Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by SilasX 1365 days ago
It would be the same issue if he simply assaulted them with his fists -- the recording would help to determine if he was being threatened.

You can look up the case on Wikipedia and elsewhere if you're curious:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shoo...

Bottom line, it's really not hard to imagine that audio recording would help determine important facts of a case; this shouldn't be controversial in and of itself. The issue is the relative cost to personal liberty.