Citizens vs. Government

Memphis police pounced on a man and arrested him for recording them in public despite a written departmental policy introduced in 2013 that made it clear they were not allowed to do that.
But the video shows they did not give that memo a second thought as they ordered him from the street to the sidewalk, then pounced on him when he stood on the sidewalk.
“As a matter of fact, the sidewalk is made to walk, not to stand,” the cop said as he ordered the man to keep walking away from the so-called “crime scene,” even though there was no crime tape establishing a perimeter.

A Michigan deputy who resigned to avoid termination after he was caught on video pulling a man out of a car for asking a simple question is now working for another law enforcement agency, despite the fact he has an established reputation for aggressive and unprofessional behavior towards citizens.
But considering his new employer, the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office, is looking into introducing body and dash cams for its deputies, we will likely see more videos of his aggressive behavior in the future.

I was taking photos of a sign outside the Homestead city council meeting in South Florida this month when a police officer named John Edward Frank informed me that I was forbidden from taking his photo – even though I had no interest in photographing him in the first place.
So I started video recording him instead.
What else did he expect considering I was wearing my Photography is Not a Crime t-shirt?

A New York City Copwatch activist is suing the NYPD for $1 Million in two separate lawsuits stemming from two arrests for recording them in public where they ended up deleting his footage.
Jose LaSalle, 46, filed the second lawsuit Friday for his arrest in September 2015. The first lawsuit was filed in 2014 for an arrest in September 2013. He is asking for $500,000 from each lawsuit.

Having already received a $7,500 settlement for a wrongful arrest involving the recording of police in public , an Oregon man was surprised when a jury found him guilty for the same arrest Tuesday.
But Judge Stephen Bushong did not allow any mention of November’s settlement to be part of the trial.
Instead, the six-person jury heard testimony from several police officers that Fred Marlow IV was interfering with their investigation by standing on the property of his apartment complex recording them blasting their way into a home using flash grenades in September 2014.

For the fifth time since 2010, Florida prosecutors were forced to dismiss criminal charges against PINAC reporter Jeff Gray before even going to trial, proving once again what we have known all along.
That his arrests are always unlawful and unconstitutional; nothing but an attempt to keep him from doing his job.

A New York man known as the Red Light Robin Hood was arrested again this month after cutting wires to red light cameras where yellow light duration times were shortened by the city in order to generate more citations and revenue.
The shortened durations at the traffic lights generate $32 million for Suffolk County, which is why the county allows the practice to continue despite their own study showing they lead to an increase in accidents with injuries.

In the usual display of crass and arrogance we have come to expect from police union leaders, the president of the Cleveland police union sent a letter to the media today, stating that Tamir Rice’s family should donate a proceed of their settlement to educate kids about the dangers of playing with toy guns to keep them from being killed by police.
The $6 million settlement, announced earlier today, means that police will never have to admit to any wrongdoing.

Recording with his phone, a New York man confronted an NYPD cop for reckless driving, accusing him of almost running over children as he drove on a sidewalk, speeding into an apartment complex.
The video was uploaded by YouTube on Friday, but was originally posted on Facebook by a man who goes by Gesus Silverware earlier that day.

The city of Cleveland will pay $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot and killed by police while playing in the park with a pellet gun.
The settlement comes with the stipulation that police did nothing wrong in shooting the boy within one second of pulling up to the park, even though he was not even holding the pellet gun at the time.