A Texas Senate rep recants his bill seeking to eliminate the right of citizens to film police while on duty

Less than a week after a South Carolina police officer was filmed shooting and killing an unarmed Black man, Texas State Rep. Jason Villalba (R) announced that he would not seek to bring his bill to Congress that would make it illegal for a citizen to come within 25 feet to film the police performing their duties. The only bill’s exception was for authorized news media.

Adamant that the dropping of the bill was in no way reflective of the recent killing of Walter Scott by Officer Michael T. Slager, Villalba says that his bill would not have prevented the passer-by in the vehicle from filming the video that got Slager charged with first degree murder in the shooting of Scott on the 47th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you look at that camera shot, he’s over 50 feet away behind a fence. Under our bill, he could have actually gotten closer,”

says Villalba.

Villalba, admitted though, that his bill was highly unfavorable among Americans across all racial, social and political spectrums.

Opposition to the bill was swift and came from “far-left civil libertarians to our far-right people who believe that we were somehow limiting First Amendment rights.”

-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenStatus)