Police Video Taping

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Recently Emily Good of Rochester New York was arrested for video taping a police Rochester Police officer. She was taping a traffic stop from her front lawn. The police officer numerous times asked her to stop recording asserting that he did not feel safe with her presence. After refusing to go inside the police officer arrested her with “obstructing governmental administration”.

Okay. There are a lot of issues going on in what could easily be perceived as a small incident. First of all the person involved in the traffic stop was in handcuffs making him a extremely small safety risk. Second of all there are 3 police offers in sight on he video making Emily and her friend outnumbered. Next there is nothing illegal about standing on your own property, just like there is nothing illegal about walking past a traffic stop on the sidewalk (which would put the imaginary person closer to the “action”). Additionally there is nothing illegal about ignoring a order from a police officer he does not have the authority to issue. Last but not least none of the other officers at the scene (other then the arresting officer) seemed at all concerned with Emily’s presence. It’s hard to say they ever had a concern even after the arresting officer forced Emily onto the ground and arrested her (I know if I was a police officer, and my partner was arresting someone I would at the very least face the direction of the arrest, and probably go over to assist if I felt the person was a threat to either of our safety).

On Monday the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office dismissed all charges against Emily Good saying that Emily’s actions did not meet the needed elements of the crime.

But there is a major problem. This should be the entire story. However it is not. Recently after the incident a bunch of people were meeting to talk about Emily Good, and apparently to show support. All of a sudden however 4 squad cars showed up, and started to ticket vehicles for being more then the legal 12 inches from the curb (One vehicle in a video posted to YouTube seemed to be no more then 13 inches max from the curb). So the fact is that it is illegal to park more then 12 inches from the curb. But as soon as the police retaliate against free speech in any way there are some very serious questions that need to be asked, and answered.

First of all assuming that the police randomly did come to the area what brought them there? Second of all why does it take 4 squad cars (and between 4 and 8 officers) to issue parking tickets?

So a few things are happening now. First as I have said the charges have been dropped. Now the RPD is going to start two internal investigations. One into the actual arrest of Emily Good, and one into the curious ticketing of not so random cars. In addition Emily Good says that she is going to file a civil suit against the police department.

Now things like this happen all over the country – People being arrested for recording a police officer. Police officers need to realize that they are public servants. They are here to protect, and help the public. They are *not* afforded the same rights as a private citizen when they are in uniform.

The bottom line is very simple – A police officer doing their job correctly should encourage people to record them while they do their jobs. Being paranoid does not afford someone the right to restrict the rights of a US citizen.

If the officer was really that concerned with Emily Good he should have kept his eye on her while the other two officers continued doing whatever needed to be done. Securing the scene makes sense. Taking away the rights of a person in their PJs with a iPod camera does not.

Oh… But there is more. So lets jump back to something I didn’t actually cover. Why the recording? Well it doesn’t much matter, except in this case it does. Emily was afraid that the police were racial profiling.

The police chief said the reason for the traffic stop was “”involved individuals that are known to us, that have been involved in violent behavior in this neighborhood,”. He went on to say that there was a suspected gun in the car. Okay… So why then was the person not arrested if he was so violent (he was handcuffed, but never arrested), and why didn’t they find a gun in the car? Two things come straight to mind when I see this. First was this violent person ever arrested for violence? Second of all where did this mysterious suspicion of a gun come from, because it clearly was incorrect. I would think that if the police are going to stop of a car on suspicion of something it needs to be a pretty concrete suspicion otherwise it should face some serious scrutiny.

This entire matter becomes more and more troubling the more I find out. The final outcome isn’t anything majorly bad, but I believe that people need to be punished for these actions. If I had my way the arresting officer would be suspended for a week without pay, and the cars involved in the curious ticketing would have the tickets dropped completely with no further action against the police department.

A final thing to take away. A while ago the Greece New York police department’s police chief was arrested due to destruction of evidence. Then another police officer in the Irondequoit was arrested for fatally striking a pedestrian with a police cruiser. As such the Monroe County police are not exactly a shining example of American police departments.

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