The story of the Nashua man’s arrest for audio/videotaping police while ON HIS PRIVATE PROPERTY goes on. As details continue to come out regarding the circumstances of the story, it becomes more apparent that the police may have been concerned, not with the ACT of the taping, but with what was actually ON said tapes. Now that the story has gained widespread attention, the Nashua police have decided to get a second opinion on whether charging this case is such a good idea.The Saturday Nashua Telegraph reports police have given details of the case, including the videotapes, to the County Attorney’s office for a review of how the charges might be handled. The paper quotes the Nashua police chief:
“We don’t get it right all the time. Although I am not condemning the officers . . . I don’t have all the facts. If it turns out when I do have them all that we erred, then I will be the first to admit it. We wanted to be confident, early on. . . . We wanted a prosecuting source to look at it objectively. Technically, the charge is an accurate one, but sometimes what’s technical and what’s good common sense is not necessarily mutual.”If prosecution isn’t warranted, it’s best to find out sooner rather than later."
Hmmm… sounds like the police have had a change of heart. Again from the Telegraph piece:
“I don’t want to run him through the wringer here,” Hefferan [police chief] said of Gannon [the accused]. “If it isn’t there, I want to know about it and I want to know about it early… There was some suggestion that we dismissed his complaint out of hand and merely took the tapes to keep it quiet. That is not the case at all,” Hefferan said.
The main reason for my following and updating this story is to focus on private property rights, or lack thereof. It is not to simply crank on the police. However, it is their conduct in a criminal investigation (which I have no problem with- investigating crime is what they are SUPPOSED to do) that brought this whole mess upon the hapless homeowner. Apparently, according to the Telegraph piece, the homeowner was not the only person upset with the police and their activities in their investigation (of the alleged criminal behavior of the homeowner’s son):<p/>
At one point, a young pregnant woman who lives in the building arrived home with her child and couldn’t get into her parking space because police cruisers were blocking it, the Lessards [neighbors of the accused] said. A resident asked an officer if he could move the cruiser, Trisha Lessard said. “He was trying to be nice about it,” and used the word “please,” Lessard said. The officer refused, she said. “He said, ‘I’ll move when I’m done,’ ” she said. Trisha Lessard said she leaned toward another officer to try to read his nametag or badge number during the incident and was rebuffed. “He said, ‘What are you looking at?’ ” she said. “I said, ‘I’m looking for your badge number.’ He said, ‘It’s none of your goddamned business,’ ” and turned away, she said. “I was just taken aback by their rudeness,” Trisha Lessard said. <p/>I predict that the charges will probably get dropped against the homeowner. Will it be due to the re-discovery of property rights… or the negative light this sorry affair has shined upon the Nashua police, and the city at large? Nashua has been named several times "the best place to live in America." With police allegedly using heavy-handed tactics trampling on private-property rights, one wonders how this might play into deciding who wins that prestigious title in the future.
