Boston Charges “Photography is Not a Crime” Activist with Felony Witness Intimidation for Publishing a Public Information Officers’ Work Phone Number, Suggesting Maybe They Use It

The lead up to this classic case of police intimidation is
a long convoluted story,
told in detail at Carlos Miller’s
Photography is Not a Crime
blog, involving a case of a Boston cop roughing up someone
videotaping him in public. 

The investigation into that case lead to an associate of
Miller’s, Taylor Hardy, being charged with violating wiretapping
statues for allegedly taping a conversation on the phone with
Angelene Richardson, a Boston police public information officer.
Hardy insists he did tell her he was taping. (He had
posted on YouTube, but since taken down, a portion of their taped
conversation.)

Miller now explains:

When Hardy informed me had received the notice of complaint from
the Boston Police Department, ordering him to attend a hearing in
front of a magistrate judge, I wrote about it on this site,
encouraging readers to call Richardson and ask her to drop the
complaint.

After all, as a media spokeswoman, she should understand that
all conversations with the media, unless other stated, are on the
record. In fact, she should insist reporters record her comments to
ensure accuracy.

That led to numerous PINAC readers calling
Richardson, which obviously is something that unsettles this public
information officer, suggesting that perhaps she is in the wrong
line of work.

And that led to Detective Moore filing a criminal complaint
against me for witness intimidation, which I received Friday and is
posted below, claiming that I caused Richardson all kinds of pain
and grief because I posted her publicly available work contact info
on my blog.

He also threatened
to charge any readers who called her, making me think that
perhaps the Boston Police Department is recording all incoming
calls because how else would they gather the evidence to charge my
readers for witness intimidation?

Richardson’s office number is on the Boston police department’s
public web site. She’s a public information officer.
Encouraging people to call her and giving our her number is a
felony in the Boston police department’s mind, because she has
previously decided to use her powers to file a complaint to
intimidate a journalist.

Honestly, once we know and understand that “the police are our
friends,” what other questions would there be to ask, really?

Reason on Carlos Miller. Our January 2011 Radley Balko
Reason classic on “The War
on Cameras.”