Mustang Social Forums

I think it was excessive. I understand the guy may have thought there was a threat of some sort, some where, maybe. I can give him credit for that or somehow justify him somewhat freaking out....maybe. After discovering it was a phone, though? Come on....was it really necessary to go overboard, arrest the man in front of his family, and cause such a ruckus all over a picture of a cop on the side of the road? No, it wasn't....total drama.

When you get someone’s picture then you can do all sort of evil with that guy. I’m imagining the worst since my brother is also a cop. If my brother has got in to the same position then he would have done far worst than that.

For all those who say 'The officer was perfectly justified in arresting this guy because he photographed the officer':

Would you go quietly if you were being arrested/harassed for something that was completely, utterly, 100% legal?
Would you just lay down and roll over if someone broke the law in order to infringe upon your rights?

According to the police report and witness statements (in the links at the end of the article), the guy drove by three times and on the second pass, he took a picture of the officer. The officer stopped the guy and then the officer proceeded to break the law and violate the guy's first amendment rights by demanding the guy to hand over his camera and/or delete the photo. The guy didn't get 'irate' until after the officer broke the law.

Both my work and my hobby is photography, so I have to know the laws because I've been harassed for taking pictures. It's so bad, I have to carry a paper that states my rights and the laws concerning taking photos of people in public places.

Josiahes - No flaming from me, I understand what you're saying and I'm sorry your dad has to put up with threats like that, however, you can't assume that everyone has nefarious reasons for wanting to take a picture of someone. We live in a MySpace age where everyone has a photo of him/herself online so it doesn't matter who takes the picture but, if that picture ends up online then it's almost permanently available to the entire world.

If one is a douchebag to a cop, then they should expect the cop to be a douchebag in return but, it's not illegal to be a douchebag and the cop can't make up a bogus charge so the cop can arrest someone because they were being a douchebag.

I understand Josaih's position, I really do. Cops do a thankless job, and are harassed by pieces of shiat every day, and criticized when they do anything.

Part of me thinks this cop was overreacting. But a part of me says "wait a minute". And I'll tell you why.

When a cop defends themselves against some a**hole pointing a gun at them, every hippy from here to san Fransisco is bitching about it. Anytime we question the cops and put them under the microscope, we influence other cops to not do the same. And the more we erode away their rights to defend themselves, the more power we take away from police officers.

I have no reason to have a cop shoot me. I don't commit crimes (unless you count speeding) and I don't have a lot of "run ins" with them. I would never put a cop in a position where he or she thought they needed to shoot me, or tase me to the situation under control. Therefore, "police brutality" is of no concern to me. I hear hippies complaining about it all the time, but you know what? A cop isn't going to whack you up unless you are doing something to provoke it. And taking these pictures, might count as such. Do you really need a picture of a cop? Why? I understand you have a right, but the question is... why?

It sounds like he was provoking him, and the cop was overreacting. I'm curious to hear your opinions.

You make some good points Jeremy. I'd never set out to make a cop, or anyone for that matter, feel threatened and, likewise, breaking the law isn't my style.

In my personal experience as a photographer, it's when I've been going about my business that I get harassed. Granted, the bloke in the article did exhibit twattish behaviour toward the officer - he could have got his point across without shouting and swearing. I'm not saying the officer in question had no right to defend himself but, I'm sure you'd agree, if the officer believed for one second that his life was in danger then he wouldn't have walked right up to the car and spoken to the bloke.

According to the police report, the bloke just told the officer to smile as he took a picture and then he turned around and continued in his original direction. Once the officer realised it was just a camera, that should have been the end of it but, the cop was mad for some reason and decided that he needed to get back at this bloke. He needed a reason to arrest this bloke and the only reason he thought he had, at that moment, was unlawful photography (I don't buy the 'pointing a laser at an officer' charge in this case, the officer said he saw 'something black with a red light' - yes, cameras have a red light but, it's not a laser and there was no further mention of a laser.) so the officer stopped the vehicle on the basis of his personal definition of the law and possession of an unknown dark coloured object with a red light.

Basically, this was a domino effect of fail. The bloke fails for being an idiot but, being an idiot isn't illegal (one can only dream...). The officer chose to escalate the situation, violate the law (which he is paid to uphold) and infringe upon someone's constitutional right of freedom of expression.

I agree with the fact that the cop did over-react, but what Jeremy said is exactly what I'm thinking. The more we get onto the cops for doing soemthing, the more they are affraid to do anything (the L.A. riots are a perfect example) and that means, if they are affraid who's going to protect us when we can't protect ourselves? It just seems to me that the media always twists any questionable act into an act of "police brutality." I was just trying to point out that cops are not always power-hungry jerks out to stick it to the public, but instead have reasons for doing what they do. Whether they make sense to us or not.

I also agree with you guys and you all bring up very valid points. Was the cop prevoked definitely..did he over-react definitely. Both were in the wrong, and the media certainly doies twist and blow a lot of things out of purportion. The media is an evil being and I have to live every day over here doing my job differently just in case the media finds out. The media doesn't only take the power away from the people protecting us at home but from a far. I realize we will probably never be able to change these things, the only real thing we can do is educate people on the truth and try to teach them to look at both sides of every story.