Posted on 10/03/2016 3:50:17 PM PDT by MeganC
It was an apparent case of retaliation, but you’d have to see the video to believe it.
“Give us a call; we’ll be there when you need our help,” joked Little Rock Arkansas cops Jason Roberts and Thomas Thompson.
The two Arkansas cops who were so offended by a 79-year old legislator who championed people’s Constitutional right to record police in public that they arrested him for recording a traffic stop.
Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner immediaetly dropped the charges against Walker and wrote an apology for the arrest, which was caught on dash cam.
The shocking dashcam footage released last week shows dialogue between the two cops and Walker getting heated as they accuse him of being a “race baiter” for simply standing along the of the street recording them during a routine traffic stop of a black male.
As the dialogue ensues, Roberts and Thomas aggressively approach Walker.
“Mr. Walker, what is your concern today?”
“I’m here just to observe.”
“I’ve observed policemen at times, when they was involved in a case when they were arresting some black boys about ten years ago” said the legislator and civil rights lawyer. “They arrested me for watching.”
“Officer Roberts began lecturing Walker about how the driver had expired tags, and that he was training another officer and treated the guy he pulled over with respect, even though he arrested him for a traffic warrant,” he tried to calmly explain.
“And that’s why he’s in that car,” officer Roberts explained as if he didn’t have the discretion to let the man go without arresting him.
The conversation soon devolves in to Roberts screaming out at Walker.
“You’re a race baiter is what you are, OK?”
“I’m just telling you how it is, Mr. Walker.”
“What did I do?” asked Walker.
” You’re sitting there filming,” replied R0berts.
“This aint the first time you’ve done this, neither. You’ve been doing this since 1994, since I’ve been here” said Roberts.
Police then ask him if he would have stopped to record if it were a white person.
As officer Roberts walked back to his patrol car, apparently to mull over possibly arresting Walker he joked and sarcastically told, “give us a call. We’ll be there if you need our help.”
Which is the thin blue lines way of saying they wouldn’t help him because he chose to exercise his right to record police in public.
Police then ask him if he would have stopped to record if it were a white person.
Officer Roberts then walks back to the patrol car, apparently to mull over possibly arresting Walker and tells him, “give us a call. We’ll be there if you need our help.”
“By all means, call us,” said Thomas.
They then begin giving him directions, telling him where to stand when it was they who approached him.
Little Rock police then came back and arrested Walker, charging him with obstructing government duty.
Although he was released shortly after posting a $1,000 bond.
Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner issued a letter of apology, dropped the charges and cut him a check for the money spent on bail.
One of the officers can be heard saying the 79-year-old civil rights lawyer had been a “thorn in the side of police.”
Walker said he doesn’t accept the apology for his arrest, and expects a lawsuit.
Cops are bureaucrats. No bureaucrat is personally responsible for anything they do - ever. That is the true and permanent foundation of government. That is the true pay for all bureaucrats - absolute, unconditional non-responsibility.
Only Jesus will be able to change that.
Many on FR think BLM sprang whole from the head of Obama, but the truth is there have been cops this stupid and this arrogant for a very long time.
Only now the dirty underbelly of the police state is constantly being caught on video and posted to youtube. Obama has merely exploited and manipulated the zeitgeist as it formed.
Everyone is seeing a piece of the problem from their own perspective like the 3 blind men and the elephant fable and completely missing the fact that there is an elephant in the room at all.
he is right.
The police park where ever they want, and yet where their vehicle is right there is a hazard.
But isn't that what people want? Voting a person into an office to champion the rights of the common man? This legislator is fulfilling the desires of those who voted him into office, rather than just sitting there stuffing his pockets or trying to gain power for himself. That is the problem we have with Obama and Hillary, they both lusted for power and riches but had no noble intentions for the public at large. I say what this legislator did, will help the common citizen.
I've observed quite a few police officers with chips on their shoulders who treat common citizens as beneath them. I worked with police for a couple decades and know good cops. But there are some who will always want to treat "civilians" as a lower life form, and bend the rules in doing so. Some cops need to treat people with respect, and that has nothing to do with worrying about whether they go home at the end of their shift.
