| NEWS | Film from p 11 obstructing police and the other is not, all other things being equal, Kleminich said. Other attorneys agree. “This law is blatantly unconstitutional,” First Amendment attorney Dan Barr told New Times. “I’m tired of this legislature passing bills that they know are unconstitutional. The legis- lative counsel surely said it was unconstitu- tional. They went ahead and they passed it anyway.” Kavanagh, however, has no qualms about the constitutionality of his newly codified law. “The problem that the rules people had … I think we got that taken care of,” he said. A dozen community members officially supported the bill. More than 600 people and groups opposed it. Officially, not a single police group supported the bill. True police supporters would be gung-ho on accountability to weed out the bad cops, Barr and others argued. “We believe that this bill stacks the deck against the public check on officer miscon- duct,” Timothy Sparling, of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. The National Press Photographers Association also sent Kavanagh a letter in February opposing the measure. “We are extremely concerned that this language violates not only the free speech and press clauses of the First Amendment, but also runs counter to the ‘clearly estab- lished right’ to photograph and record police officers performing their official duties in a public place,” the letter reads. The new law is reminiscent of questionable legislation introduced by Arizona Republicans in the past. In 2017, Scottsdale Republican Jay Lawrence floated a ban on wearing masks at public events, but it failed to account for events where disguises may be expected, such as a Halloween festival. The bill was introduced soon after the Phoenix Police Department tear-gassed a crowd of thousands protesting former President Donald Trump’s rally downtown. Some of the provocateurs wore masks to disguise their identities and protect against the noxious fumes. That bill, also deemed unconstitutional by its skeptics, was gutted and later died in the Senate. “Kavanagh dreams up these bills that are not based on any real-world activity,” Barr said. Kavanagh, the fourth-term senator, 12 argued that filming close to a police encounter creates safety concerns for all involved, but did not bring up a specific inci- dent. He also believes there’s no justifiable reason to record video at a distance of eight feet, a stance opposed by the National Press Photographers Association. “Nobody walks up to a cop when he is questioning a suspicious person or arresting Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons Bill sponsor John Kavanagh. somebody and stands 1 or 2 feet away,” Kavanagh said on Arizona PBS. “Common sense says you’re asking for trouble.” In fact, Kavanagh told New Times that “footage taken from 8 feet is actually better than footage from 3 feet.” Nobody is buying Kavanagh’s claims about trouble-making videographers, Barr said. And there’s already a law on the books in Arizona stating it’s illegal to interfere with police work. Kavanagh claims that the old law isn’t suffi- cient to stall the camera-wielding agitators who routinely antagonize the Phoenix Police Department. “‘Interfere’ means to physically obstruct,” he said. “Standing nearby isn’t interfering, so the law is necessary.” The preexisting law defines obstruction as “using or threatening to use violence or phys- ical force” to hinder police activity. But redefining interference wasn’t the true motivation behind HB 2319, Barr speculated. “Internally, it doesn’t make any sense,” Barr said. “You don’t have to be an expert in consti- tutional law to see that they’re criminalizing protected First Amendment activity to discourage people from taking videos. The motivation behind the bill, frankly, is for these videos to not exist.” It’s an accountability concern that comes as law enforcement agencies in Arizona face mounting scrutiny and lawsuits. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a sweeping investigation into the Phoenix Police Department and the city of Phoenix for a series of alleged police miscon- duct issues, including excessive force and retali- ation against protesters. More than 100 demonstrators in Phoenix were corralled and arrested with a copy-and- paste probable cause statement during protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020, sparking an active lawsuit. Cops in Arizona also have killed more people this year than any other state except California and Texas, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research collaborative that keeps tabs on police-involved deaths around the country. The new law is bound for the courts, where the outcome is anyone’s guess. JULY 28TH–AUG 3RD, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
