Tag: filming the police

Ohio Woman Says Cops Broke Her Wrist for Recording During Traffic Stop

A new lawsuit alleges that an Ohio woman suffered a broken wrist and other injuries after being violently arrested during a traffic stop, in part due to filming the police who pulled her over.

In February 2020, Amanda Mills was pulled over for speeding in Walton Hills, a small town outside Cleveland, Ohio. According to the suit, a police officer, identified in the lawsuit only as “Officer Schmidt” exited his cruiser “irate” and “screaming.” Nervous, Mills began recording the encounter. Schmidt ordered Mills to get out of her vehicle. According to the suit, “Amanda asked ‘why?’ without making any other statement or any sudden movement. At this point, Officer Schmidt realized Amanda was filming him with her cellphone, and he became even more agitated.”

According to the complaint, Schmidt “opened Amanda’s driver-side door, grabbed her by the wrist and arm, and ripped her out of her vehicle.” Another officer helped Schmidt pin Mills to the side of her vehicle. The suit alleges that “Amanda screamed that she was not resisting arrest and continued to cry out in pain.” However, rather than releasing her, officers handcuffed Mills and put her in the back of their cruiser while they searched her vehicle. Eventually, Mills was released from custody after officers could not find illegal substances or outstanding warrants for her arrest. While Mills was initially charged with a first-degree misdemeanor for “failing to comply” with police orders, that charge was eventually dropped.

According to the suit, Mills was left with a broken wrist and other injuries to her arm and breasts. The complaint alleges that the officers’ excessive force violated Mills’ Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. The complaint also says that the Walton Hills Police Department’s practices are the “moving force behind the injuries suffered by Amanda,” and the department is guilty of “failing to adequately train, adequately supervise, as well as failing to investigate and discipline, its police officers when it comes to the excessive use of force.”

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Watch As Cops Attack Man For Filming Them Break The Law, Steal His Camera — Taxpayers Held Liable

For years now, the Free Thought Project has been reporting on and participating in the act of filming the police. Many of these folks don’t just film arrests and police stops, but they take to filming police departments to see how they react to legal behavior. These folks take to public spaces and legally begin filming to see what the police response will be. The practice of legally filming public spaces to report on the police response is known as a “First Amendment Audit.”

While TFTP has reported on multiple instances in which good cops actually uphold their oaths to the Constitution and protect the citizens’ right to film in public, the majority of them react by showing their ignorance of the law.

As the co-founder of TFTP, Jason Bassler pointed out years ago,

More often than not the officers demonstrate they are more concerned with intimidation, dominance and subservience than knowing or upholding the law. Because many of them react so poorly while highlighting the lack of understanding they have for their job, the videos go mega viral garnering millions of views. The virility in turn creates incentive for more people to pick up the camera and “audit” police in their city and in the slightest way helps push back against the ever-increasing police state.

One particularly egregious case of police failing to uphold their oaths to the Constitution came out of Des Moines, Iowa, and was shared with TFTP in 2019. Now, 3 years later, it is finally getting settled as the taxpayers of Des Moines get held responsible for the actions of several bullies with badges.

Daniel Robbins – the gentleman in the video – had committed no crime, was polite, and was acting entirely within the constraints of the Constitution, yet he was bullied, detained, harassed, his rights violated, and had his equipment stolen.

The taxpayers of Des Moines are now being forced to pay $125,000 for the actions of their officers.

Adding to the disgusting nature of this rights’ violation, when Robbins originally attempted to seek civil action against the department for their most shameful treatment of this innocent man, a judge sided with the cops. The judge claimed that Robbins’ completely legal activity — protected by the Constitution of the United States — was probable cause for cops to detain him, harass him, and confiscate his equipment.

Not only were the cops completely ignorant of the Constitution they swore an oath to uphold, but the judge appears to be equally incompetent. The court has changed it tune, however, and as the case was set to go to court next week, the city settled.

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It is Now Illegal to Film Near Police Officers in Arizona

Frequent readers of the Free Thought Project know that filming the cops is not a crime. Despite this being a widely known provision — held up with multiple court precedents — cops continue to violate the First Amendment protected right of citizens to film the police. Earlier this year, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would criminalize filming cops on the job, dealing a massive blow to First Amendment rights. The following month, the Senate passed it, and on Wednesday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed it into law.

