Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post
In the United States there is a marked and quite disturbing trend of law-abiding Americans being arrested, beaten or harassed by police simply for exercising their legal right to film a police officer in the course of their public duties.
Thankfully, as of late there has been some justice in the ruling of an Illinois judge who found their wiretapping legislation unconstitutional as well as a relatively small-scale victory in the case of Steve Horrigan.
Unfortunately, yet another example of this trend has emerged in a video posted on March 30, 2012, which you can see below (note: there is explicit language in the video).
What appears to be two men were in the parking lot of a Walmart in Houston, Texas, filming the parking lot and the store’s sign, at which point the individual seemed to reply to a comment or gesture from what appears to be an off-duty police officer, saying, “You can’t do video?” To which the officer replies, “Not at me.”
The man then explains he is filming the sign, not the officer, adding, “Not at you, not at you, I promise.”
The man then began to film the parking lot once again and just as he was about to explain why he was there, the officer approached them and asked to see their identification.
When one of the men explained to the officer that no one actually had to show him identification, he began to get quite irate.
“Yeah, you gotta show ID,” the officer said as he appeared to attempt to grab or push the man holding the camera. The man said, “You’re grabbing me? Are you serious? Calm down!” As the officer drew his taser and began to demand that the man with the camera put it down.
The man attempted to leave, at which point the officer said, “Don’t resist.” After which he said what sounds like “Nope, I need the phone,” perhaps because the man was filming with a smartphone.
The man repeated “We are leaving,” to which the officer responded, “You’re not going anywhere now. You put your hands on me. You are not going anywhere.”
The man who was filming then lowered his voice quite a bit and calmly stated, “I didn’t even touch you one time sir. I haven’t touched you one time.”
“Let me see your ID right now,” the officer repeated, adding, “Turn that off!”
The man then said, “It’s off. It’s not even recording.” The officer then told the man to give him his phone, to which he replied, “Sir, you don’t have to take my phone. It has nothing to do with this.”
“Hang on a second, I can pull out my ID. I can comply with what you’re saying,” the man continued.
“No, you’re not complying with what I’m saying,” the officer retorted, to which the man replied, “I don’t understand why you’re so angry right now.”
“Because you’re videotaping me and I want to know who you are,” the officer said. The man then appears to put the device in his pocket while another individual explains that they were filming the because of something about the grocery carts before the man filming said, “I’m not even a hostile person, I don’t have a record.”
“Yeah you are hostile,” the cop quickly said. “’Cause you’re non-compliant with me.”
The man went on to say that non-compliant does not mean hostile while adding that he was not being non-compliant.
The two men gave the officer their identification although this didn’t seem to calm the officer down very much as he appeared to say, “You’ll put your hands on me. You’ll put your hand up, to stop me from what I’m doin’, okay.”
“Well I’m sorry I scared you, but we’re not hostile people,” the cameraman replied.
The man then went on to explain that neither he nor his friend had broken any laws, which appeared to only make the officer angrier as he then went on to claim that they could be put in jail.
The man continued to say that they did not break any laws at which point the officer repeatedly said, “You don’t tell me!”
“We know our rights. We know the Constitution,” the cameraman said, adding, “Do I sound illiterate?”
This seemed to put the officer over the top as he then said that he would call over a squad car, “and then see how well you know the Constitution.”
“What’s the unit gonna do, take me to jail for knowing the Constitution?” the man asked, adding “For standing for my freedom?” The officer seemed to reply, “Whatever.”
The conversation then began to go in circles as the officer insisted that one or both of the men put their hands on him, while both of them vehemently denied the accusations while adding that there were witnesses.
One of the men then claimed that the officer was going to tase him and that he was a dialysis patient.
A spokesperson for the Huston Police Department told Raw Story that it was not one of their officers in the video, saying, “He’s an officer from a neighboring jurisdiction, but that’s not for us to say.”
“The officer seen in this video is not a Houston Police Officer and does not work for the Houston Police Department,” another Houston information officer wrote in the comments for the video on YouTube. “Officers from jurisdictions throughout the area often work extra jobs at businesses throughout the area and that is the case in this incident/video.”
The identity of the man and who exactly he works for appears to remain unknown and it is not clear what the time and date of the incident was.
The description for the video claims, “the men where later hand-cuffed to be arrested but released after another cop came to their rescue. The incident was only resolved after the cop tried to bribe and threaten the men to ERASE this footage or go to JAIL.”
Honestly, that part of the description doesn’t make all that much sense, but the rest of the video is compelling on its own.
Unfortunately, events like these are far from uncommon and seeing as American cops can viciously assault and murder the elderly and face no real repercussions, I doubt this officer will get so much as a reprimand.
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This article first appeared at End the Lie.
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