At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether the charges are dropped or if you're found innocent. What matters is that it'll cause people to think twice ab

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether the charges are dropped or if you're found innocent. What matters is that it'll cause people to think twice about filming the police. What happens when you get arrested? Well, you might end up on the news, miss work because you can't make bail, lose your job because of either of those. Without a job you can't make rent (and finding a new job or housing with an arrest is much harder, even if you were found innocent/charges dropped), without rent you get evicted which nukes your credit and means you can only rent from utter slumlords...you get the picture. And that's assuming you don't have cops who do things like plant drugs to justify further charges. Those most likely to be the victims of police brutality are the same people who are most likely to be living paycheck to paycheck and afraid of getting arrested. It creates a chilling effect, so regardless of the legality of the actions of the police, they won. Edit: Also, consider a cop approaching you and saying "no filming within 8 feet". You're not within 8 feet of the scene of the crime but he's getting close, so you, being a law-abiding citizen, back up. He keeps coming towards you. Pretty soon, your camera can't zoom in far enough to record the original situation. You start to run around him since you can get close to the scene but 8 feet from him and it'll be legal to film...only to get tackled and charged with resisting arrest or other similarly vague statutes. Now you're in even more trouble than before, and are way more likely to get convicted. Oh, and after you dropped your phone during the arrest, it was mysteriously smashed, so now it's your word against the cops...at that point, you might as well just take a plea.