[whaap]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

It took me awhile to process my feelings on your post, I think that they guy doing the filming was misguided.

I think that we should absolutely question the men and women policing our neighborhoods and our communities, we should absolutely whip out cameras and document perceived injustices so that evidence can be used to help shed light on the truth.

To most of the posters here it seems obvious that the girl was violently resisting arrest prompting the use of (what many here agree is) necessary and reasonable force, to the man filming however all he saw was a police officer subduing a young female (nevermind she was putting up an impressive fight, not sure I could mount the same level of resistance). So really the only thing the guy wants to know (and I must agree with him here) is why is she being arrested? Why did she need to be subdued in the first place? Was she selling drugs? Shoplifting? Taking a nap on a bus stop bench? Littering? It should be a simple answer but objectively it would be a nightmare for the officer to disclose his suspicions and accusations to the general public, she could be exonerated and the charges dropped, but the record of the officers accusations would remain public forever whereas usually they would disappear or be stricken from court records.

Of course the paranoid among us will cry that the officer did not disclose the reason for arrest because he didn't have one, he's a thug and he'll make it up on the drive to the police station. If that was the case I don't think he would have stuck around explaining why he can't explain the details of what has occurred. I also have a hunch there is more to this video, it was cut short because what remains is an officer calmly explaining how to send the video to the police department so it can be submitted as evidence and possibly handing out a case file number of some sort or contact information.

I feel like I see both sides, I sympathize with the camera operator, we live in a country where police are carrying military grade weapons and are trained to counter violent threats without stepping back and wondering if there is a simpler solution to the matter. I guess I'm saying that it would horrify me to lock up the guy with the camera, despite his lack of intelligence or objective reasoning.

It's o.k. that we might disagree. As far as I personally am concerned I have no objection to him filming the event. Why the police were making an arrest is none of his business. All he was accomplishing was an attempt to antagonize people already doing a difficult task.