Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: oldmaninsc
Are you guys watching the same video I am? The cop tells them to leave. They head for their truck, yes they are being "sassy" but going. Then the cop COMES TO THEM and said "No you aren't leaving" and arrests both of them.
Not quite.
There are about 10 seconds of the cop being verbally forceful and the reporter and camera man refusing to leave. Then the cop gets physical and the reporter is still being verbally combative, although physically compliant. THEN the cop takes the reporter away.
The worst you can say about the cop is that he is a little lacking in patience. That'd be a fair criticism. But first of all, it's quite different from saying he did the wrong thing. And second, we still don't know what happened before the camera started rolling.
I guess your idea of "verbally combative" is different from mine.
What happened seconds before this tape started is totally irrelevant. (BTW, the tv station does play a little more of the tape on their web site)
The cop told them to leave, obviously they were doing that by going back to their truck. The worst they could be accused of is being "lippy" to a cop. If that were a crime, the courts would be backed up for decades and we would be building jails for the next 20 years!
"The worst you can say about the cop is that he is a little lacking in patience."
Are you kidding me? That is police abuse - cut and dry. The cop was way out of line and over reacted. The reporter and the camera man NEVER assaulted or threated the cop. They were arguing with him at best, and not very convincingly at that!
The fact that the cop was put on desk duty, and EVERYONE refused to go on camera speaks volumes to me. Maybe not to everyone else . . .
Notice the cop RUNS towards him. The cop keeps telling them to leave. At about 50 seconds the reporter said "Okay, I'll leave". Then the cop said "No you are NOT going". The cop does essentially the same thing with the camera man.
The cop didn't need to RUN towards them in the first place, and in the second place as I said the reporter states over and over "I'll go. I'm going".
That SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE END OF THE STORY!
Even if it is edited (which I doubt) the fact remains that the cop overreacted and escalated the situation. Very sad. IF you can't see that, well I don't know what to say. I hope you are never in a situation like that!
I'd love to know what becomes of this. Lawsuit maybe?