By Joe LaCorte, News Correspondent
After a man was accused of taking photos and videos up the dresses and skirts of female T riders had his case dismissed by the state’s highest court in early March, amid a public outcry, state lawmakers worked at an accelerated speed to update and amend the law.
The court decision was made on Wednesday, March 5. The legislation was written and passed on Thursday, March 6. “An Act Relative to Unlawful Sexual Surveillance” reached Governor Deval Patrick’s desk and was signed into law on Friday to be put into effect immediately.
“The fact that they were able to acknowledge when they did something wrong and immediately fix it makes me even more proud to be a Massachusetts resident,” Jackie Myers, a middler human services major, said.
Myers previously had a co-op with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, which she said helped assure her faith in the state’s government.
“It makes me feel good to know that I’d be protected by the state here,” she said.
Secretly photographing or videotaping any person’s sexual or intimate parts is now an offense punishable by up to two-and-a-half years in jail and a fine of up to $5,000, which may be increased if the subject is a child, according to the new law. The state’s former voyeurism law was written before camera phones were widely used and stipulated that the targets of this manner of surveillance on the T were not in a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Sarah Bedwell, a graduate psychology student and a T rider disagreed with the ruling.
“Do I think it was right? No, [but] I can see the technicality of the law,” Bedwell said.
“I think they were probably in shock and kind of embarrassed and didn’t want to look bad so they fixed it,” Myers said, adding that in the case of other laws, “people have an easier time coming up with two sides of an argument” than in the hard to argue case of upskirting.
“We will need to revisit this law again and again as technology continues to evolve and ensure that we are providing the necessary protections,” state Senate President Therese Murray said in a prepared statement.
Though many lauded the breakneck speed at which the bill was written and signed, not all are satisfied. Rory Gerberg, a masters in public policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, organized a rally at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard the Wednesday after the bill passed calling for greater measures to be taken protecting women from voyeurism and harassment.
“If a woman is aware such photography is occurring and protests it, as it continues, is the photography legal?” Gerberg said in a piece published in the Kennedy School Review.
Gerberg questioned the new law’s apparent basis on negative rather than positive consent.
“Secrecy indeed implies a lack of consent, but there may be instances where the action is non-consensual but not secret,” she said.
Myers, though happy with the outcome in this case, still said she would “be happy with them exploring further.”
“There’s always changes to be made, there’s always improvements to be done,” she said.
With the potential efficiency of a unified state government proven with the passing of this law, Myers said she hoped that the same effort would be displayed for other major issues in the future.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia, Creative Commons.
