Quote Originally Posted by ']['ear View Post
I tend to despise DAs, whether Dem or Rep, because of their pronounced tendency to enforce the law with an eye to political expediency (see Duke lacrosse case). But I'm not sure I have a problem with the video possession law if it is well written (which this one was clearly not, so let's not go there.) After all, if you knowingly possess stolen goods, it is illegal, right? If you knowingly possess videos of felonies, it's illegal. How is it different? Isn't it essentially aiding and abetting? Do you think it should NOT be illegal to knowingly possess stolen goods?
You made a huge jump there and left out tons of qualifiers. What you should have said was "If you knowingly possess video of a crime that you know could possibly help the police catch the criminal and haven't shown the authorities, then you're aiding and abetting."* That's a far, far, far cry from simple possession of video of a crime. That is distasteful but not criminal (in most cases), and should not be criminal in all cases. If YOU don't commit the crime on the video, all you are doing is just watching or having a video copy of a crime. How that translates to YOU doing the crime is beyond my comprehension.

*Even that is a gray line, because you must give people the benefit of the doubt that (a) the crime is possibly just theater -- fake blood and (b) that the crime is already known by police.