Pixiq

Looks like the common criminals, ah police officers, are up to their normal behaviour. I'm sure the concern was that it was that the very common cell phone camera gun was being pointed at him and he was in fear for his life. I know I see one of those everyday. Of course it could be, seeing that this is New Orleans, he was concerned that the camera might steal his soul.

Being obnoxious and getting really close for no good reason while officers are making an arrest is a great way to potentially endanger our rights to video record police officers.

When a police officer is making an arrest and potentially wrestling with someone, he or she also needs to be worried about being attacked by people in the immediate vicinity. Makes sense to me that when police are making an arrest, everyone needs to give them some space.

When is someone technically obstructing an officer while they are making an arrest?

and then they wonder why people hate them...

Something very similar to this happened to me when I lived in New Orleans, though that was before I discovered PINAC and learned what my rights as a photographer are. I was slammed onto the hood of a police car for filming a tourist violently getting arrested, because the cop mistook him for a bum he told to leave only hours earlier. The cop then took the camera from my hands and deleted the video, along with several other pictures I had taken earlier in the day.

I've seen first hand how poorly trained the N.O.P.D. (Not Our Problem Dude) officers are. They're a bigger problem, in most cases, than the street hustlers in Jackson Square and on Bourbon Street. In my experience, the only two departments that are worse, are the LAPD, and the CPD in Chicago.

Good luck to the cameraman.

Did you not read the title of the blog? It is a RIGHT, not a privilege. Of course many police officers do not understand that. Would you caution someone saying something obnoxious or annoying not to, because it is a "good way to endanger our rights to free speech?" Where does that reasoning stop?

Someone is never "technically" obstructing an officer. You either are or you aren't. And someone is "obstructing" when they are actually doing so - actually interfering with the officer in some way. Did you watch the video? The person filming wasn't close enough to touch the officer, and he didn't say a word. How is that "obstructing" the police?

Maybe police officers wouldn't need to worry about being "attacked by people in the vicinity" if they didn't treat innocent citizens so disrespectfully? Such as screaming at them and ASSAULTING them. Because when you smack something out of someone's hands, it is an assault. Did you see that police officer? This is not a man in control of his emotions, do you really want that guy walking around with a gun and the power to use it?

YOu know??? JL will argue when there is nothing to argue about!!!
This COP had no reason to believe that the camera man was a threat! and what he did was assault, plain and simple!

He, the COP, didnt even have one finger on the suspect, the COP seemed to be acting like the other COP that was making the arrest had everything under control, and the COPS were at least two steps from that, "dangerous CAMERA person!"

so then why did this, and it was assault, happen? it could very easily had been a deadly shooting instead, and the camera man would have been dead! COPS also get away with murder, so where is the line, is it gray, black and/or white, WHAT?
and what did the OFFICER shout out? i listened and heard two times "get out of here" being shouted! wtf is that?
where the fuck did this OFFICER go for training, "street of hard knocks for thugs that happen to be COPS" school?

where ever he went, he was not the top of his class, more like the bottom, and he slep thru the whole damn thing cause sure as hell seems he didnt learn a DAMN thing!

The only reason he should have put one finger on that camera person was to effect an arrest, and he sure as hell, as the video shows, had no just cause for that!

so then, what will it take for this sort of thing to stop and never happen again, "dont hire THUGS"? make sure they stay awake during training? Dont hire anyone that usta steal cars, live in the HOOD, usta do any types of drugs, dont drink, dont smoke, WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?
maybe only hire women to be cops? it seems men do not know how to control emotions, women would cry alot, i would not mind dealing with that instead.
That, instead of my camera getting knocked out of my hand, or even getting blown away by a MALE cop!

Hey Carlos - any specific SXSW things you will be doing? Austin is my home area...

Some may be interested in this:

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2011/03/15776.php

(was brought to my attention by a FB friend, who was in the parade but escaped arrest)

Unbelievable unprofessionalism, if true: firefighters language can get a little rough in the heat of the moment, but if I used the f-word in earshot of a civilian (let alone TO a civilian) I would be so deep in the shit with my Chief I wouldn't get out in a hurry.

We need to legalize drugs.

Legalizing drugs would:

1) Eliminate much violent crime (from drive-by shootings, to battles over drug turf)
2) Eliminate most property crime (When a drug habit costs $3000 per week, addicts must commit hundreds of crimes per year to get the money. But legalized drugs would drop the cost to something like $50 per week - something that even a burger-flipper can afford after a single day's work.)
3) Reduce the need for police. (We could cut police payrolls by 40% - weeding out the thugs like the one on the video.)
4) Reduce prison costs ($40,000 per person.)
5) Free a million people whose only crime was to possess drugs. (We have the largest prison population in the world!)

A more civil society, with fewer police thugs and about $300 billion less spending in the War on Civil Liberties?

Just do it.

I wonder how much this one will cost the city...

Predictably, Johnny Law thinks it's okay to shove civilians before giving verbal orders. This is hardly surprising considering that Johnny Law thinks that there's "absolutely nothing wrong" with giving concussions to suspects who are not resisting arrest.