Filming Public Servants

Aldercreatures don't want to be filmed?

• A man recording a TikTok video was arrested for allegedly shoving South Side Ald. Gregory Mitchell on Monday morning in the lobby at City Hall, authorities said, in the second altercation involving a City Council member this past week.

  The 47-year-old pushed another man, later identified by sources as Mitchell, 54, in the neck area and was taken into custody, Chicago police said.

  Charges were still pending as of Tuesday afternoon. But the 47-year-old’s wife identified him as the man who had been arrested, and said the 7th Ward alderman reached for her husband first because he was filming Mitchell for a TikTok video and Mitchell wanted him to stop.

  [...]

  Mitchell declined to comment on the interaction to a reporter Tuesday, but before walking away he complained about people recording him without asking.
  

Wait....an aldercreature (a public servant) objected to being filmed (in a public building) and "reached" for the individual filming? This was the lobby, not City Council chambers.

• “You’ve got to ask me to do that kind of stuff,” Mitchell said, blocking the camera with his arm. A male voice, purportedly the man’s, said that Mitchell is a “public servant,” to which Mitchell responded, “Nah, I’m a man too, brother. You will respect me as one.” Then Mitchell is seen grabbing the phone before the video cuts off.
  

Since this guy was live-streaming his phone, there's got to be some contemporaneous footage of the entire incident, right? The aldercreature wouldn't be lying, would he? And he wouldn't be trick-bagging the police to suppress a citizen's right to film politicians speaking in public settings, would he? We recall dozens of hours of training on this stuff.

If we had our way, aldercreatures would be wearing cameras every time they were conducting city business and it would be posted live every day on a YouTube channel.