Well, after my rant about a photographer being hassled by private security at Union Station, it’s refreshing to see that a jury in Galveston, Texas cleared a photographer accused of interfering with police (additional commentary from Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection). I’ve got to agree with Thomas on this one — the police involved actually deleted pictures from the photographer’s camera that could have directly proved his innocence (and in fact since the imbeciles didn’t erase everything, there was an index left over that noted some of the images had been deleted after he was arrested … whoops!), not only trying to cover their own asses but, ironically, obstructing justice as they did so. Time for a civil suit!

Before anyone complains that I shouldn’t be encouraging yet more lawsuits (since in recent times lawsuits have only increased the prevalence of stupid disclaimers and idiotic warnings when corporations get nailed, and more repressive laws when civil servants get busted), this is actually the kind of thing that needs to be litigated. Infringing on a citizen’s rights is one of the worst things a government agent can do, and it needs to be exposed, highlighted, punished, and ultimately corrected. Every time, without exception.

Right now, the culture we live in reasons that “if you get caught doing something bad, it’s because you weren’t hiding it well enough.” That’s the wrong message, and it’s one that will take a generation to weed out. Keep exposing the abusers and the frauds, and every time someone finds a new, clever way to hide wrongdoing, expose it too. Keep sending the correct message: “if you do something bad, you’ll be caught, punished, and removed from your position of trust. Every time.” Ultimately, this message will in turn lead to a conclusion: “if you are trusted, don’t do bad stuff.”