But the real issue here is not about recording the incident - as you noted, he never asked her to stop recording. My point was that he could have defused the situation by acknowledging that he was okay with her recording and that he was just trying to look out for everyone's well being. The issue was the "how" and "how far" he asked her to move. To me his attitude was more in line with "don't record me, but I know you have a legal right to so I'm going to have you move back so far as to make your recording worthless." It then became a matter that the woman knew her rights and that she wouldn't bend to his will. So he played his more powerful hand and arrested her... The D.A. didn't agree with his decision...
Look... a police officer has a lot of legal tools for his use at his discretion. If he really wants to "run you in" he can always find a way... Objective points such as "driving faster than conditions safely allow" and "failure to observe a traffic device" (that was momentarily obstructed ferom view by a large vehicle.) There are tons of "legal reasons" out there - the difference between a good cop and a bad one is that one knows the proper place and time to apply them and to whom they should be applied. Another point in my previous post was that the entire attitude regarding "civil service" is being changed from a "service" mentality to a "battle" mentality - that doesn't mix well when the officer has an arsenal of laws that can applied at his whim. An unofficial "us" versus "them" attitude is the problem, and is a driving force behind the disrespect that many people have regarding police officers. The general public only knows what they are spoon fed by the media everyday, and they are fed the news about the bad cops. They form their opinion based upon that. Now, if law enforcement as a community wants to improve the public's perception of them, law enforcement is going to have to start ejecting those dregs that managed to get through the academy, instead of going along with the old "wink, wink - nudge, nudge - turn a blind eye" way of doing things when it comes to officers being abusive and overstepping the bounds of the law and common sense.
Am I waffling regarding this occurance? No - I stand by what I originally stated. But at the same time, I will not paint all officers with the same brush. Extremism to one side of the argument or the other reveals an unwillingness to acknowledge the fact that officers are people with different characteristics - some good, some bad. Do I believe there is a growing problem with abuse of power? Absolutely. I believe it comes from the inabilty of the officers to distinguish between a "big deal" and something that is not a "big deal." It seems to me that they feel everything is "a big deal" and that they are going "fix it." Do I believe that the officer in the video handled the situation poorly? Yep, sure do. Wearing a wire in a room full of drug dealers talking about murder is a "big deal" where you are making life and death decisions not only about someone else's life but your own as well. A skiny gal in her PJ's recording you is not a "big deal" if you are not doing anything wrong - you let it go. I have been in the former situation... I wouldn't have had to worry about anything in the latter. The officer in this case didn't know how to keep her from pushing his buttons, he felt he had lost control, and then felt he had to regain it... He crossed the line. He would never make it in the undercover world because he is too concerned about being recognized as being in control. That will get you killed in U.C. work.
The unintended consequences of continued abuse of police powers will be that police officers will start dying at the hands of otherwise peaceful people that see those police actions as a threat to freedoms that shall not be infringed. Law enforcement as an intitution is pushing further toward those consequences every day... They need to put the brakes on and change course. The sad thing is that self preservation of departmental jobs and departmental budgets has become more important than doing the job right. Sad indeed...
Raven6
Cop doesn’t have to explain anything to me or to lefty community organizer pests. If he tells me to do something simple like step back, then I step back. She can’t do that much? Why should I have an ounce of sympathy for her?
She is a sniveling little COMMIE PEST married to (might be just shacking up) a psychology professor at Rochester University. Try to connect the dots