unless the video is, shall we say, lost somehow...
Posted on 09/26/2013 4:46:03 PM PDT by marktwain
A man in Crawford County, Mich., was arrested and charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon on Sunday after he called authorities about a trespassing suspect on his property, his wife tells TheBlaze. There are also serious allegations being made about officers demanding that video footage of the incident — taken by the man’s wife — be deleted.
Thomas Donald, a military veteran, was reportedly out hunting with his 11-year-old son and armed with an “unloaded” single-shot .410-gauge shotgun (his son chose to use a crossbow instead) when he confronted a man riding a dirt bike on his 10 acres of land. The man and his son then reportedly escorted the trespasser to the front of his property and told his wife, Heather, to call the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to file a “recreational trespass.”
What happened when the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department arrived shocked them both, though Sheriff Kirk Wakefield tells TheBlaze quite a different story.
In an exclusive interview with TheBlaze, Heather Donald recounted what happened from the couple’s perspective. Her husband, Thomas, declined to speak with us on the advice of his attorney and due to the charges against him. His attorney also declined an interview request.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
It sounds like pretty clear violation of rights, including the first amendment. The Seventh Circuit has ruled that you have a constitutional first amendment right to record police in the performance of their public duties.
The Sheriff's story does not seem to hold together.
Police should stick to their assigned duties: Raising revenue for the welfare state from innocent civilians attempting to legally go about their day.
in Spokane Wa the cops are all going to get cameras attached to their uniforms....not sure I like the idea but at least there will be accountability.....
unless the video is, shall we say, lost somehow...
He may not be able to hide behind his badge on this one.
One of biggest problems for a free society is how to keep the police from being corrupted by their power. The Romans even had a phrase for it:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
“Who will guard the guards themselves?”
We may have found a partial solution in our ubiquitous recording devices and courts willing to uphold the inherent right to record police officers in the performance of their public duties.
A recording of police attempting to stop a recording device should be prima facie evidence of deprivation of rights under color of law.
Shouldn’t deleting a video of the arrest be considered destruction of evidence?
It appears that backup recording devices, or devices that upload to remote cloud databases in real time, will become more popular.
I don’t believe the guy pointed the weapon at anyone, much less in the direction of the officers.
It was dumb to hold it up and broken but, it’s even number that a cop can’t tell the gun is in safe.
I wonder if the “tresspasser” is related to some local elite, or someone in the Sheriff’s department.
I notice that there is no mention of the supposed tresspasser’s name. Suppossedly the trespasser was given a ticket. There should be a public record of it.
in Spokane Wa the cops are all going to get cameras attached to their uniforms....not sure I like the idea but at least there will be accountability.....
************************************
Don’t count on it ,,, the video will only be seen if it helps them... just like the DVR in-car camera...
You can see by the photos that the peasant Donald has been forced to assume the proper position when addressing his Donut Blimp Magic Costumed Betters - on his belly, eating grass.
A little off subject butI read someplace today those cops in Arizona that shot and killed the Marine in his home in front of wife and child paid 3.4 million to the family.
It appears that backup recording devices, or devices that upload to remote cloud databases in real time, will become more popular.
***********************************
I have a “spy” pen dvr that cost me under $15 on eBay ... takes great video and audio...
The local cops are getting uppity in my town ... I can get GPS trackers for under $30 with GPRS realtime broadcast! ,,, I might just attach a few to the Mayors car (hey it’s my car .. I paid for it) and a few popo cars just to REALLY stir them up...
Excuse me. I’ll bet it’s the taxpayers who paid $3.4 million to the family.
Insurance
Good point.
Premia paid by the taxpayers.
The good news is that the insurance company may refuse to cover them if they don’t tighten up their use of deadly force policies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.