And a lot of them don’t want Jesus. I’ve run into trouble by bringing Jesus into a bureaucrat situation. (God still blessed me, but it was most definitely an annoyance before it ended.)
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Google: "Let's kill all the lawyers" is a line from William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2.
The full quote is "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". This quote is among one of Shakespeare's most famous quotes, as well as one of his most controversial quotes.
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Gee, were folks complaining about lawyers 500+ years ago too? :o)
Yes, and it sure seemed like an obvious case of police misconduct. But at 4:11 in the video (post #8) the man crosses the street, and walks right next to the stopped car. Now I see him as partially at fault here.
He wasn’t arrested for recording police. He was arrested for interfering. And he certainly was. This legislator must have a beef with somebody. The police even told him he could record.
True, I get that point too.
This is not an easy situation. The officers may not have wanted that law, they may have had reasons to fear some dangers from it, but still it’s their assigned job to be impartial about it until they can get the political and legal processes to change it.
It was taken as an ipso facto interference, something that the law forbade doing, however. The police chief knew better.
I wasn't talking about Jesus converting them.
In that case why did the police chief cave? A distinction could have been made if it could be legally supported. “You got a law passed to do A, but not B.”
Dude was wrong to walk in the middle of the officers traffic stop but, the cop could have shown more restraint.
I mean as in people who even say they are Christian getting all verklempt about it “oh, you don’t talk about that in this office.”
it is their training by many FTO’s liek this idiot who want to show off in front of the new recruit.
Another problem is that there are poeple who join for the wrong reason.
I knew a guy about two years, well he is a kid aged 21, and who was in the police academy.
He never had an law enforcement background, no military, no college, no nothing , he told me he could nto wait till he gets a job with the sheriffs dept and he can have his police car parked in his drive way for all to see, and he can knock down doors and take names.
He now is with the sheriffs dept here, and I can only imagine how he and others like him are acting.
The problem is with H.R. dept which around here are mostly right out of college females who have no idea about the real world , and think they should hire he or she , and not look at the experience maybe some older guys have who apply.
Just look at these two females. They look like deers in the headlights., and the young guy who looks fresh out of high school.
The cops have ZERO business even talking to the guy. Just do the job and let the man record video in peace. It’s as simple as that, and now the cops have put taxpayers on the hook in case this guy sues and wins (which he likely will).
“Pretty stupid”
Your first two words say it all! And they go to the question of to whom we give the power to police. Based on my experience with LEOs, there are far too many like these two yokels rather than the high-quality professionals we deserve. Just look at this “protectionist chief” who BSes his way through what should have been a couple of dismissals. If these two a$$holes will do this to someone who is known to them, just think about how little compuction they will have to “mess with an ordinary citizen.” If someone took a really hard look at these two, I think they would find out that they are most likely serial abusers.
“Dude” did not walk in the middle of the traffic stop. He was standing well off to the side and not interfering at all.
exactly
Most cops here talk to you like your are garbage, and the sheriff or Chief thinks because they do an barbecue event or do PAL the they are involved in the community.
I;’ve met some great officers, but I have to admit over half of them have a massive chip on their shoulders, and think because they wear their gun and badge they are untouchable.
Most of the time they cause a situation to go even worse than what it is.
They break the law all the time, park wherevever they want, speed to Dunkin Donuts, or work etc. Thehy they are quick to give us a ticket.
My oldest boy went into the marines two weeks after graduation high school. he had two weeks at home , and it was this year. He decided to go to the beach and park. There was no sign , nothing say he could nto park there, but still got a $40 ticket.
That next day I went there to the place and saw the two deputies parked at the gas station blocking the pumps while they sipped their coffee and chatted.
I walked over and said hi and how I was a police officer and can you believe how many people are parked to go to the beach.
he told me and these were his words, and must have felt comfortable telling me this as he thought I had been an officer elsewhere. “ these assholes park here and then wonder why they get a ticket, they are f-in idiots and they will get tickets to cost them.”
So much for professionalism, and they can park and block fuel pumps for their coffee drinking while being in the shade..
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