"The camera is the new gun"
Earlier this year, Steven Anderson was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint in New Mexico and refused to allow Border Patrol Agents to search his car.
Recording the incident with his video camera, Anderson spent almost 30 minutes debating with the Agents before they finally allowed him to proceed without searching his car.
Earlier this month, he was stopped at another Border Patrol checkpoint in Arizona and tried the same thing.
The Baptist preacher said the Border Patrol Agents along with Department of Public Safety officers ended up shattering his windows, dragging him out of his car and using their Taser guns on him.
Then they stomped his face into the shattered glass on the ground, resulting in multiple cuts on his face. He said they also continued to use their Taser guns on him.
From the multiple news stories and his own video describing the incident, it is not clear whether or not he was filming the exchange before they shattered his windows. If he was recording, then DPS have probably confiscated the video.
Nevertheless, the Border Patrol checkpoint is equipped with many cameras that surely recorded the incident and will prove once and for all whether Anderson was victimized or whether he was being “combative”, as DPS claims in the following press release.
The U.S. Border Patrol asked the Arizona Department of Public Safety to assist their Officers with a combative motorist who refused to cooperate at a checkpoint in the westbound lanes of Interstate 8. Steven L. Anderson, the combative motorist, was arrested by a DPS Officer for resisting a lawful order during the incident and booked into the Yuma County Jail.
Mr. Anderson never filed a complaint with DPS concerning his arrest but instead made a You-Tube video that featured his version of the events of that day.
An investigation by the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Professional Standards Bureau is underway. DPS is looking at current agency policies and procedures that officers must comply with when requested by any agency to respond to checkpoints.
In this particular instance DPS will look at our Officer’s response and actions. We will offer no further comment on this incident until the investigation has been concluded.
*It should be noted that in 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Federal checkpoints near border areas to enforce laws prohibiting illegal immigration. This U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 8 is in compliance with federal law.
The camera rarely lies. It shows us that Anderson can be stubborn about his Constitutional rights. It shows us that he is not afraid to walk up to a Phoenix police officer and deride him for carrying a machine gun. And it shows us that he believes that Barack Obama is the devil. He will even order people to “get the hell out of my church” who happen to disagree with him.
In fact, the video camera is now the ultimate weapon of truth. Or as Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox’s Freedom Watch says 3:25 into the video below; “the camera is the new gun.”
“Let me say this. The camera is the new gun. Filming the government and showing its excesses and showing its utter ignorance of the Constitution which every person who works for the government has taken an oath to uphold, will have massive effect. And we of course who believe in your civil liberties and your right not to be stopped by the government absent some demonstrable evidence of criminal activity will make sure that this tape, let’s just say, will be seen by a great number of people.”
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Comments
I suppose it’s both good and bad that this wasn’t the checkpoint video guy. Bad that we didn’t get a video, and good because this will get a lot of positive media attention for him.
Unfortunately, i feel/know that if the checkpoint video guy gets arrested that the coverage will be different, since he’s “harassing the border patrol agents which are merely doing their jobs”
What they did was totally uncalled for, had no basis in law, and tasing and giving him that many cuts and wounds is unacceptable for someone who is not resisting.
This is what happens when american citizens assert their rights. How many more americans need to be broken by law enforcement before we wake up? Will the day come where everyone at least KNOWS someone that was abused by a police officer? what about the day when everyone has been? Multiple times?
I can’t wait for the LEO apologetics to start. “but he WAS resisting! he didn’t obey a lawful order! He could have just let them search and none of this would have happened!” The people who say and do these things make me physically ill.
Carlos, i woke up today and popped on my nokia and checked my RSS feeds, saw “the camera is the new gun” and felt ILL, man. I knew it was going to be something that was going to raise my blood pressure and make me angry, and you delivered. I had to wait until i was sitting down to read the story.
And LET THE APOLOGETICS BEGIN, jones, et al!
Note to “genewitch”: Two OT points:
1. You said, “And LET THE APOLOGETICS BEGIN, jones, et al!”
If I remember correctly, Karl Mansoor (a former LEO) confronted “jones” bluntly a little while back regarding his (jones’s) career. Have you seen “jones” around since then? Did “jones” ever respond to questions about whether he (jones) was, or wasn’t, a former LEO or simply somebody who identified with LEOs ?
2. Is your handle (genewitch) intended to convey the information that you’re a genetics researcher or that you work with DNA ? Just a matter of curiosity.
Voice:
I don’t really remember last time i saw jones on here, you could be right (and probably are). But there are others that do the same thing. I figured this story would get more of the usual.
“genewitch” is a nickname of a character in a book by Eric S. Nylund. He went insane trying to genetically improve the human brain into a parallel processor – and testing the resulting DNA on himself and everyone around him.
I just liked the way it sounded.
Note to “genewitch”: Thanks for your response. The handle was DNA-related, then. Yes, it’s got a nice ring to it.
Carlos,
Another good post. Keep it up.
Video is out. Wow those car windows are tough. Just made a hole big enough to get the tazer in there.
http://stevenandersonfamily.blogspot.com/
Thanks Frank. I just posted it. This is fresh!
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