Cop Harasses Photographer, Steals His Cellphone Battery And Tries To Get YouTube To Pull The Video

[Purveyor]

Recording a police officer in public isn't a crime. Well, it isn't anything a cop can cite or arrest you for doing. Instead, a bunch of vague infractions are listed in hopes that something will stick and deter future citizen recordings.

Shawn Randall Thomas, a New York photographer, was approached by NYPD officer Efrain Rojas when he noticed Thomas filming another officer's interaction with a turnstile jumper in a subway station. "Approached" is putting it mildly. Rojas confronted Thomas and got physical when the photographer refused to stop filming. (via Techdirt reader Tony Loro)

A New York City cop beat up and arrested a man for video recording him inside a subway station from 30 feet away Saturday night, walking up to him and getting in his face all while claiming the man was invading his personal space…

Thomas also obtained footage from another man who had recorded Rojas with his knees on Thomas’ back as he lay face down on the sidewalk just outside the sub station, seconds after Rojas had bashed his face into the pavement, busting his lip.

The injury was so bad that they had to transport him to the hospital twice during his 24-hour incarceration where doctors described him as a victim of assault.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/24/cop-harasses-photographer-steals-his-cellphone-battery-and-tries-to-get-youtube-to-pull-the-video/

[villager]

1. It's not that there's "one bad apple" on these forces -- but so very few "good ones"

n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Like people used to say about lawyers--

It's 90% of cops that give the rest a bad name.

[villager]

4. Exactly.

n/t

[Laelth]

3. Fascists. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[sakabatou]

6. +1

[struggle4progress]

5. What happened with the charges against him last June?

http://www.policemag.com/channel/patrol/news/2013/06/21/video-nypd-arrests-man-filming-outside-station.aspx
http://www.copblock.org/34540/man-arrested-for-filming-nypd-2/

[struggle4progress]

10. This guy got arrested in January 2013. Then in June 2013, he got arrested at a police substation

for disorderly conduct, though he says he was preparing his defense for the January 2013 charges. In October 2013, he gets arrested for disorderly conduct at the courthouse right after the June 2013 charges were dismissed

http://srandallthomas.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/whats-the-difference-between-carrying-a-gun-and-a-camera-very-little/#more-135
http://www.copblock.org/34540/man-arrested-for-filming-nypd-2/

[sakabatou]

7. Cops don't want people to know how evil they are

[Politicalboi]

8. I wonder why he was recording in the first place

The other officer did nothing wrong while watching over his prisoner. There was nothing to record IMO. He didn't deserve the treatment he got, but what was he doing? People should know that cops don't like to be recorded. They have every right to record them, but I think this guy was looking for something to happen, and it did.

[msongs]

9. its a public space and the fascists don't have the right to control it. nt

[Politicalboi]

11. I know

But I think he was just waiting for something to happen. Nothing should have happened. Maybe if he didn't swear at the stupid cop it may have been different. IMO he's not as innocent as the "jaywalker". This guy has had other run ins with cops over filming them. I'm not defending the cops, but when you push, they may push back. I hope he wins his case.

[damnedifIknow]

12. Other run ins with cops over filming them?

He should be able to record cops whenever he pleases. There is no limit on how many times a person can film the police that I'm aware of. There is a better way in my opinion of going about this and that is spy cameras. No, haven't touched a drop I'm serious. To the person getting recorded it will look like you're just standing there interested in what's going on but all the while you have an ace up your sleeve.

[jtuck004]

13. spy cameras < millions of cheap, wearable, hard to see cameras on the citizenry. Would

be some interesting data.

[damnedifIknow]

14. I got one of those boogers

Video comes out crystal clear. Actually just like an expensive video camera.

[jtuck004]

16. got a link? n/t

[damnedifIknow]

22. I got it from HSN

I was watching it a couple of months ago( and I rarely watch HSN) but it popped on and I ordered it. Works great. I can't say exactly what it is here but it charges right from your computer and you're good to go.

[1monster]

18. At the link provided above:

n January of this year, 2013, I was falsely arrested. The motive for the arrest was that I captured, on camera, a member of the NYPD assault a black woman for absolutely no reason. NOTE: This individual, Sgt. Mohammed Karimzada (working out of PSA3), I recently discovered is a defendant name in two 1983 cases filed in the Eastern District this year. I believe one case was filed in May and the other in August. As a result of the discovery in my case, specifically the 911 calls, I learned that previous to the assault that I witnessed, another black woman had called 911 to be connected to IAB to make a complaint against Karimzada because he had assaulted her inside of her apartment, this would have been just previously to the assault that I witnessed which occurred just outside of that apartment building. Also, I should note that recently, during a visit to a corner store in my area which is Arab/Muslim owned, I engaged one of the workers that I believed to be a foreign born Muslim in small talk, asking if he had ever heard of the surname Karimzada and what part of the world it was from. His response was “Oh you mean Mohammed, the cop”. He went on to tell me that Karimzada is from Afghanistan and is known to be abusive to families in this neighborhood. “Families” was his word.

