Citizens vs. Government

Spotting a man riding a bicycle on a sidewalk, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies sprung into action and stopped their car, ordering the man off his bicycle.
They then handcuffed Ricky Munday and frisked him, telling him he was breaking the law.
But two of Munday’s friends – also riding on the sidewalk – came riding up on the scene with their cameras recording, telling the deputies they had no grounds to detain him because they were out of their jurisdiction.
“Fuck you, you can’t ride a bike on the sidewalk,” shouted Daniel Saulmon aka Tom Zebra.

Fearing citizens with cameras, police in the United States have resorted to shielding themselves from the public, resulting in a sharp spike in murders throughout the country.
That is what FBI Director James Comey calls the “Ferguson effect.”
Never mind the fact that had witnesses recorded the police shooting death of Michael Brown, we would have seen exactly what had taken place that day in Ferguson, Missouri during the summer of 2014, which was one of several catalysts that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

A Florida man was ticketed $113 for the crime of stepping into a quiet, residential street from a sidewalk to avoid walking through a pile of debris.
It was an apparent case of profiling considering Joshua McKnight is a local police accountability activist who records police in public, shows up to city review panels and files complaints against officers for not wearing their name tags.
One of the two Fort Myers police officers who stopped him has arrested him before on a questionable charge that was later dismissed.

Illinois cops pulled a car over for speeding, then dragged a man out of the back seat because he would not stop recording.
Dolton police then forced Steven S. Sinnot facedown on the street and handcuffed him, telling him, he should “learn how to listen.”
“I just had my hands where he could see them,” Sinnott says as he was being dragged out as you can see in the video below.
“I didn’t move or nothing. I don’t consent to no search,” he continues.
“Shut the fuck up!” said the cop named Doiley who dragged him out.

New Jersey state police arrested a woman for exercising her Constitutional right to remain silent.
Or as they called it; “obstruction.”
But they were sure to inform Rebecca Musarra that she had the right to remain silent – once she was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car.
She was then transported to a local police department, but released two hours later with no charges against her after a supervisor reviewed the footage and chalked it up to a rookie mistake.
The two arresting officer, Matthew Stazzone and Demetric Gosa, were hired in 2014.

A Florida cop who became internet famous in a viral video showing him slapping a camera out of the hands of a disabled veteran who had parked in a handicapped spot was acquitted of battery Wednesday.
But Riviera Beach Police Sergeant Garry Wilson was convicted of criminal mischief for the incident that left the veteran’s phone with a cracked screen. He was sentenced to six months probation.
The incident occurred on August 9 after Isiah James had parked his car in a handicap stop and went into Walgreens to make a purchase.

As far as police videos go, it was pretty uneventful; a vertical video showing a Pennsylvania police officer trying to resolve a neighborhood parking dispute between a resident and a school teacher who worked nearby.
Nobody was arrested. Nobody was beaten. Nobody was tasered or pepper sprayed. And nobody was shot and killed, which meant that nobody really cared. 

As they’ve done in previous years, Seattle police lobbed blast ball grenades at protesters and journalists during this year’s May Day demonstrations, leaving one citizen journalist with a one-inch gash in his face.
Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole said police had no choice but to toss the explosives into the crowd because protesters were damaging property and attacking officers.
“The demonstrators put some innocent people in jeopardy. So we had to take action,” O’Toole said during a press conference.
Even if that meant injuring innocent people.

In disturbing video out of Virginia, Portsmouth police officers threatened to evict residents who had gathered around to watch and record them making an arrest of a man they had apparently beaten with batons.
But that’s only the video that survived.
The woman who recorded the video said that police deleted another video that had recorded the beating.

A Florida cop who was caught on video body slamming a woman because she was arguing with her boyfriend is now serving an 80-hour suspension.