Citizens vs. Government

San Francisco police beat and pepper sprayed a man riding a bicycle, accusing him of texting while riding.
But Donovan Reid said he was only using a navigation app while trying to deliver a burrito for a company called Postmates.
It does not appear as if the burrito ever got delivered because Reid ended up hospitalized.
The incident took place on January 3, but it was only in the last few days that local media began reporting on it.
Reid started recording the traffic stop, but told local media that the cop ordered him to stop.

New York City police officers who were writing a disabled man a parking citation ordered him to stop recording for officer safety.
Well, they did tell him he could record all he wants as long as he is able to do it with the phone in his pocket.
“In the time it takes the  officer to write her ticket, you can’t have your phone out,” one cop says as a female officer is writing the man a ticket.
“You can record all you want, but for our safety, you have to put your phone away.”

It only took a couple of hours for the video to go viral; a bizarre confrontation between a student journalist and a communications professor during a protest at the University of Missouri last November.

High school student Evan Stone took a stand for his Constitutional rights despite his assistant principal objecting and threatening a 5-day suspension.
The incident took place at Massaponax High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia last month.
Stone was in the assistant principal’s office for an alleged talking violation; in order to have proof of what was said, Stone decided to audio record his conversation with the assistant principal.

Back in September, PINAC correspondent Phillip Turner walked into the Arlington Police Department in Texas to file a complaint against a pair of officers who had harassed him for video recording them in public.
He ended up attacked and hospitalized for video recording inside the police station.

A northeastern Florida School Board sued PINAC reporter Jeff Gray in retaliation for seeking public records and investigating school bus safety practices in and around St. Augustine.
Gray’s latest video on his popular HonorYourOath Youtube Channel shows his lawyer’s reply, and can be seen below.

The Albuquerque Police Department has found its way into another lawsuit. This time a former employee is suing on grounds of wrongful termination for not complying to Police Chief Gorden Eden’s orders to find ways to deny public records request.

A few days ago, the chief of police in my Pennsylvania town of Bethlehem chose to cover up the identity of an off-duty officer involved in a car accident.
This was no ordinary accident though. The off-duty officer involved hit two pedestrians, causing one to collapse and both to need medical care in the hospital.
This is how it was explained in the local media:

Oblivious to the backlash that left a Texas politician looking like an unconstitutional buffoon last year, an Arizona senator is proposing to make it illegal to record cops from within 20 feet.
John Kavanagh, a republican who is also a retired cop, said such a law is necessary for officer safety.

A man who was preaching the Gospel on a Florida college campus was handcuffed and almost taken to jail, but was able to talk his way out of it after explaining to officers that he was not using a bullhorn but a voice amplifier to spread his message.
The University of South Florida police officer also threatened to arrest his friend for following them with a video camera.
Fortunately, other officers arrived on the scene who did not seem so hellbent on arresting the preacher or his friend.