Phoenix cops handcuffed and detained a man for 35 minutes for recording on a public sidewalk outside a police station, citing “safety” reasons.
The man’s name is Elijah Wesbrock, according to his YouTube channel.
But the two officers who detained him apparently were unable to pry that information from him during the entire time they harassed, intimidated, handcuffed and frisked him for weapons.
They even turned off his camera, which was when they threatened to confiscate it, telling him he would be unable to retrieve it without providing his name.
But Wesbrock says he never gave it up.
This is how he describes it on his YouTube description:
I wish you could hear the things they said after they shut off my camera! The funniest was that if I didn’t provide my name they would have to put my camera in the impound and list it under John Doe hahaha! They said it would be nearly impossible to get it back if that was the case! LIES!!!!! Know your rights!
Wesbrock recorded three videos from the incident, posting them on Monday, including the main video of the detainment, a second video of them driving away after detaining him and a third video of them appearing to try and follow him through a muddy field as he walks away.
The first video starts off with two cops pulling out of the parking lot and driving up to him as he stands on a public sidewalk outside a police station; a male officer and a female supervisor.
“You have your ID, bud?” the male cop asks after stepping out of his car and walking up to him.
Then the female cop saunters up and starts pawing on him while pondering, “Why are you taping the police department?”
“Please keep your hands off me, officer,” Wesbrock replies.
“Is there a reason why you’re photographing the police department,” she asks, apparently clueless to the fact that First Amendment audits are taking place daily on police departments across the country, capturing cops making fools of themselves to the delight and infuriation of thousands of YouTube viewers.
“Sir, you’re under investigative detention, can you just provide ID?” she says, using a new phrase for what is commonly known as illegal detention.
When he does not provide his identification, then she doubles down on the stupidity and unlawfulness of her orders.
“In about two seconds you’ll be trespassed from the property, I suggest you leave,” she says.
But then more than five minutes pass without any action from the cops as he continues to record from the sidewalk and they converse amongst themselves as to what else they can do to identify the man with the camera.
During this time, Wesbrock zooms in on the male officer’s name tag, identifying him as T. Romano.
Finally, the female supervisor emerges from her vehicle and they both approach to arrest him, the female officer pawing on him again, frisking him for weapons.
When he keeps asking why he is being detained, Romano tells him, “Because you’re activity is suspicious, that’s why.”
They remove the camera from his hands and place it on the ground as they handcuff him, making sure to point the camera away from their unlawful activities.
Once handcuffed, he sits in front of the camera as Romano lectures him about not having an identification, threatening to transport him to the station to identify him – even though he has not done anything illegal.
That was when they resort to “the call” justification, which is guaranteed bullshit because they waited more than eight minutes before using it.
“Numerous citizens were complaining about him video taping the parking lot, video taping the police cars, video taping license plates , and they were concerned for their safety, of us as well as themselves,” Romano said.
We will make an attempt to get a record of those calls to see if they truly exist, just to give them the benefit of the doubt.
But even if it was true, all they had to tell those “numerous citizens” was that photography is not a crime.”
Unlike handcuffing somebody solely for photography.
The post WATCH: Phoenix Cops Handcuff Man for Video Recording Police Station from Public Sidewalk for “Safety” Reasons appeared first on PINAC News.