today on r t if you thought your cyber freedoms were safe you better think again after admitting to occasionally spying on average americans is the n.s.a. taking cyber intelligence to the next level some in congress seem to think yes we'll tell you why. a. days after a deadly police shooting the anaheim community is still reeling hundreds taking to the streets to protest police violence as the mainstream media catches up to anaheim get another police shooting has occurred will fill your land. and the anaheim incident wouldn't have been as public if not for the terrifying images witnesses gathered with their cell phones but filming a police officer could land you in trouble in some places so where's the accountability and how can we keep law enforcement in line question more.

it's wednesday july twenty fifth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r.t. well from so books assist but several bills have surfaced in congress lately that aim to regulate the internet and telecommunications now this has alarmed internet activists that say government spying can lead to abuse but at least one senator is leading the way to protect internet freedom senator ron wyden has been very vocal on the issue and he spoke out against vice a today at the cato institute here's what he told r.t. . plus certain certainly the government stated that there has been a violation of the fourth amendment. protections of individuals privacy and you

start down that road in the minds of the confidence in our government i'm just not going to accept that is the standard way of doing business. advice of his past back in two thousand and eight and allows the government to wiretap and monitor international phone calls and set to expire soon but there's an app for it in congress now to renu the controversial legislation for more on this government spying program aaron swartz founder of demand progress joins us now aaron welcome so let's say fight so we're to be renewed what exactly would that mean for american citizens of what danger could that pose bill is a think you know one of the things we've seen is that the government has used this law as a technique to do much more than it says on its face you know originally like you said it was designed to intercept international phone calls it wasn't about spying on americans but instead to governments interpreted it to say that any american who calls someone internationally or is in

a conversation that uses international computers or phone lines cannot be spied on and in fact is as senator wyden pointed out the government's ability even not they haven't been able to stick to and they've broken the law under fire and spied on people who it's not even legal to spy upon in the first place so i you are saying that they got with government spying naturally there is a tendency there for for that power to be abused. well yeah definitely i mean i think once you open the door and put these kinds of procedures in place where it just becomes a routine part of the government investigations and even now it seems as if the government has whole departments just listening to all international phone calls all international computer communications e-mails internet records just kind of digging through this massive trove of data to see if they can find something on anyone once you have this infrastructure in place it's easy to use it for not just terrorism but for regular crimes for you know petty complaints that the executive department has for all sorts of things now this is the first time that the

government has acknowledged that. these wiretapping of telephone calls has violated the fourth amendment rights the n.s.a. actually acknowledge this here is what senator wyden had to say about this admission this is the first time as i indicated the sound man that the government has disclosed that right. violation of fourth amendment to privacy rights is the first time where the government has a knowledge that finds a court. this is not in the spirit of the fundamental fact i believe that this is going to have a. possibility for a different debate in this coming up in the fall months was pushed so hard to have that information declassified and that was a response to our producer was asking you know why isn't there more support in congress senator wyden has really kind of been at the forefront of this fight for

internet privacy or internet freedoms but he seems to be one of a few of the loud voices kind of speaking out against this but he's saying that hopefully that this could be a game changer and get more people on board now that this admission has been made do you think that that that can happen. i mean let's not under emphasize the importance of what's another one has revealed government that they have broken the law they have missed that the courts have said what they're doing is illegal and now they want congress to rubber stamp it anyway they've gone to congress and say look we always applause you know we always comply by the law everything's been approved by the courts we now know that it was a law that they were misleading congress in order to get the stuff approved that's huge and it's important people know this it hasn't gotten enough coverage thankfully we can get the word out but i think once people understand that i think it's going to be a whole new debate about usually this stuff is presented to congress as this is

just standard stuff we do it every year it's to fight terrorism how could you be against that we now know that what the government has been doing is in fact illegal and now that now that we know that now that at least they've admitted it happened at least one time away we don't even know the scope of this exactly because they were kind of limited and the information that they did disclose but i ask again they always play they always say oh it's classified it's national security you can know exactly how we've used it and that's why what senator wyden has been doing is so crucial he's been pushing hard to hint and to demonstrate to us that there's a lot more going on that we don't know about that they're keeping secret that many people would think is actually against the law and aaron talk about the implications of this i mean now that we know that at least to some extent that the fourth amendment has been violated under faisel i mean that means that government officials conducting surveillance do not need a warrant so i mean what does that mean for for our rights to privacy to the fourth

