It’s what’s called “Contempt of Cop”.
This is a psychological phenomena in police where they can not tolerate challenges to their position as it is usually ‘ego-dystonic’.
They typically respond with verbal abuse escalating to violence.
In this case, a citizen is videotaping across the street from a group of police. For whatever reason, the officer does not like it. When the cameraman challenges the officer as why he can’t film, the officer’s ego is damaged.
When the cameraman gets permission to film from the Suffolk Police department, the officer views that as another challenge to his ego and responds “I don’t care how high you go over my head”.
When the cameraman leaves and moves a block away to film, the officer views that as another challenge to his authority and drives his police car in aggressive fashion directly at the cameraman and arrests him on a public street.
The officer then creates a false charge to punish the man for challenging his authority.
This officer should have been screened a long time ago for this type of behavior that ultimately costs tax payers in lawsuits. Just my 2 cents.
Agreed. Personally, I believe that there are good people who want to become police. However, there are some that want to “control” or “live some sort of aggression fantasy”. I thought that many departments screen via use of psychological testing. I realize that this is probably limited but perhaps it should be used in cases like this... a cop that really goes over the edge?
Problem is that first step, when the cop demands the citizen stop filming. He’s made a classic mistake - giving an order that won’t be obeyed (and on that the citizen is really under no obligation to obey).
Unfortunately, cops have an issue - their authority has to be upheld in public, all of the time. He can’t let anyone think that some punk can make him back down. If he does, his authority is compromised and he might have to fight every time he gives an order.
Stupid cops shouldn’t give the order to stop taping in the first place. They don’t have any right to privacy during the performance of their duty. NOT trying to order law-abiding citizens around will prevent the issue of compromised authority.