Cop To Student Recording Him: "Shut That F*****g Thing Off Before I Slap You"

October 11, 2011 @ 4:02PM

Cop To Student Recording Him: "Shut That F*****g Thing Off Before I Slap You"

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A UMass Lowell police officer proved to be nothing but a thug with a badge when he threatened a student for recording him in public.

"Shut that fucking thing off before I slap you," the unidentified cop told UMass Lowell student Brendan Brown.

Brown knew he had every right to record, but he also knew the cop wasn't bluffing, so he turned his cell phone camera off.

Massachusetts law makes it a crime to secretly record cops, which wasn't the case here.

I would have asked the cop's name while continuing recording, ready to block any potential slap. But anybody who has been in this situation knows it can be downright terrifying.

Brown had stepped out of a friend's house Saturday night when he saw a group of police officers breaking up a brawl.

He stood at a respectable distance and began recording. Unfortunately, it was so dark, we really can't see anything.

But we can clearly hear the cop threaten Brown.

Massachusetts Cop Block, which posted the video, attempted to interview the department's police chief over the matter and received a whole lot of nothing.

So we can put the pressure on him by calling the number below.

Chief Brashears did not respond to any of my questions, but assured me that his department “take[s] citizen complaints seriously.” Though he did not comment on the department’s policy with respect to recording police activity, he did say that “The students involved have nothing to fear from our agency as I did not see any violations of the law on their part from the short video clip.” He said he will get back to me when he finishes investigating the incident.

I suggest contacting the UMass Lowell Police Department to let them know that the behavior of the officer in the video is unacceptable. You can contact the department on their non-emergency phone line at 978-934-2398. You can email the department at police@uml.edu or you can email Chief Brashears directly at Randolph_Brashears@uml.edu.

Please send story ideas and tips to carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com

Comments

Phil

7 months ago

Sent to Chief:

Chief,

By now you have seen the video and there's enough there to identify the officer. This bad behavior by your officer reflects on both you and your department and is unacceptable. The student had every right to be recording the incident.

Not only is additional training necessary but a reprimand of this officer is in order.

Phil

DrCos

7 months ago

Backing off and deflecting a slap would get you arrested, dollars to donuts.
How dare you assault the poor officers hand with your face or arm!

Cody

7 months ago

Agreed, isn't that resisting arrest? :-P

hal

7 months ago

cops starts fight, you end up beating his ass, then another cop cuffs you for attacking the other cop. fucking great!

Bergman

7 months ago

That's if you're "lucky". If you're not, the second cop empties his magazine at you. If you're really unlucky, you get to spend the next couple decades on death row, because none of the 15+ bullets the second cop fired at you hit you, but one did kill the first cop.

J Tammaro

7 months ago

If you are really bored contact Governor Deval as UMass Lowell is a public school

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us

I wouldn't expect much since he is pretty much useless

Common Sense

7 months ago

Totally uncalled for! Although I would have approached Brown for standing behind me, officer safety, his tone, statements, etc., could have been handled in a PROFESSIONAL manner and not like a THUG!!!

hhamlet

7 months ago

"officer safety"

ugh.

Here's me doing the jerking off motion while rolling my eyes. Seems to me that anyone who spends any time at all here knows that the only people who need to worry about their safety are the innocent civilians.

Bergman

7 months ago

If someone peacefully exercising his or her Constitutional rights makes them a threat to a cop...

...wouldn't that mean that the cop in question is one of the domestic enemies of the Constitution that certain oaths are taken to defend against?

crazyredwizard

7 months ago

I think an argument can be made that what the cop did fits the definition of atttempted extortion. He threatened bodily harm with the intent to cause him to act against his will.

http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter265/S...

Duane Kerzic

7 months ago

I just called the chief. "The matter is under investigation". At least he admitted that he doesn't think it's appropriate for one of his officers to threaten someone with violence.

The college probably has a zero tolerance policy for behaviour like that between students. That very same policy should also apply to the officers.

The focus needs to stay on this to insure a positive outcome of the investigation.

Tom Jannusch

7 months ago

I received the following email reply from Chief Brashears:

Dear Tom,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about police work. The matter is being investigated and will be handled according to policy.

Chief Brashears

Frank

7 months ago

The problem is, if the pig decides to slap you, and you raise your arm to deflect the blow, that's assault on a police officer.