Unfortunately, police violently reacting to being filmed is hardly rare these days nor is police seizing cameras from witnesses based on the claim that the videos are evidence.
In a quite blatant instance of police overreacting to criticism, two police officers in Nevada arrested a man for loudly criticizing their parking habits then seized cameras from witnesses.
While the man admitted that he was being “rude” because he “hates cops,” the reaction seems a bit extreme, to say the least.
Unfortunately, police violently reacting to being filmed is hardly rare these days nor is police seizing cameras from witnesses based on the claim that the videos are evidence.
This particular exchange apparently happened outside of a casino in Nevada. The first video embedded below comes from the device of the man who was arrested.
Warning: the video contains graphic language, viewer discretion is advised.
The way this man is acting hardly engenders sympathy, but he has a right to film police in public nonetheless.
Even Carlos Miller of Photography Is Not A Crime (PINAC), an outspoken proponent of photographers’ rights, notes that viewers “will probably agree that he came across very obnoxious, not to mention he would not hold his phone in the horizontal position to record in landscape mode.”
Obnoxious as he may be, it doesn’t give cops a green light to arrest him and confiscate the cameras of bystanders.
Police can be seen confiscating the cellphones of witnesses in the below video:
According to Carlos Miller, none of the cameras have been returned a whopping three months after the incident.
However, the man who was arrested, who goes by MrMike Smith on Facebook, was able to obtain the footage from two of the four seized cameras thanks to the discovery process as he prepares for trial.
He is currently facing two counts of obstruction and is slated to go to trial next month.
End the Lie was founded in 2011 with the goal of publishing the latest in alternative news from a wide variety of perspectives on events in the United States and around the world. For more information, find End the Lie on Twitter and Facebook or check out our homepage.
End the Lie was founded in 2011 with the goal of publishing the latest in alternative news from a wide variety of perspectives on events in the United States and around the world. For more information, find End the Lie on Twitter and Facebook or check out our homepage.