Friday, August 14, 2009

Police were called to the Thursday evening meeting of the Cape Vincent Town Board, an attempt to stop a citizen from videotaping the meeting.



(Click for You Tube Link)

Police were called to the Thursday evening meeting of the Cape Vincent Town Board, an attempt to stop a citizen from videotaping the meeting.

In the video, now posted on YouTube, town supervisor Tom Reinbeck opens the meeting by telling John Byrne to take his video camera out of the room.

"John, I want to ask you to take your camera out of the room. Out," Reinbeck says on the tape.

"It's against the law," says another voice on the tape, believed to be Mr. Byrne.

"I'm not going to argue it. It's been disruptive of the meeting. It's been disruptive of meetings before this. It goes," Reinbeck answered.

Angry protests are heard from others in the audience as Reinbeck gestures to Byrne to leave. When he doesn't, Reinbeck directs someone to call police.

Several minutes pass before police arrive. In the meantime, the angry protests continue, with Reinbeck not commenting.

The police officer then phones the sheriff's department and there's a wait of several more minutes for the sheriff's department to arrive.

The tape ends with an apparent sheriff's deputy arriving, consulting briefly with Reinbeck and the two going outside to discuss the situation.

According to The Watertown Daily Times, Mr. Bryne was allowed to keep his camera in the meeting.

The issue of wind power development has polarized the town of Cape Vincent.

Byrne is said to be a member of the group Wind Power Ethics Group. He has an unpublished phone number and couldn't be reached.

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