The Attorney assigned to represent me was Daniel Ashworth from the Legal Aid Society, he obtained the funding and the forensic expert who examined my iPhone for evidence that had been deleted by the police, presumably Sgt. Karimzada.

During my first meeting with Ms. Dallas I informed her that I would be going to PSA3 at some point and take pictures in the hopes of identifying the other officers involved in my case, as the Prosecution kept withholding discovery, even in violation of the Judge’s order to provide it. NOTE: I was not requesting permission from Ms. Dallas to go out on that venture. Had she expressed disapproval, I still would have done so despite her objections.

[NutmegYankee]

21. It's to prove that the right to photograph in a public space will be respected.

Obviously this Officer doesn't have that respect of the law. He needs to be fired.

[woo me with science]

15. How has police training changed?

I seriously wonder. We have the federal government doling out grants to militarize police departments.

What are police being taught, these days, about interacting with citizens?

This country has been corrupted systemically. It seems to me that focusing on individual police officers is about as useful as focusing on individual corporate politicians when it comes to fixing the problem. We have to fix structures.

What has changed, systemically, in how police are trained?

[7962]

17. I think its more in the quality of the people hired. Most seem to want POWER.

Couldnt make it in the military so they goto the police force to wield authority over anyone they want. Cops I were around back when I was young (late 70s,early 80s)were mostly ok. They'd get rough on you if you were an ass, but i rarely ever heard of no-knock warrants and the traffic stops of today. And I never saw cops who looked like they stepped out of a video game unless they were on a SWAT team. Today it seems like every cop has bought every piece of equipment from Army surplus that they can find.

[penultimate]

19. Why do police forces hire and tolerate counterproductive asshats like that?

[quinnox]

20. From the ACLU - You have every right to photograph that cop

Taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right — and that includes the outside of federal buildings, as well as transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties.

However, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs or video in public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. The ACLU, photographer's groups, and others have been complaining about such incidents for years — and consistently winning in court. Yet, a continuing stream of incidents of illegal harassment of photographers and videographers makes it clear that the problem is not going away. In the spring of 2011 alone, the list of incidents included these cases:

A woman in Rochester New York was unlawfully arrested in May 2011 for videotaping a traffic stop in front of her house — while standing in her own front yard.
A man was unlawfully detained in March 2011 for taking photographs of Baltimore's light rail train system — despite the fact that the Maryland Transit Administration had previously pledged to cease harassment of photographers, in response to complaints by the ACLU of Maryland starting in 2006.
That same month a photographer taking video of police using a taser on a participant in a New Orleans parade had his phone violently knocked out of his hands by a police officer. In response to this and other repeated incidents, the ACLU of Louisiana has filed an open records request for documents pertaining to the First Amendment training of New Orleans police officers.
In February 2011, uniformed Secret Service officers on patrol in front of the White House detained a man for taking photographs of them in a public plaza swarming with tourists, journalists and cameras of all kinds. They demanded his identification, and told him, "Since you took a picture of us we're going to take a picture of you for our records," taking down his identification and photographing him. It is unclear what was done with that information.
Two journalists were arrested at a June 2011 public meeting of the Washington, DC Taxi Commission. According to reports and a partial video of the incident, one man was arrested for taking a still photograph of the meeting, while another was arrested for filming the arrest of the first journalist.
A high school honors student in Newark, New Jersey was arrested in March 2011 for taking cell phone video of officers responding to an incident on a New Jersey Transit bus. We would link to the student's video but cannot do so because officers also carried out an illegal search and seizure of her phone and erased the video she took. The ACLU of New Jersey filed suit in the case.

Examples of these kinds of abuses, which continue to be reported weekly, are chronicled on web pages such as Photography is Not a Crime. And for more information on the ways in which law enforcement is spying on Americans today, visit our report on "Spying on First Amendment Activity."

A Crucial Check on Power

The right of citizens to record the police is a critical check and balance. It creates an independent record of what took place in a particular incident, free from accusations of bias, lying or faulty memory. It is no accident that some of the most high-profile cases of police misconduct have involved video and audio records.

Of course, photography is not necessarily "objective" and it is always possible in a particular case that there can be circumstances at work outside a photographic record. Overall, however, the incidents above make it abundantly clear that respect for the right to photograph and record is not well-established within the law enforcement profession.

Many of those involved in these incidents appear to be activists who know their rights and are willing to stand up for them. But not everyone is able to stand up to police officers when harassed; we don't know how many other Americans comply with baseless orders to stop photographing or recording because they are uncertain of their rights or too afraid to stand up for them.

https://www.aclu.org/free-speech/you-have-every-right-photograph-cop

[Earth_First]

23. This. nt