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MO: Prosecutor drops Gun Charge because of Video
Gun Watch ^ | 21 February, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 02/21/2015 6:24:18 PM PST by marktwain

   
 In St. Louis, Missouri, before Ferguson, the police arrested an 18-year-old on gun and drug charges.   An officer turned off the dashcam video of the event, and because of that, the prosecutor dropped all charges.

Link to video Here:

From kfor.com:  Police drop gun charge because of video.
Police say they found marijuana and a loaded handgun in Bufford’s pocket. The police report says an officer noticed it before the tazing and announced, “He has a gun.” The report continues, “In an attempt to prevent (Bufford) from reaching the weapon, (an officer) administered one foot strike.”

Schwartz said, “You didn’t hear anything, you didn’t see anything about a gun and that`s because it didn’t happen.”

The prosecutor dropped the charges against Bufford, after seeing the police dash cam tape. The original charges included “unlawful use of a weapon.”
In this article from stltoday.com, the police are reported as finding two cartridges in the passenger's pocket, and a Kel-Tec 9mm with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, in Bufford's pocket.  Buford was 18 at the time.
He was then handcuffed, and Binz recovered a Kel-Tec 9mm semi-automatic pistol with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. It has a capacity of 11.
It appears the gun was real, and was being carried illegally.  
The police report says the passenger told officers the gun and marijuana both belonged to Bufford. An investigation of whether the men had fired shots earlier was “inconclusive.”
Cameras are making police follow procedures more closely.  In this case, I suspect the charges would have stood up, if the officer had not turned off the dashcam.

 ©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch


TOPICS: Government; Local News; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; dashcam; gun; mo

1 posted on 02/21/2015 6:24:18 PM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

A great day for progressive black grievence leadership. Blacks may now openly flaunt the law. Soon, they will be allowed to kill whitey without repercussion.


2 posted on 02/21/2015 7:06:57 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: marktwain

Could have been a throw down that they planted on him when they turned off the video. If I was on a jury, turning off the video would make me presume that the cops were lying - about pretty much everything.


3 posted on 02/21/2015 7:26:33 PM PST by PAR35
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To: Organic Panic
Blacks may now openly flaunt the law.

So you think the cop only turned the camera off because she was Black?

4 posted on 02/21/2015 7:35:35 PM PST by PAR35
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To: Organic Panic

You do realize that the same thing happens to whites, too?


5 posted on 02/21/2015 7:41:27 PM PST by Marie
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To: marktwain

When a police officer consciously turns off a dash camera, reasonable people must presume that public knowledge of the unrecorded subsequent events would not be favorable to the police. Such spoliation of evidence by a police officer must be treated and punished as gross misconduct to discourage the spread of similar abuse.


6 posted on 02/21/2015 7:51:47 PM PST by Always A Marine
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To: marktwain

BTTT


7 posted on 02/21/2015 7:56:10 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: PAR35

Agreed— no reason to do that unless you’re planning to do something you don’t want recorded.


8 posted on 02/21/2015 8:29:17 PM PST by ExGeeEye (The enemy's gate is down....and to the left.)
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To: marktwain

Here’s an idea...don’t have a mechaism where they can turn off the came


9 posted on 02/21/2015 9:22:59 PM PST by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us then who?)
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To: Eagles6
Here’s an idea...don’t have a mechaism where they can turn off the camera

If the cop has access to the camera, it will get turned off somehow. Masking tape over the lens, or some such.

A far better idea, is that each cop is individually responsible for his camera to be in working order and turned on 100% of the time. If video evidence is lost, missing, or just not recorded:

1. Cop is personally liable for 3x legal fees for all persons accused.

2. Cop is fired, no excuses, no recourse.

3. If any civilian is injured, cop is 100% responsible.

4. Cop is personally responsible to pay for lost time of any arrested civilian. Either, 5x the cop's hourly pay for all the hours spent in custody, or 10x the civilian's hourly pay whichever is greater.

Now I am an old white guy, but when I was younger I was harassed by cops many times over my life. I had no recourse. If I had been black, it would have been much worse.

10 posted on 02/22/2015 12:42:29 AM PST by CurlyDave
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To: PAR35

The only conclusion I can draw from the Furgadishu and St. Trayvon of Skittles protests is the permission for black thugs to attack and or kill non blacks. If turning off a dash cam is enough to let a black thug walk from his crimes it is a small step to all out anarchy by the black youths. That, and a lac of equal application to hate crime charges (I believe hate crime legislation is total BS by the way) just shows that black leadership has been very effective in allowing crimes by black youths to go unpunished.


11 posted on 02/22/2015 12:45:41 AM PST by Organic Panic
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To: PAR35

Could have been a throw down that they planted on him when they turned off the video. If I was on a jury, turning off the video would make me presume that the cops were lying - about pretty much everything.


It’s a sad thing for me to admit to, but I too would presume that the cops were lying and planting ‘evidence’.

What’s even sadder is that the police have had their formerly good reputation shot to pieces by the actions of a few and the ‘thin blue line’ that stepped up to protect the ‘bad apples’ instead of arresting them and halting the corruption that bad actions like that bring into an organization.


12 posted on 02/22/2015 4:06:44 AM PST by The Working Man
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