Cross, Gaffney, Schmitz Vote Against Easing Recording Prohibition
I have written how reformer State Rep. Jeanne Hurley got snookered into sponsoring a bill in 1957 to prohibit reporters like Jack Mabley from using tape recordings of legislative corruption.
Hurley married Paul Simon and is Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s mother.
The retired State Representative who told me the story was Roland Libonatii. After taking a busman’s holiday to the Illinois House Chambers, we were in the Amtrak Station waiting for the train back to Chicago.
Marvelous story of how those close to the Currency Exchange scandal took steps to try to prevent others from getting similar evidence of corruption.
So, now people have cell phones and record everything imaginable, even police making arrests.
And the policemen don’t like being held accountable.
You can see that from this recent YouTube taken by professionals across the street from a Chicago Hospital where a little girl had been taken after having been shot by a gang banger. (Thanks to Illinois Review for pointing me to it.)
So, why is House Republican Leader Tom Cross leading the way to coverup wrongdoing?
You tell me. I didn’t hear the debate.
Here’s the 45-59-1 roll call vote on House Bill 1944:
Besides House Republican Leader Tom Cross, State Reps. representing parts of McHenry County who voted against the reform bill include Kent Gaffney and Tim Schmidt. Democrat Jack Franks was missing from the House floor today. State Rep. Mike Tryon voted in favor of the measure.
Here’s how the synopsis describes the bill:
“Provides that a person who is not a law enforcement officer nor acting at the direction of a law enforcement officer may record the conversation of a law enforcement officer who is performing a public duty in a public place and any other person who is having a conversation with that law enforcement officer if the conversation is at a volume audible to the unassisted ear of the person who is making the recording.”
