Read the complaint here.

The DOJ’s letter affirmed that recording police officers is a fundamental First Amendment right. The letter relies heavily upon the First Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Glik v. Cunniffe, a case brought by the Law Offices of Howard Friedman and the ACLU of Massachusetts. In that case, Boston police officers falsely arrested a man for illegal “wiretapping” because he used his cellphone to record an arrest on the Boston Common. The federal court of appeals issued a landmark decision affirming the right to record the police.

Read more about these cases at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Check out this great zine about the causes of police brutality and abuse of police powers. Although it was written in Chicago, the issues are the same throughout the country.  

Blue & Black: Stories of Policing and Violence by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams (sponsored by Mariame Kaba and Project NIA).

Perjury prosecutions of police officers for lying before a grand jury simply will not happen because officers and prosecutors have an interdependent relationship.

Lawyer Johnson's self-portrait, made while he was wrongfully incarcerated

The Boston Globe published this article about Lawyer Johnson, our client who was wrongfully convicted and spent 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Our firm obtained compensation for him under the Massachusetts Erroneous Conviction statute.

"Where most people measure the time of their lives in forward progress, Lawyer Johnson measures his life strictly in terms of before and after. Before 1982 and after 1982. He was 30-years-old in ‘82, when a judge freed him from the prison where he’d served time on death row for a murder he didn’t commit. It has been 30 years since Johnson, the last person ever sentenced to death in Mass., was freed. And while 'people tell you that with time you can move on, I haven’t been able to,' Johnson says." James H. Burnett III. “The long, hard half-life of Lawyer Johnson.” Boston Globe April 08, 2012.

Attorney Howard Friedman and Lawyer Johnson on New England Cable News:

Mr. Glik was forced to defend himself against criminal charges of illegal wiretapping, aiding the escape of a prisoner, and disturbing the peace. After a judge threw out those charges, Glik filed a civil rights suit against the city and the arresting officers in federal court in Boston, aided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Boston attorneys Howard Friedman and David Milton. This settlement resolves that case.

The settlement follows a landmark ruling last August by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, declaring that the First Amendment protects the right to record police carrying out their duties in a public place, Glik v. Cunniffe 655 F.3d 78 (2011). The First Circuit's ruling is binding only in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico, but its persuasive reasoning has been cited by courts and lawyers nationwide facing the recurrent issue of police arresting people for filming them.

The Massachusetts wiretap statute prohibits only secret recording of audio. The First Circuit in Glik's case affirmed that an arrest under the statute for openly recording the police would violate not only the First Amendment right to gather information but also the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against false arrests.