What an outrage! A street artist and activist, Chris Drew, was selling $1 silk-screened patches in Chicago to protest the city's strict laws about when and were art can be sold. He anticipated being arrested, which he videotaped.

Then, instead of a quick trip to jail and video to be used as evidence of the ridiculous nature of the laws, he wound up being charged for the act of videotaping the arrest itself—Illinois has a law making it illegal to record any conversation without all parties consenting, and this includes in-public conversations involving the police.

I can't imagine how this came to be or how it could be upheld—what about surveillance videos that are everywhere and what happens when police are behaving badly during an arrest?

It's not just a petty issue, either; the artist faces up to 15 years in jail. Unbelievable. Regardless of the issue of when and where artists and others should be able to sell their work, the idea that recording a police officer's voice in public could even theoretically lead to 15 years in jail is frightening.