There have been a number of people arrested all over the country for videotaping cops while they were making arrests. I call it the ‘Rodney King Fallout Syndrome.’ I’ll be the first to admit that, as a cop, I would not want anyone to videotape me while I was making an arrest. But is that against the law or grounds for arresting the video-shooter if he is not interfering with the police operation? I don’t think so.
Last month, a cop in Rochester, NY arrested a woman who was videotaping a nighttime traffic stop and vehicle search from her front yard. After she had been arrested, Emily Good uploaded the video to the internet, where it went viral. Here is how the Huffington Post described it:
"I just got out of the house, man, I'm sick, man," the man who has been pulled over says. Other police officers search his car.
Then one of the officers, identified as Mario Masic in the arrest report, turns to the camera and asks, "You guys need something?"
"I'm just -- this is my front yard -- I'm just recording what you're doing. It's my right," Good replies.
"Actually, not from the sidewalk."
"This is my yard," Good says.
"I don't feel safe with you standing behind me so I'm going to ask you go into your house, you understand?" Masic says.
From there, the conversation escalates into a confrontation, with Masic alleging that Good is threatening his safety, and that she expressed other, unspecified anti-police statements before the videotaping began.
"Due to what you said to me, before you started taping, I think, uh, you need to go stay in your house, guys."
There is a dispute over what Good said before she started videotaping but at this point she was busted and charged with Obstructing Governmental Administration. Good is a community activist and thought the cops might have been guilty of racial profiling.
Several neighbors protested Good’s arrest. To compound the stupidity of the arrest, the cops retaliated against the protest by returning to the neighborhood with 12-inch rulers and ticketing every car that was parked more than 12-inches from the curb.
The charge against Good has just been dropped. I suspect that the City of Rochester will soon be faced with a hefty lawsuit.
Here is just one more example of the Rodney King Fallout Syndrome:
In 2002, Harris County (Houston) sheriff’s deputies conducted a drug raid on a house. They arrested two neighboring brothers for videotaping the raid. The brothers sued for $5 million and in 2008 they received a $1.7 million settlement from the county.
According to the lawsuit, Sean Carlos Ibarra grabbed a camera and started shooting photos. When the deputies ordered him to hand the camera over, he refused. A sheriff’s deputy then hit Sean Ibarra and took his camera, according to the lawsuit. After several deputies then burst into the Ibarras’ home, Erik Adam Ibarra grabbed a video camera and started filming. Deputies then drew their guns and threatend to shoot Erik Ibarra, the lawsuit claims. Both brothers were arrested on charges of resisting arrest. Erik Ibarra was also charged with evading arrest. And deputies ended up destroying the photos and video from that afternoon.
Unpleasant as it is to be videotaped while you are doing your job - what you are doing may be readily misinterpreted – there are no grounds for making an arrest unless the person shooting the video is interfering with the police operation.
When cops make such arrests they are using some piss poor judgment. Or could it be that these officers are some of the pot smoking cops I wrote about the other day?
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