amendment. i mean you know there's a reason it's in the bill of rights is fundamental to our constitutional order that the government doesn't get to just spy on you that they need at least independent improver they need to go to a nonpartisan independent judge and get permission right i mean if it's common sense and it's the foundation of our constitution the government is constrained by having someone else check off to make sure they're not abusing their powers what senator wyden has released and what he's hinted that is that the government is no longer doing this anymore that they've declared whole classes of information including the location of everyone in america as the tempted by their cell phones which report back to the cell phone companies where they are the government is now sweeping all of that information together without any warning they're spying on where everyone is all the time without getting a court to sign off on it that's a huge shift and very scary and it is sounds absolutely sounds very scary the

n.s.a. has refused to give congress an estimate of how many citizens private conversations are being captured and there's a vast database i mean are there is there any indication or any clue at just how you know the magnitude of this but i think the fact that they can it gives you all the clues they need you know if they were following the law they're supposed to follow careful minimisation procedures to make sure all the targeted suspects are spied on or only those conversations or listen to if they're spying on so many people they can't even count them they are clearly not following the minimization procedures the way congress intended they're clearly not minimizing this of all there and i want to ask you what do you make of the government's assertion that these wiretaps are all done in the name of protecting against terrorist threats. look i mean you know i'm not sure to support terrorism i think very few people are what i'm here to say is the constitution has protected us for hundreds of years and

what it said is very simple it's not particularly onerous at all all it says is that you have to get a judge to sign off on it you have to go to someone independent and say this is look right to you can you double check if the government not willing to do even that but i think it's not about protecting terrorism it's about doing stuff the people that they're embarrassed so that they can't get anyone else to approve that should be scary that's not about protecting us that's clearly about doing something wrong all right well us senator why it why it is one of the few that is now speaking out and he was speaking out today at the cato institute erin on how confident are you that this will not be renewed you know i think it's up to us you know that's what the men progress that org we're trying to organize as many people as possible to talk about the spying issues to raise them with their members of congress like i said this is usually something that sails through but if not people go to demand progress that org and sign up and contact the members of congress we can raise this to the level of a serious issue we can force

a real debate and we can stop at this time aaron thanks for coming on the show really appreciate it that was aaron swartz he is the founder of the man progress well i chaotic and violence in anaheim california as police clashed with protesters . no i. was. very. serious harald of rocks and other objects so police clad in riot gear police resorting to shooting rubber bullets and using pepper spray on the crowds of protesters now yesterday marked the fourth day of demonstrations they sparked after police shot dead a man that was apparently unarmed some protesters believe it was racially motivated and is just one example of a corrupt police force in anaheim for more now scott shackford editor of reason dot com joins us now welcome scott so things are heating up and anaheim do you think

this outrage will lead to real change you'll have to keep an eye on what's going on with you know hind city council they had a meeting last night which was taking place while this police action was going on and from what the news report said the following day today the city council does appear to be treating it seriously they're asking the federal government to come in and investigate the two police shootings the just. ok and so i mean does it look like i know a lot of members of community are calling for the the feds to get involved does it look like what is the likelihood of that happening. we'll have to see i think the likelihood is fairly high especially if the city council is supporting the action in the appear to be so that sending a message essentially that the city council is not necessarily behind the police's description of what happened right now the police union has come forward and is

defending the shooting claiming that the gentleman who was running running away running away who was unarmed the officer believed that he had something in his belt but there was no weapon found and that doesn't appear right now that that is that is believed by the city council or by them here and that kind of. the center point of this argument why people are so outraged at the fact that this man was not armed and that stirred of protests hundreds of people taking to the streets protesting this. and there is reports that violence is occurring on both sides with demonstrators hurling things that police police firing back with the rubber bullets and with pepper spray but i mean what do you think do you think that this really times of brutal crackdown on the demonstrations were justified. well i was actually last night i spent most of the evening watching an independent

reporters a life feed of the protests and the police and he was on the police side unfortunately i could not see much of the protesters but we did see the police behavior and the police did appear to be just shooting indiscriminately peep at protesters at people in the street the reporter himself was shot at more than one occasion despite having a press pass and and identifying himself as a reporter but protesters did destroy some some store fronts through threw things through glass windows so it was definitely two sided now what i also don't know is whether the violence from the protesters really happened before the police started shooting or after. all right and so this is kind of this incident has kind of ignited this whole debate to your knowledge is this an isolated incident or is this kind of a culmination of a systematic problem within the police force in anaheim. well they've had

