TRI In The News

Wiretap Charge Against Businessman Absurd, Says Rutherford

From One News Now
Original article available here

Franklin, Pennsylvania, faces a federal lawsuit over violating the constitutional rights of a businessman who was using his video recorder.

Skip Dreibelbis, owner of True Blue Auctions, uses the device to monitor his business on a public sidewalk. John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute explains that Dreibelbis was minding his own business.

"Nevertheless two police officers approached him and said he was violating Pennsylvania's wiretapping laws and they would have to arrest him if he didn't put away his video recorder," says Whitehead. "He came to us and now we've filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the police saying they're violating his right to free speech."

Whitehead says that under some wiretap laws, a person cannot be recorded without the person's permission.

"For police to suggest that this activity violates wiretapping laws is absurd. The ramifications of this kind of government mindset does not bode well for the future of freedom," the Institute's president comments.

"There's actually a case I saw recently where a man was on his own private property filming the police arresting somebody. They entered his property. He informed the police that it was his property and they pushed him down and grabbed his camera. So there's sort of a paranoia developing."

Whitehead is hopeful of winning the Pennsylvania case and setting some precedent that police and the public can follow to avoid similar situations.