.
Hi John,I thank you for your support and kind words in regard to my work. When it comes to Ademo we can agree to disagree on our personal opinions about him.
However I would like to point some thing out.Carlos created and uses PINAC to bring attention to police abuses of photographers, and photographers rights. The bright light of exposure PINAC brings to the videos and articles posted here have helped many people in their cases against police misconduct or abuse.CopBlock does the same and has helped citizens in their cases.Carlos and CopBlock seem to share lots of content and at times seem to have teamed up exposing police abuse or misconduct.
This is all so frustrating. While it may be this guy's legal right to stick a camera in a cop's face and record him WHY DO IT? This is supposed to be about photography, not about antagonizing law enforcement officers. While some of them may be uneducated on the laws regarding public photography, this is not the way to go about educating them.
Go take some photos and stop causing problems.
It doesn't matter WHY someone takes a picture or video. If they have the right to do it, end of story. You may not like the WHY ,but that's where the rubber hits the road in your beliefs. You should be standing up for people's rights ,not worrying about WHY they choose to exercise them. AND if you disagree with the WHY you swallow hard and fight for them anyway.
This is the actual problem in America. We make a bunch of rules and then when don't like it when people use the rules because we don't like their WHY? We need to become more principle based in our decision making which means we don't always like the way or why, but we stand for the right to do so.
No, it matters. Society is not just a collection of laws, it is the sum of social interactions. A person can act within the law and still bring misery to everyone whose life he touches.
Also, I always find it interesting that some people give the police lee-way when they don't know all the laws. But when a citizen says, "I didn't know that was against the law", the answer is "ignorance is not excuse". Yet they can actually violate civil rights, detain ppl against their will, take their property, money, and physically abuse them with a shrug of "well they can't know all the laws".
We currently live in a land of oppression via law. So many laws no one knows what they are. So many laws they can get you on anything. So many laws, millions of dollars spent on sorting it all out. -- oppression. Everyone's afraid of everyone. Everyone has something on someone. Very sad.
Hey Carlos not to nit pick but Ademo founded Cop Block not Cop Watch.
Thanks for covering this Carlos.
Dammit, I always screw that up. I wrote that headline in haste because I had to run on an assignment but I just fixed it.
I know the difference between Cop Block and Cop Watch. I just subconsciously mix up the two. Like Obama and Osama.
The friend recording was Ian Freeman, host of Free Talk Live. They've been hyping you big-time on the show, Carlos. It sounds like they're really excited about your upcoming Liberty Forum appearance.
I'm looking forward to it!
I wish i was going so I could meet Carlos. When are you coming to the west coast?
I might be speaking at the Unity journalism conference in Vegas August 1-4, but I'm always up for a California visit.
Carlos is becoming quite the celebrity! Soon he will have his own airplane like John Travolta or Led Zepplin! Don't forget about us Carlos.
That would be cool. Then I wouldn't have to worry about missing my flight when I get detained by TSA.
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