five deadly shootings so far this year which is more than last years so there's a true there's an upward trend going on with the in a police as far as using force and in the los angeles area as a whole even though we're seeing less violence against police officers we're seeing greater instances of shootings by police officers this year and it's definitely a trend that's slowly increasing. and it's a trend i guess that people are taking notice of scott i do want to bring attention to something that's happening and taxes the mainstream media has finally caught on to anaheim and the fourth day of protests but some are wondering where they were on day one you know now but now there is similar outrage in dallas hundreds of protesters there taking to the streets this was after an officer was shot and killed shot and killed a suspect that reportedly was on arm so it's happening and more place than one i

mean what do you think is going on here it doesn't seem i mean when we see more than one instance not just within anaheim but in other states across the country i mean is this systematic throughout our police force in the u.s. . isn't this a difficult question to answer as as we discussed a lot one of the things that we're discovering now as as we are more and more capable of recording police behavior we're seeing more and more what the police have been doing and we don't really know how long they've been getting away with certain types of behavior it's only now as citizens are more and more capable of showing us what the police are actually doing which is different from what shows up in the official police reports that we really understand the nature of the problem so it may be a maybe we'll never know how bad it used to be in all we could do is judge as we move forward how accurate police are in reporting what actually happens now

a lot of this is a story as you just hinted at because because a lot of it was caught on camera and so do you think because of this this travel you know everybody now almost everybody carries a with a camera on it that the police will start to be held more accountable for their actions. that is the hope it is a little bit challenging because as is in this case so far police unions are very quick to line up behind their officers and defend their officers and whenever discipline comes down on pleas officers it often gets over ruled it could be very very difficult to get rid of the police officer who's performing poorly unless he or she ends up being arrested for a crime so there will have to be some reform in policies on how we deal with police discipline further be to some long term behavior but i think the recording of police will lead and force this change it's going to have to leave it off at their

appreciate you coming on the show that was scott shackford he is the at it or for reason dot com. well the community's outrage in anaheim is fueled in part by the fact that images of police brutality work caught on camera but across the country we've reported on police demanding people to stop recording them stripping them of their phones even arresting people for rolling the camera and all this has raised questions over our first amendment rights but at least one police chief is making it clear that recording law enforcement is in fact illegal here in washington d.c. police chief cathy lanier ition issued an order explaining the constitutional rights of citizens here is a statement r.t. obtained from the police department states quote while we have preexisting policy that addresses interaction with the media the new general order reaffirms the metropolitan police department's recognition of the first amendment rights enjoyed by not only members of the media but the general public as well to record

photographs and or audio record m.p.t. members conducting official business or while acting as an official in an official capacity and any public splay place unless such recordings interfere with police activity so what will it take for the rest of the country to follow suit to discuss this steve silverman founder and executive director for flex your rights joins us now welcome stephen so sounds like a good effort a good start on behalf of the police department here in washington d.c. do you think it's going to work or think so i think the chief is recognizing what the courts around the country are already recognizing and that is that recording on duty police is protected first amendment activity and that citizens absolutely have the right to do it so citizens have these rights but often times when you're in a situation when you're faced with a police officer and he's either intimidating you or telling you to to put the

phone away or they're going to arrest you i mean how do citizens up. hold these rights right it's important to recognize that all the citizens have the right to record on duty police not all police departments and officers have essentially gotten the memo and so often police officers will intimidate citizens into thinking that they do not have the right to report police but it's essential that in such a situation citizens recognize that they absolutely do have the right to record to the police and they need to understand how to stand up to the police in those situations so i mean despite the fact that this is a fundamental right and most states the majority of the states it still happens so i mean what if they are police officers ignorant of the law in some ways yes a lot of legislatures have come up with wiretapping laws that are a little bit legally complicated but essentially two of the harshest wiretapping laws in the nation in massachusetts and in illinois that made it

a felony to openly record the police essentially was a misreading the courts there have struck that down and have said very unimpaired you asli that citizens have the right to record the police and so why don't police are slowly going to be coming around i mean you know chief lanier has come around and it's going to come one police department at a time in the meantime citizens are going to need to be prepared to assert their right to record police and do it in a very delicate matter now there seems to be this misconception that this first amendment right applies only to the media but not true absolutely not you know the first amendment applies to to anywhere person because any person who has a camera simply you know this device right here is is one the most amazing devices in human history because in the second within seconds you can be recording

