it’s going to be a really rocky campaign trail: Rep. Steve Chabot Criticized By Tea Party Activists For Seizing Cameras From Democrats At Town Halls

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/steve-chabot-tea-party-cameras-town-halls_n_936465.html

WASHINGTON — After banning and confiscating cameras at his town hall events, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) is taking heat from all sides — including from Tea Party activists Eric Odom and Judson Phillips.

At a town hall meeting on Monday, a Chabot staffer directed a Cincinnati police officer to seize video cameras and cell phones from two Democratic activists who were attending the event.

This is the first report of cameras being confiscated at Chabot’s town halls, although he has been banning them since at least June.

Chabot spokesman Jamie Schwartz said the policy was meant “to protect the privacy of constituents,” saying there were “multiple instances where constituents voiced their concern about being videotaped when asking a question that revealed private information.”   [private info shouldn’t be shared in a public forum in the first place !]

Members of the media were also filming at Monday’s event, but their cameras were not taken.

. . .

The controversy has yielded a rare moment of agreement between progressives and Tea Party activists. Odom sharply criticized Chabot in an email to supporters on Thursday, writing, “Just when you think you’ve seen it all… a story breaks about a Republican Congressman (or his staff) instructing police to confiscate cameras from constituents in the audience of a townhall event! Yep, you read that right, at a public townhall event, in a public venue (high school gym), hosted by a public official and coordinated by public staffers, personal/private cameras and cell phones are now being forcefully removed to keep video footage from hitting YouTube.”

. . .   at Chabot’s next town hall meeting, scheduled for Monday, cameras will not be confiscatedand individuals will be able to ask questions directly.

“We will be modifying our policy to allow individual citizens to bring cameras to our town hall events and will be instructing those in attendance that if they have a private question for the Congressman that he will be available to meet with them after the meeting concludes,” he said.

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