Swills, This one is for you.... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ZkFZkejv8]YouTube - Rochester Police Arrest Woman in Her Front Lawn For Filming Traffic Stop[/ame]
I live 20 minutes out of Rochester, I don't ever go there normally so I don't have to deal with Rochester cops, no idea how bad they are. But I know in Monroe County I'm hard pressed to find a cop that doesn't act like a total cunt fuck anytime they're in uniform, or they've got a really douchey smiley on their face as they walk past me after they are done flirting with the cashier. But yesterday I saw police officers throughout my little suburb town tag teaming civilians for tickets. In my opinion if over the course of five hours I see one officer pull over 5 different vehicles all in the same spot, and I only drove past there for a total amounted time of like 3 minutes throughout those five hours, that's harassment. No fooling around that is harassment designed to fill a quota. I was pulled over yesterday for supposedly tailgating and "playing my music too loud". The traffic was going five miles an hour, he was bumper to bumper in his little traffic lane but then he goes woop, woop, and wastes five minutes of my day on nothing even ticket able. Maybe the tailgating can be ticketed, but fuck them I'd of gone to court and said I'm innocent before I pay another 100+ dollars on a 20 dollar fine because of NY states surcharges. My point in all of this is that yesterday if I hadn't been working I would of pulled up alongside that officer harassing the quiet citizens of my town, and ask them as they are being recorded what the problem is. And there was probably a good chance I would of been dragged out of my car and handcuffed because the cops in my town really are that bored and assholish. Like my town is a 2.5 square mile radius, we have 12 active officers all receiving over a 100,000 just in cash as a salary. Anytime we try and boot them they pull out their Union lawyers and bring them to court. It's probably because of that traffic stop for no reason yesterday, but I've been pretty steamed about this crap. Like I want someone braver then me to throw the first stone so I can come in behind them and back them up. I'm such a coward.
yea i used to live in buffalo and been to rochester a few times. Love our police force. Lets have the bottom 10% of our hs class serve to protect us! Hey, give em a gun and a badge to hide behind and "push" their authority on people. Awesome. i'ma start carrying my camera with me in case i get in some shit. Just so i can record, even the audio would be plenty for me. Especially here in az where cops are extra assholish.
Yeah man, I have sound record on a hot key for my phone. I don't care if I receive shit for "illegal" recording of an officer, fuck him, you're accountable buddy.
I'm tired of seeing these things happen. It's strange but you can actually watch stuff like this on T.V. actual video crews follow these people and often catch them abusing their power it's broadcasted on national T.V. and they continue to do it. I had some friends that lived in a rather unpleasent area, one evening (early morning around 3AM) one of their roommates returned home to find a car missing from the drive way, the door open, and about 8,000 dollars in electronics including a new TV and Macbook missing and proceeds to wake my friends up right. Hide the bong and call the cops so on and so forth. They immediately fell under investigation, it was almost like it was impossible that someone had committed any other crime except for insurance fraud, got the run down by the cops and essentially were told they were lying. I guess it sold them when they figured out homeboy couldn't have stolen his own car too easily. Anyway, fast forward 6 months or so...dead of winter...right about Christmas time...my friends are woken up around 3 AM to noises upstairs...friend grabs a bat and proceeds up stairs to be greeted by a young male attempting to remove their newly wall mounted telivision. So he squares up and tells the dude to get the fuck out of his house...after which he was attacked by an accomplice and beaten to the point of having stitches in his head. It took them 6 months after the second incident for the police to finalize everything so they could be reimbursed by their insurance company and they never found my boy's car. And after they caught the guy, probation for grand theft and only a small jail sentence for assault for the guy that beat up my friend. Watching this video made me furious, wasting her time, so that he can make some money...he knows as well as everyone else does that what he's doing is asinine. I really hope that she fights it as hard as she can because that clown deserves to lose his fucking job. His job is to protect and serve, not find excuses to cart people to the station so he can make another benji.
Well I don't know if the rest of you guys know this, but what this woman did was illegal. You're not allowed to video record cops, you can only audio record. I think it's a bullshit law, but it still exists.
I really hope she doesn't because she will make things much worse for herself. What she did is against the law, you cannot videotape on-duty police officers.
She was never asked to stop filming in the video...she was asked to go inside of her home as he didn't want her outside "behind" him. He'll use the charge that you mentioned, dishonestly being that she was never asked to turn off her camera. The bottom line is if we don't stand up and fight for ourselves we will continue to suffer injustice.
Ok, here's the deal: The cop was being a cop for telling her to go inside. It was stupid and I don't think she was a threat to him. Regardless, he told her to go inside. He didn't tell her to stop filming. She took it to a whole new level and cried like a melodramatic baby when she got arrested after given many warnings. Now, I'm not one to usually side with cops, but in this case, she asked for it. She could have still filmed from inside. If they would have went into her house and told her to stop filming from inside, then we would have a hell of a story. But seriously, I appreciate what this girl was trying to do, but the cop was tolerable and didn't really fall into her trap because the circumstances weren't really there (obvious misconduct, brutality, etc.). But granted, they both over-reacted. Him in a professional way, and her in a baby way. Is this seriously true????
I'm not 100% sure if it's listed in NY state law but I know it's a law in a few states including Mass.
The whole situation is from what I've gathered a misuse of privacy legislation involving phone-tapping and what have you. Mostly stating that you can not take video without consent of all parties....It was designed to protect our privacy and is being used as a tool for police to protect themselves. If the police are doing their job right they shouldn't be worried about someone taking video it should only benefit them in the long run, right? They have cameras in their cars and can record what we say and do without are consent and you best believe they aren't afraid to use their dash cam as evidence in court. I was just considering this but they had the man in handcuffs as they were searching his car, I believe being in restraints is considered being under arrest, while they are looking for evidence in the car...innocent until proven guilty? The problem is he arrested her for not following police directive, but no one should be able to tell you what to do on your own property unless you are partaking in criminal activity or obstructing the justice of others.
I Team 10 Investigation: Rochester woman arrested while videotaping police officers during traffic stop | www.WHEC.com I honestly think that law is in place only to try and scare people from videotaping so when the cops do shady shit there isn't any proof
the way i see it what the cop did was just as wrong as if he went up to her house. She is on HER land HER front yard it matters not if she is in/out of her house.
Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I felt that she made it clear she was not posing as a threat to the cop....however, if I were a cop, in the dark and someone was shining a bright camera light in my face, making it impossible to see what's going on behind her, I would be concerned for my safety. I wonder if she were standing in the yard, without the camera if he would have had any objection?