On Sept. 24 it will be illegal to record the police in Arizona within an 8-foot distance.

Republican Representative John Kavanaugh, who is a former police officer, was the lead sponsor of the legislation. According to the new law, it is illegal “for a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity, including the handling of an emotionally disturbed person, if the person does not have the permission of the law enforcement officer” and is within 8 feet of the cop.

Kavanaugh originally stipulated a 15 foot radius, however it was later amended after multiple objections. But for many, this is still too far.

As Valera Voce, points out, the law also classifies unlawful video recording of law enforcement activity as a petty offense, unless a person fails to comply with a verbal warning of a violation or has been previously convicted of a violation in which case an offense is a class 3 misdemeanor. A class 3 misdemeanor comes with a minimum of 30 days in jail. Finally, the bill explicitly declares that it “does not establish a right, or authorize any person, to make a video recording of a law enforcement officer.”

“It’s crazy thinking about that for a second. The video that led to the criminal conviction of the police officer who killed George Floyd would itself be a criminal act. And that makes no sense whatsoever,” attorney Dan Barr told FOX 10.

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Police are Still Weaponizing Copyright to Prevent Transparency

YouTube and other social media websites have strict rules on playing copyrighted content. Police have been using that to prevent embarrassing videos from being posted on the platforms.

Residents in Santa Ana, California were woken up by blasting music around 11pm on April 4, a Monday. But the music was not a bass bumping rap song or a heavy metal piece with screaming vocals, it was “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” from the animated Disney film “Encanto.” And it was not being played by a teenage house party or an inconsiderate driver with a loud sound system, but a police vehicle.

Police responded to a stolen vehicle call in the neighborhood when an observer who runs the YouTube channel Santa Ana Audits started recording the activity. That’s when officers started blasting the Disney owned track, in an apparent attempt to prevent the video from being posted on YouTube and Instagram. Thanks to those platform’s algorithmic copyright enforcement, any video that includes a copyrighted song is susceptible to being removed. Its channel owners are also subject to warnings and even getting banned from the platform.

Unfortunately for Santa Ana Police, they happened to be in the neighborhood of city councilman David Penaloza who, like many of his neighbors, was awakened by the ruckus caused by the city’s police department.

Penaloza came outside and confronted the officer, who admitted that what he was doing was intended to prevent the video captured by Santa Ana Audits making its way onto YouTube.

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State Passes Bill That Could Jail People for 30 Days for Filming the Police

Frequent readers of the Free Thought Project know that filming the cops is not a crime. Despite this being a widely known provision — held up with multiple court precedents — cops continue to violate the First Amendment protected right of citizens to film the police. Last month, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would criminalize filming cops on the job, dealing a massive blow to First Amendment rights. And this month, the Senate passed it.

It now moves to Governor Doug Ducey’s desk for signature, where it will become law.

Republican Representative John Kavanaugh, who is a former police officer, is the lead sponsor of the legislation. According to the bill, it is illegal “for a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity, including the handling of an emotionally disturbed person, if the person does not have the permission of the law enforcement officer” and is within 8 feet of the cop.

Kavanaugh originally stipulated a 15 foot radius, however it was later amended after multiple objections. But for many, this is still too far.

As Valera Voce, points out, the law also classifies unlawful video recording of law enforcement activity as a petty offense, unless a person fails to comply with a verbal warning of a violation or has been previously convicted of a violation in which case an offense is a class 3 misdemeanor. A class 3 misdemeanor comes with a minimum of 30 days in jail. Finally, the bill explicitly declares that it “does not establish a right, or authorize any person, to make a video recording of a law enforcement officer.”

“It’s crazy thinking about that for a second. The video that led to the criminal conviction of the police officer who killed George Floyd would itself be a criminal act. And that makes no sense whatsoever,” attorney Dan Barr told FOX 10.

“We believe that this bill stacks the deck against the public check on officer misconduct,” Timothy Sparling, a lawyer and legislative advocate for Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Sparling argued that the bill leaves too much up to the discretion of the officers. “When officers have such wide discretion to determine, say, what is lawful conduct or what is unlawful conduct on the ground and that is not properly defined … it’s ultimately up to whatever the officer wants it to be,” Sparling said.

