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.
I think the police chief caved just to avoid any further bad PR. And after watching the whole video, I think the cops on the scene are guilty of nothing more than very bad judgment. They shouldn’t have been arguing with the man in the first place, and they shouldn’t have arrested him. (Just because you can arrest someone, doesn’t mean you should.)
As a side note, this is probably the first time I’ve defended the cops in cases like these. But when the man crossed the street and walked right next to the stopped car, he became the aggressor, so to speak.
The cops interfered with him first. As to the validity of their arrest I’d say the apology from their chief addresses that issue quite nicely.
““This aint the first time you’ve done this, neither. You’ve been doing this since 1994, since I’ve been here” said Roberts.”
Well sho enough, it AIN’T! This Barney Fife needs to be flipping burgers not tossing people around.
” 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. “
NO! That’s ALL COPS need to treat people with respect! It is an absolute. Control the situation, of course, but do it in a manner that shows that you respect the people. They are your “employers,” and from whom every scintilla of your authority comes.
I agree with you 100%. BLM is a reaction to a problem and the solution is to address the problem.
While I don’t support the leftists who are behind BLM I am absolutely in agreement with the people who want the right to record the police and to hold them accountable for violating people’s rights.
Because all too often those same police object to other rights even if they’re codified in law...like the Second Amendment and the right to carry laws that have sprung up in the past few years. Too many cops are still enforcing gun control laws even after those laws have been repealed.
Which is why I can’t say I support the police. I support the Constitution and so should they and I mean the whole thing, and not just the parts they like.
In this instance, these cops may be wrong but, PINAC is a hard core cop hating site. Carlos Miller is a radical left winger and supporter of BLM.
I agree. The cops had retreated from the confrontation with him, so he "pursued" by getting right up in their workspace. This is impeding and he knew better but he did it anyway.
Advance the vid to 4:00. He was walking along the side of the stopped car, within inches of touching it.
This. Plus. Absent from the story is the fact that another lawyer ( walkers law partner?) was arrested prior to walkers arrest.
First atty arrested Walked between driver being arrested & cop & was arrested for interfering with the arrest.
Then Walker circled around close to the scene, but not between the cops & the perp
Imo. There was something set up.
Why are two attorneys sitting out roadside video recording some “random” traffic stop at this exact time & place?
Coincidence???
Sounds like a State Legislator who’s too big for his britches.
You do that and you’ll slow down legitimate law enforcement to a crawl if not stopped altogether.
Good Job!!!
Because he’s black, or because he legislates in accordance withJohn 3:19 King James Version (KJV)Not to equate video evidence with Jesus Christ, but . . .And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Walking right up to the car of the person they were arresting constitute interference.
He stepped in their space and was ordered to a distance they felt gave safe distance, so they continue the original stop.
Another man enters the scene, at the 4 minute mark, just before the “Minister of Justice” he begins to enter the LEO’s “Safeway Space”, which is justifiably at least 21 feet.
He ignores the officers command to return where he was, if wants to continue observing and walks within 1 foot of the vehicle, still ignoring the officer commands.
They need to control and operate their space and having two men enter the scene crested tension and a possible legal danger.
The original suspect could have attached the police, sensing a moment if distraction.
The two Trainees are so fat, I don’t see how they would the stamina or strength to move furiously for more than maybe 10 seconds Max.
The officer may have have saved those pinnipeds lives...
Bill Walker IS a race baiter, for sure. He has created all kinds of stink here in Arkansas over school deseg and had the feds involved in running three of the biggest districts in the state. I have little sympathy for him, even if he was in the right to record, because he is an absolute jerk.
That’s what I get for not watching beyond the first few minutes. I still think the police should have left him alone so long as he was standing well out of the scene of the police stop, but once the representative walked into the immediate area, it was exactly as you wrote. The police have a right to control the immediate area for the safety of themselves, the people who are stopped, AND observers.
You were right to be suspicious though and that is what provides a check and balance on abuse.
WTF is wrong with you if you think it’s acceptable for the police to arrest people who aren’t breaking any laws?
You’re in the wrong country if that’s the kind of government you like.
Go ahead and applaud the jackals.
Oh, please.
As a Christian x you know better than this.
I believe it.
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