I've got no problems with cops. They help people, save lives, and help people like me. I'll leave it at that. These men and women work hard, are underpaid and deserve our gratitude when they act within the legal and ethical limits of their authority.
But every group has it's "problem children" or "slow learners". Or people who lack common sense. They are a small part of the group. But they'll cause most of the problems for that group. Police are not an exception. They are only human. And if individual cops remember that, it will be easier to not over step the bounds of their authority just because public scrutiny is making one emotionally uncomfortable. If public scrutiny bothers you, being a pubic servant is not the gig for you.
Enter Joe Anybody and
his video adventure:(from the Portland Mercury)
From Apr 3 – Apr 9, 2008 Big Brother's Little Brother
Cop Cites Videographer for Recording Investigation
BY MATT DAVIS
A FREELANCE videographer plans to challenge the Portland Police Bureau in court after a cop confiscated his camera and cited him, in apparent retaliation for videotaping the cop as he searched a suspect in the street.
Mike Tabor, 47, has been videotaping police activities for the last two years with his Sony Handycam, as a citizen journalist working under the name "Joe Anybody." He posts footage of their activities (especially at demonstrations) on his website, Joe-Anybody.com. Tabor started videotaping Officer Dane Reister last Tuesday, March 25, at SW 10th and Main, after he saw Reister hurrying to catch up with two men in the street, one of whom was Hispanic, the other white.
"I just thought it was weird because I wasn't sure why he was stopping the men," says Tabor. "So I decided to start filming."
Officer Reister and his partner, Officer Nick Ragona, searched both men and found nothing on them, so they let them go. Early in the encounter, as seen on Tabor's tape, Reister told Ragona, "We're being filmed," and Ragona responded, "I see that." Following the encounter, Reister approached Tabor and asked him his name, and whether he had been recording audio.
"I'm recording video and audio, yes," Tabor responds on the tape.
"Give me the camera," Reister says on the tape. He then wrote Tabor a property receipt for it.
"I told Ragona I was shocked they would take a camera from a journalist," says Tabor. "I told him I thought this was serious, and asked who I should talk to."
Ragona told Tabor to follow them to Central Precinct on SW 2nd, where after 20 minutes, Reister emerged from the back room with his camera and a citation under ORS.165.540, for "obtaining contents of communication (unlawful)."
"He told me the men were drug dealers," says Tabor, adding that he told the officer he was concerned about drug dealers too. "I asked him how I could have filmed the encounter where he would have been comfortable, and he told me I'd been standing too close and made him uncomfortable."
Attorney Benjamin Haile responds to the cop's logic: "The reasonable thing to do if someone is standing too close is to ask them to move back," says Haile, who has decided to defend Tabor against the citation, and if necessary, pursue the matter through federal court on constitutional grounds. "It is not appropriate, without warning, to single out the videographer from other observers and take his camera and give him a ticket."
Haile says it's very important that people have the right to monitor the police and that video is a powerful tool with which to do that. He thinks the law is either being misapplied or it's unconstitutional, according to the First Amendment right to free press and freedom of expression, and also, Article 1, Section 8 of the Oregon Bill of Rights. Haile thinks there is a strong chance a judge will agree, and dismiss the case.
"If a person observes the police doing something they want to tell other people about and they're prohibited from making video, then their ability to credibly communicate what they saw is stolen from them," he says. "It is very literally stolen from them when the police seize their camera."
Reister declined comment in person, but Central Precinct Commander Mike Reese returned the Mercury's call.
"It was an unusual situation: an officer dealing with a person he knew was a drug dealer from previous experience, believing they were engaged in a deal," says Reese, referring to the suspect Reister was searching. "These are dangerous situations for us, and unpredictable.
"To have someone stand behind the officer while he is involved in a narcotics investigation is a problem," Reese continues. "I think he took an action based on the law, and the constitutionality of these things is for the courts to decide."
Tabor says he will continue to videotape officers in the course of their duty.
"A lot of people say, you're just asking for trouble," he says. "But I'm just concerned about peace and justice, being a good journalist, and about police accountability. That's all."
I highlighted some words and phrases to analyze:
1: after he saw Reister hurrying to catch up with two men in the street,
"Hurrying to catch up" implies a distance reasonable people would not consider nearby.
2:Reister told Ragona, "We're being filmed," and Ragona responded, "I see that."
If they could talk about the filming, later claimed to be so close to make one of them uncomfortable, they could also have said, "please stand back sir; you're too close." According to Reister, Tabor would have heard them fine.
3:, and he told me I'd been standing too close and made him uncomfortable."
See # 2.
4:"The reasonable thing to do if someone is standing too close is to ask them to move back,
See # 2
5:"It was an unusual situation: "To have someone stand behind the officerWho are you trying to fool, kid? It was a drug bust. A failed drug bust. The only unusual thing was one cop can't understand he's accountable to the public because he's working for the public.
Fact: Tabor was not near enough to interfere with the cops job. If he had been they would have told him immediately not later.
Fact: Reister misused his authority as an officer of the law by using it when no crime was being committed or considered by Tabor.
Fact: Sad excuses are being floated because Reister's superiors know this and are embarrassed.
Most cops are good hard working men and women. A few are jerks who have no business carrying a badge or gun. A few more are clueless about what the job means. The jerks and the clueless make most of the problems.
I'm going to say Reister is "under trained", a tactful way of saying clueless. If your actions can't stand up to public scrutiny while working for the public, being a public servant is not the gig for you.