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Cops Knock Innocent Mother’s Teeth Out as She Held Toddler, Beat Her for Filming Them

Filming the police is entirely legal, in every state. However, all too often, we will see police officers overstep their authority and arrest, attack, and assault innocent people for the constitutionally protected act of documenting their behavior in public. As the following case out of Trenton, New Jersey illustrates, police officers will go to extreme and often violent lengths to make sure they are not being filmed, up to and including beating and falsely arresting an innocent mother.

In a recently filed lawsuit, Gloria Noemi Ramirez Caal details the night of her abuse by Trenton’s finest. Caal has the video to back up her claims, as well as the horrific injuries.

According to the lawsuit, Caal was filming her son’s arrest at their home in January 2020 when police attacked her for filming. The innocent mother was holding a 3-year-old when police attacked her for filming, leaving her with injuries to her head, neck, back, right leg and knocking out multiple teeth.

Caal weighs only 100 pounds and is just 4′ 11″ tall yet she was treated like a violent felon for practicing her first amendment right to film.

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Woman Tries To Help Suicidal Person So a Cop Smashes Her Face, Knocks Her Teeth Out

A game developer thought she was doing the right thing when she witnessed an arrest at a local gas station and tried to tell police that the person they were arresting needed help, not handcuffs. However, when she attempted to film the arrest, according to the woman and a newly released video, she was attacked, slammed to the ground, her teeth broken, and her skull fractured.

The video was leaked to the Free Thought Project via a Twitter user who knows the victim. This video, according to that person, is just one of the many excessive force cases pending against the Rock Hill police department. After watching it, you’ll know why.

When this incident originally unfolded in August of 2018, police claim the video footage they had backed up their story. Conveniently, however, they refused to release it. Now that it is out, we can see why, it pokes holes in their official narrative.

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Power-Tripping Maskless Cop Rips Man’s Mask Off, Get in His Face for Filming

Filming the police is entirely legal, in every state. However, all too often, we will see police officers overstep their authority and arrest, attack, and assault innocent people for the constitutionally protected act of documenting their behavior in public. As the following case out Nashville illustrates, many cops couldn’t care less about your First Amendment right to film them and will violate their oaths to the constitution to carry out their tyrannical hatred for police accountability.

Andrew Golden, a police accountability activist was practicing his constitutionally protected right to film in public this week when he was assaulted by Tennessee State Trooper Harvey Briggs.

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Innocent Black Man Held at Gunpoint for 5 MINUTES for Legally Filming in Public

Filming the police is entirely legal, in every state. However, all too often, we will see police officers overstep their authority and arrest, attack, and assault innocent people for the constitutionally protected act of documenting their behavior in public. As the following case out of Clinton County, Indiana illustrates, cops will even pull their guns on people for exercising their First Amendment right to film in public.

In the land of the free, there are ostensible checks and balances which are in place to prevent corrupt and power drunk government officials from overstepping their authority and depriving people of their rights. The largest ostensible restraint on this power is the constitution. However, as TFTP has reported for years, despite the fact that police swear an oath to uphold this constitution, they are all too often the ones who ignore it.

In an exclusive interview with the Free Thought Project, activist and First Amendment auditor, Floyd Wallace tells us that this week, he went to Clinton County and was walking around filming in public. He had committed no crime but being black and filming apparently set off a resident who called police to report him — for filming.

Clinton County Sheriff’s deputy B. Knapp shows up to the call and is apparently afraid of his own shadow. Within a few seconds of arriving to Wallace’s location, he pulls his gun out and points it at the innocent man. His gun would not go back in its holster for nearly five minutes.

“I was just walking around filming in public when they pulled guns on me,” Wallace tells the Free Thought Project.

The cop demanded Wallace “drop his phone” and stop filming but this would have ended the documentation of this incident. The officer could have shot him and simply claimed he feared for his life and that, as they say, would’ve been that.

Showing just how scared these deputies are of a black man filming is the fact that deputy Knapp called for backup and another deputy arrived and pointed an AR-15 at Wallace. He was then handcuffed and interrogated — for filming.

Wallace was then handcuffed and detained as a half dozen other cops show up to investigate a black man filming.

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