Recording the Police

A California cop choked and beat a man for jaywalking Monday in an incident captured on video that is now going viral.
The video was recorded by a woman named Naomi Montaie, who was sitting in her car as the altercation unfolded in front of her, showing a Sacramento police officer grabbing the young man by the neck while shoving him down on the street.
The Sacramento cop then sits on top of the man while throwing several punches to his face.

A Florida sheriff violated PINAC reporter Jeff Gray’s right to record public officials in a public setting during his silent protest at the department’s annual awards banquet, which was held at the tax-funded St. Johns Convention Center in St. Augustine last month.
But St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar insisted it was “private property.”
“You go outside. And hold your sign,” Shoar told Gray, threatening him with arrest. “But you’re not going to stand in here and hold your sign. This is our party. This is our special night.”

A New York cop racially profiled a man, approaching the front door of his house, insisting the man identify himself because he “looked back” at the officer as he drove past his house.
Rochester cop Jonathan Laureano then began demaning Nishean Napier provide him with identification after Napier walked outside to move his mother’s car to the other side of the street so she wouldn’t get a ticket.
As Napier walked outside to move the car while in the middle of making an Instagram post, Laureano crept down his street in a police cruiser.

With that arrogant bravado only a cop can muster, Austin police officer Jamess Maufrais pointed two flashlights into the lenses of two cameras held by PINAC reporter Phillip Turner last November, bragging about how he was “not intimidated” by citizens with cameras, thumbing his nose at his own departmental policy that forbids officers from harassing citizens with cameras.

New Hampshire cops accompanied by a member of the SWAT team escorted a Marine Corps veteran out of city hall last Monday after he attempted to pay a parking ticket with pennies.
Manchester police not only violated the Coinage Act of 1965 that states all coins are legal tender for debts by escorting Billy Spaulding out of city hall, they violated his friend’s First Amendment rights by claiming he needed their permission to record the interaction.

A Missouri sheriff’s deputy was upset that the woman he pulled over did not come to a complete stop within a millisecond of him turning on his lights.
Instead, the woman – a retired cop – drove less than a block and made a right onto a side street where she then pulled over. She even stuck her hand out of window to motion she was going to pull over.
And once she pulled over, she informed him she had a gun in her purse to keep him from fearing for his life. She also informed him that she had drove a half-block for his safety.

The North Carolina cop who became a viral sensation after telling an Uber driver that it was illegal to record him under a new law – only to learn the driver was also a lawyer – was demoted in rank and pay.
Wilmington Police Sergeant Kenneth Becker is now a corporal whose hourly salary was reduced by $1.38, according to the News and Observer.

Matt McGorry, who plays John Bennett in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, was told by a Beverly Hills police officer that he was not allowed to record them investigating a traffic accident Monday.
When McGorry stood up for his rights, informing the cop he had every right to record, the cop then said he wanted to see his phone for evidence, placing his face inches from the actor’s face.
When McGorry told him he had no evidence of the accident, the cop turned around and walked away, realizing his intimidation tactics had failed.

These days it is not uncommon for cops to get arrested for assault.
But Officer Christopher Reiter, 36, of the Minneapolis Police Department took things way too far when he kicked Mohamed Osman while he was already down on the ground.
Osman suffered severe brain injuries, brain bleeding and ended up with fractures in his face, including sinus fractures in his nose.
Because of the injuries, Osman is unable to work.

A chaotic video showing Missouri police trying to control a melee that broke out in a gas station early Sunday morning shows one cop shoving a woman from behind after she had placed her hands in the air under orders from another officer.
Questions from local media about that incident prompted the Columbia Police Department to release their own body cam footage of the shoving incident along with a press release explaining they had to shove her in the name of safety.