Man arrested for filming police, phone said to be a WEAPON

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #15846375
Filming an arrest MAY prove useful.

Filming yourself getting a ticket for a minor infraction is useless.

Filming yourself getting a ticket for a minor infraction would be rather useless, if you weren't being wrongfully arrested simply for doing so.

Had the guy not been arrested, I would agree, filming it would be pretty useless, but you don't know that until the LEO decides to stretch his authoritative powers and make the wrongful arrest.

Was the fact that he was filming what upset the officer? Possibly. But it's his right to, and the officer didn't understand or respect that right.

The supreme court regularly upholds that it is the right of the people to record law enforcement.

Bottom line, at the end of the day, and by the time this thread is dead and long gone, it is the right of the citizens of the United States of America to record, photograph and document law enforcement and their actions. Whether or not you think it is useful, whether or not you think it has helped in any way or at all, whether you think it is misleading, it is every citizens right.

I understand there are certain situations that have a some gray area, but it seems so simple to me, either you can video tape in public or you can't. I wonder how long the Boston bombing would have taken to sort out without pictures and video not shot by government/police. They love video when it gives them a lead!

The suspect was being a jerk but that is not relevant to the issue. The excuse of a cell phone could be a gun is also weak. I wonder if this leo confiscates every cell phone he sees?

Its seems the terrorists have won if you look at the big picture. Almost daily it seems there are personal freedoms lost. All based on some off shoot stem of "National Security". I wonder if anything would happen if you ordered like 5 pressure cookers of Amazon right now? just saying...Not trolling honest.

Fuhrtographer wrote in post #15846432
The excuse of a cell phone could be a gun is also weak. I wonder if this leo confiscates every cell phone he sees?

Not nearly as weak as many are making it out to be. Cellphones are easily modified to contain all kinds of 'fun' things. Actual fire arms are hard to effectively build into a phone, but things like tasers, pepper spray, blades, and even mini claymore like land mines have all been hidden inside phones. (The first three being by far the most common dangerous modifications.)

What many people here are saying is that they believe police are subhuman and do not deserve a safe working environment. Everyone is perfectly innocent and would never consider harming another, and clearly police are a totally redundant service in our modern world, because there are so many cameras around that no one could possibly consider committing a crime! They might be caught on camera!

Had the suspect put the camera away when asked and acted normally, or handed the camera off to someone else who could film from a safe and comfortable distance, then the officer would have been left with a horribly shaky ground to stand on if he wanted to declare he still felt threatened by it. Acting unusual in a belligerent and hostile manner it a huge cue suggesting that a person may be a risk to the officer's personal safety, and the safety of others.

koala yummies wrote in post #15846417
Filming yourself getting a ticket for a minor infraction would be rather useless, if you weren't being wrongfully arrested simply for doing so.

Had the guy not been arrested, I would agree, filming it would be pretty useless, but you don't know that until the LEO decides to stretch his authoritative powers and make the wrongful arrest.

But that's the thing. Why would I choose to annoy him? Do you think I don't have better things to do with my life?

If I choose not to "stick it to him" with a camera, I guarantee you he's not going to arrest me. He'll probably let me off with a warning... and while it's not useful to the petty cause, it's very useful to me, because I'm out of a ticket, not arrested and not paying court costs all the way to supreme court.

I have a dashcam in my car. When I'm stopped, I don't turn it to face the guy and I turn it off if they ask me. In fact, the one time I was asked about it, I told him that it's not to record HIM, but to record a potential collision and I can turn it off if he wants to.

I have a right to film him. But if I choose to, I communicate a level of distrust to him as a person. And while it's their job to roll with it, they go really easy on me if I don't make it any more difficult than I have to.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #15846498
But that's the thing. Why would I choose to annoy him? Do you think I don't have better things to do with my life?

.

In my experience just saying "yes sir (or ma'am)" and "thank you" go a long way. Every ticket I have received took about 5 minutes. Cops don't care your opinion of the matter anyway, if you want to argue you go to court. Being respectful tells them you are not an immediate threat and they cool down their defenses.

If you were really being abused by a rogue cop, your cell phone wouldn't see the light of day again anyway, let's be honest.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #15846498
But that's the thing. Why would I choose to annoy him? Do you think I don't have better things to do with my life? [judging by the 'vent' in your signature, no]

No one said anything about annoying anyone. The notion of being annoyed was already addressed, by a member of law enforcement no less:

gibbit1 wrote in post #15846276
I'm going to chime in here. I'm a law enforcement officer, as some of you know, and also an instructor for my department. One thing I hammer into my students is that they should always act as if they're on camera, because they probably are. As long as you're following policy, you have nothing to fear. If you don't like being filmed, you better get over it, because it's only getting easier and easier to record everything you do. If they physically get in your way, that's another issue, but if they're on the sidelines taping the show, all you can do is smile and try to show your good side.

RTPVid wrote in post #15845531
Really? The ONLY way? Lord, what ever did we do before every phone was a camera!

this is me rolling my eyes at your comment.

tkbslc wrote in post #15846658
In my experience just saying "yes sir (or ma'am)" and "thank you" go a long way. Every ticket I have received took about 5 minutes. Cops don't care your opinion of the matter anyway, if you want to argue you go to court. Being respectful tells them you are not an immediate threat and they cool down their defenses.

If you were really being abused by a rogue cop, your cell phone wouldn't see the light of day again anyway, let's be honest.

Very true . Also most of the videos uploaded , only show part of what happened anyway..