The Philadelphia police have shown a pattern of wrongfully arresting people who videotaped officers in public, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. The complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union was drawn up on behalf of a Temple University photojournalism student, Chris Montgomery, 24, who was charged with disorderly conduct for using his cellphone to record the police during a large altercation. The phone was confiscated and the video erased, the lawsuit said. The complaint is the first of several that the Pennsylvania A.C.L.U. plans to file alleging retaliatory behavior by officers, said Mary Catherine Roper, a lawyer for the organization. It seeks monetary damages and confirmation of the public’s right to videotape the police, she said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/us/pennsylvania-police-accused-of-retaliatory-arrests.html?partner=rss&emc=rss