Charges dropped against Florida student arrested for videotaping cops

February 19, 2011 @ 2:46PM

Charges dropped against Florida student arrested for videotaping cops

Video proves that cops lied on arrest report

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Not only were charges dropped against a Florida college student arrested for videotaping police officers last month, evidence has emerged that officers fabricated the police report.

But as usual, police have gone into plausible deniability by having a Tarpon Springs police captain going on the record with a TV reporter stating that he was unaware of such a fabrication.

But the evidence is out there for the world to see; a huge letdown considering the officer in question was named Cop of the Year in 2009.

According to Kilgore’s video from the night of arrest, Tarpon Springs Police Cpl. Steve Gassen told him that he was committing a federal felony by videotaping them and can be jailed on a $5,000 bond.

But Gassen apparently thought better about writing such blatant misinformation in the police report because he then wrote that he had informed Kilgore that he had every right to videotape a traffic stop.

Kilgore was arrested after he refused to hand to the camera over. Kilgore’s friend tried to videotape the arrest, but his camera was confiscated as well.

But a judge said Gassen had no right confiscate these cameras. Let’s see how quickly they file a lawsuit.

Comments

Luc

1 year ago

Cops don't lie, especially Cop of the year. :-)

I wonder how many other cases this Cop of the year didn't lie on?

AaronM

1 year ago

I see... they had someone who hadn't seen the tape talk to the media. And it's likely that they'll arrange for certain officers to never see the tape, just so they'll always have some poor sap to shove in front of the media to say that he's honestly unaware of any hinky doings. You'd think that the officers themselves would get tired of being made to look like idiots (and/or willfully ignorant) for the cameras every time somebody can't be bothered to get things right. That can't be what anybody goes to the police academy for.

Just Me

1 year ago

Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement.

agesilaus

1 year ago

Yes and as we all know Fascist=Nazi and Nazi is an acronym for Nation Socialist Workers Party and Socialist = Obama and so Obama is at fault.

ipso facto.

hal

1 year ago

first thing to say to a COP, can you lie to me legally?
would they even be able to answer that? LMFAO
talk about a catch-22!
idiot COPS, idiot supervisors of COPS!

Michael Kerney

1 year ago

I don't think "cop of the year" necessarily means "good" (for certain values of good) over there.

Sukoi

1 year ago

Off topic but the police chief in Houston Texas is worried about people videotaping his police officers: "This rhetoric can give someone a free pass to try to assault a police officer or kill a police officer, and I'm not going to allow that," he said. "My officers should be able to go out here and work in the neighborhoods and keep this city safe without fear and without hesitation."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7432563.html

Johnny Law

1 year ago

Maybe you should read that article a little better. The chief isn't complaining about being videoed. He is complaining about people acting the fool and jumping out of vehicles on traffic stops while waving a camera. Video or not, the officers still need to control the scene while they are conducting a traffic stop.

The rhetoric is a problem. You have enough morons screaming about fascists and someone is eventually going to do something stupid and cause people to get hurt.

Sukoi

1 year ago

If you really are a LEO, you should be ashamed of portraying your employers as "fools" while implying that police officfers are not.

Why do police officers "need" to "control" a scene, particularly given the fact that it is percieved (and likely a fact) that many police officers are corrupt and most others cover up and/or ignore that corruption.

Yes, I'm implying that most police corruption doesn't get reported; if it did, we probably wouldn't have ever crossed paths...

AaronM

1 year ago

The perception that police officers are corrupt is a problem for the police, and one that they tend to do a very poor job of handling, overall, given that their first reflex seems to be to deny the charges, even when there appears to be pretty ironclad evidence of wrongdoing. (But, I would add that beating up someone who didn't need to be beaten up seems somewhat different than corruption.)

But if you're going to claim that the perceived corruption is a fact, you've acquired a burden of proof that you have to live up to.

I understand that this is, generally speaking, a police-unfriendly forum, but that shouldn't be a license to make unfounded accusations. A least do people the service of pointing to whatever solid evidence you have. (And not just other unsupported internet accusations - those are a dime a dozen.)

hal

1 year ago

AaronM:

you make a, perhaps, very valid point, but you forget one point that makes everything you said! INVALID!
its not only the accusation of wrong doing, but the "cover-up" that happens after that needs to be addressed!
And it sure seems to me, there is cover-up unless there is a clear picture of ervrything for all to see, and every part of the "investigation" is there for the public to know and see!
now one may say, the police...etc. needs investigations where some of it needs to be hidden and kept from the public eye for obvious reasons, well you know what, then you will have some saying there is a cover-up! And you also know what, sometimes they will be 100% right!
I for one, dont think there should be a middle ground, I for one think it should all be out there for everyone to see! i think it has gotten so bad, that this is the only way for the public to know, did he have a gun or not.....etc.
oh, shit why should a reporter be put into that position to have to try and chase down the CAPTAIN of police or whomever he was to get a statement as to what really happen....etc and then get kicked in the head by a jackass policeman attempting to protect the CAPTAIN! THAT IS BULLSHIT! He was sure as hell avoiding the media for some reason!

AaronM

1 year ago

I don't think that one may use allegations of a cover-up to relieve oneself of a burden of proof, hal. After all, the justice system cannot convict a person on the basis of evidence that they can't find, but presume exists, by saying that the defendant has hidden it somewhere. They have to produce it to make their burden of proof.

You're correct in that police internal investigations are (perhaps much) more opaque than they need to be, and that this level of non-transparency fuels rumors of corruption and dirty dealing that more open operations would quell. But just because someone won't tell you what they were doing on Friday night doesn't mean that you can accuse them of a crime that happened then, and then use their refusal to exculpate themselves as prima facie evidence of their guilt. You have to produce other concrete facts to make your case.

fluid ambient

1 year ago

As long as they aren't interfering with the investigation/arrest, this is a moot point. The video in question here, the photographer was standing like 75 feet away. Plenty far to not be interfering with the cops on the scene.

I think most of the time, people choose their spots carefully. They won't start filming in the middle of the street and block traffic or anything like that. So your hypothetical is disingenuous to say the least.

AaronM

1 year ago

That's a bit unfair. The article you're citing is a little more complicated than that. I wasn't impressed with Chief McClelland's response myself, but there's more context than what you provide here.

hal

1 year ago

"cop of the year" may very well have a meaning, well, how they deal with the public in their own very special way?

Michael, now can we get one of them to reveal what the true meaning really is? maybe they take a blood oath or something, somehow i wouldnt doubt it!