police activity perhaps even police misconduct and beamed around the world to potentially billions of people. within seconds and so it's understandable that police are simply just not used to sort of feeling kind of like you know celebrities having paparazzi coming around but they have to recognize that they have a badge and a gun that they have to respect people's right to record and if they're not doing anything wrong they shouldn't feel that intimidated by this power that citizens now and we are seeing the effects of citizens having that power these videos that some of them shocking some of them brutal being caught on tape and really you know putting to light some of these things that really do go on and it's technology that allows allows this for people to see the truth you know but i mean let's say kind of break it down let's say you're you see something here you pull out your phone and you're recording up a police officer doing whatever it is he tells you he threatens you and tells you to put the phone away or he's going to arrest you how can you respond to that i

wrote an article in reason dot com called seven rules for recording police and that really lays out you know all the different these are you doing get a little bit a little bit complicated but the most important thing to recognize that you do have the right to record the police and when you have that camera out you've you install to something like kick q i k which you can install on your phone turn it on and you can be recording in seconds you're holding the phone up you know like this and you're sort of having a conversation with the officer now oftentimes officers will say something like ok i need to step back and you step back there and then you're sort of finding yourself in a negotiation how far back should i step officer at the same time it's important to recognize that any moment that officer may very well arrest you. for recording them even though it's not illegal but call it something like obstruction of justice disorderly conduct but what's happening is these brave citizens like jerome voris

in washington d.c. that this is ultimately the culmination of he recorded the police was taking pictures in georgetown he was arrested and charged with obstruction or something like that ultimately the charges were dropped the a.c.l.u. of course took the case before that and this is the culmination of that case by a brave young men who stood his ground and recorded the police and so it's important understand that in some ways you're engaging in civil disobedience in the sense that you could be arrested at any given moment so it's up to you to decide whether you're willing to be arrested and have perhaps your cause be taken up by the a.c.l.u. and become a court case that's your decision to make but it's important to understand that you do have the right to record police and you should do it because when you see what's you know the footage that happened in anaheim when you have the recording it's able to stand up in court against the police officers were so it sounds like people really need to be knowledgeable as to what exactly in their rights are exactly you

know. in most states this is legal i believe thirty eight states correct me if this is incorrect i believe thirty eight states allow citizens to record police in the remaining twelve states that are they out of luck are what can they do you know in those twelve states where they have what's called two party consent or centrally both parties are supposed to consent to being recorded but even in those states the courts have recognized that a citizen who is openly recording on duty police has the right to do that and that sort of doesn't apply in these cases because police officers as the courts have held do not have an extra. expectation of privacy to not be recorded and so citizens need to understand that the courts are on their. i add on this just about every single case that has gone to court the jury has either thrown it out or the judges have struck it down and so even if the officer arrests you for

disorderly conduct or some catch all misdemeanor it's important to be able to stand your ground remain calm and cool and then afterwards you know protect your footage by you know making sure your swipe code is set one and enjoy a device i highly recommend it even the police are unable to break through these these swipe codes for the most part and so you want to protect yourself and protect your footage by following these steps all right and you know because of these these devices citizens have captured some pretty shocking things with their every day with their with their phones and here is one example of something that happened in d.c. back in may. so you saw him there pulled a man in a wheelchair out of out of the wheelchair to the ground and of course this video

was made public stirred outcry you know but if it wasn't for somebody capturing this on their smartphone things like this would have never been public so this is really playing a significant role. you know changing the way. we law enforcement interacts with with the public and the truth actually getting out there absolutely and so many cases we find that this is capture footage for example young man a university of maryland a few years back. was beaten by riot police for simply skipping along in the police claim that he attacked the horse and ultimately they uncovered the footage from the security cameras ultimately after a little bit of a struggle they captured that footage but they found that the police lied completely and if not for that footage that young man may have

a felony on his record rather than those police officers a right of state in charge and thank you so much become very interesting a lot of useful tips there that was steve silverman he's the founder and executive director for flex your rights. well the capital account is up next on our t.v. let's check in with lauren lyster to see what is on today's agenda lauren i live have you ever been to a farm or farm yourself i have been yeah but it's been a visit farm animals strawberry picking is all you mean but it turns out farming is only farms or investing in farms is quite a good investment especially at a time when markets are manipulated and people. as money is out right stolen from from brokerages like p.s.g. and m.f. global so we are going to tell you all about farming how do you do it where do you do it what if you never want to pick up a shovel well you're going to find out on my show in a few minutes right that's coming up in just a few minutes things laura that's going to do it now for the news we will be right

back here and a half hour see that. mission free. education free. car charger free arrangement free. free. free. old free blog video for your media project free media gone to our t.v. dot com.

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