Los Angeles Police Department detained and handcuffed a man for filming in public near LAPD’s Mission police station.
The citizen journalist tells the officers in the video you can see below on several occasions, that he is engaged in constitutionally protected activity.
Then, LAPD cops kept questioning him for recording video.
And spoke nothing of reasonable suspicion that Scott would commit a crime.
Because the police would be the only offenders in this video.
When using their words failed, the LAPD cops began visibly grasping at straws trying to concoct an excuse for detaining the man.
The citizen journalist identified himself under clear duress as Jason Scott to the LAPD officers.
His relatively YouTube channel is called Santa Clarita Cop Watch, and he wants to follow in the footsteps of PINAC’s Jeff Gray and Phillip Turner as a civil rights video reporter.
Action begins about five minutes into the video, which you can see below.
Farcical guessing at Scotts crime is the surest tell that the LAPD officers aren’t acting reasonably, but rather childishly, seeking out reasons to excent the use of their arrest authority far beyond constitutional bounds.
These police visibly crushed the 1st Amendment and the famous court decision Terry vs. Ohio all in one video.
California doesn’t have a definitive obligation to “stop and identify” as its law was struck down as unconstitutional for vagueness, but that doesn’t stop police from ceaselessly trying to enforce it on citizens.
The SoCal ACLU says that you’re not obligated to show ID in California, but that the officer may illegally arrest you anyways, which is precisely the kind of police behavior which allows illegal arrests costing citizens their free speech rights and taxpayers settlements every single day.
The LAPD cop is then heard saying “blocking the sidewalk,” the officer heard saying in an attempt to justify their detainment of Scott.
“Just go along with the program,” said the LAPD officer demanded his information, in an overtly threatening manner implying the threat of arrest, “if you don’t have any warrants, you will be on your way.”
The videographer identified himself as Jason Scott, but he only did so under obvious duress.
“If you were born in California you would know that you cannot block a sidewalk,” the Los Angeles cop said, as if the standard for knowing the First Amendment is if a person was born in a specific state.
But Scott didn’t buy that bullshit.
“You understand that in this day and age,” said an unidentified officer begins in order to justify the arrest.
Scott tells the officer that he was on public property filming, which is a constitutionally protected activity, when the LAPD officer stated he is not on public property.
Yet it was the officers who instructed him to move to the doorway of the station when he was on the sidewalk.
Also the LAPD Mission Hills police station is clearly public property.
The lobby is open to the public.
“You are going to have to find somewhere else to hang out,” the LAPD officer told him in an attempt to discourage Scott from hanging around the station recording.
Scott continued to ask for a superior officer and failed for almost 14 minutes before the harassing cops said that they’ll get their commanding officer.
His ordeal lasted 30 minutes before the LAPD cops released Scott from the handcuffs, and got a commanding officer.
The commanding officer then begins saying “falls within suspicious activity”, yet that falls short of suspicion of any criminal activity. If they had justifiable cause to detain him legally there is little doubt the Los Angeles Police would have not provided him with a ticket yet none were issued.
Justification of the detainment the devolved to “you wouldn’t know because you don’t get all the calls, do you?”.
If you would like to express your disdain for the behavior of the Los Angeles Police Department at Mission Hill their number is 818-838-9800, operators are standing by.
http://www.lapdonline.org/mission_community_police_station
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