Indianapolis Cop Fears Man with Camera Could be Cop Killer

[Sgt.Striker]

2) Filming everybody is one thing, filming only police is another, and filming
children at play at a day-care is yet another. If you insist on doing things
"out of the ordinary," even if legal (like pushing a wheelbarrow with an
obviously heavy duffel bag in it down the street while laughing loudly), you
ought expect to be stopped

i guess i dont really agree with this statement. out of the ordinary is incredibly open to interpretation. carrying a firearm is something that many people would consider out of the ordinary. does this mean that you wont have a problem getting stopped every time you are out lawfully carrying a weapon because someone else thinks it is "out of the ordinary"? if a police officer sees someone breaking a law, than by all means intervene. but getting stopped because you are just doing something "out of the ordinary" doesnt fly with me.

 

[Benny]

He just shtopped to shee if he was a shovereign shitizen of Indianapolish.

 

[Doug]

i guess i dont really agree with this statement. out of the ordinary is incredibly open to interpretation. carrying a firearm is something that many people would consider out of the ordinary. does this mean that you wont have a problem getting stopped every time you are out lawfully carrying a weapon because someone else thinks it is "out of the ordinary"? if a police officer sees someone breaking a law, than by all means intervene. but getting stopped because you are just doing something "out of the ordinary" doesnt fly with me.

Obviously, there are different interpretations of out of the ordinary.
Frankly, if one is openly carrying a firearm, I think it is not at all out of line for an officer to ask if you have a license.
A guy walking down the residential street carrying a crow bar? Yeah, stop him and ask what he's doing and get some I.D.
A guy of one race walking with a woman or child in a neighborhood that is predominately another race? No, not unusual enough.

As long as they don't get any more threatening than "Capt. Boomershine" (is that REALLY his name), I guess I'd cut him some slack.

 

[level.eleven]

Does the law abiding citizen need fear being tailed?

That is gang-style intimidation. Gang activity.

You have a nice camera there....shame if you couldn't use it.

 

[Sgt.Striker]

Obviously, there are different interpretations of out of the ordinary.
Frankly, if one is openly carrying a firearm, I think it is not at all out of line for an officer to ask if you have a license.
A guy walking down the residential street carrying a crow bar? Yeah, stop him and ask what he's doing and get some I.D.
A guy of one race walking with a woman or child in a neighborhood that is predominately another race? No, not unusual enough.

As long as they don't get any more threatening than "Capt. Boomershine" (is that REALLY his name), I guess I'd cut him some slack.

i can respect your opinion but again im gonna have to disagree. being asked to show a lch is reasonable. but stopping someone and asking for id just for carrying a crowbar? whats illegal about carrying a crowbar? maybe im goin to work, maybe im going to open a crate or pry up some tile on a jobsite. why not stop someone carrying a lunch box? could be something illegal in there. why not stop someone carrying a cell phone? could be using the phone to plot some criminal mastermind scheme. the point im trying to make is that once we as a society start accepting invasions of our privacy because we may be doing something unusual, where will the line stop? officers are there to stop and prevent crime, in order to do this they must first witness or be notified of a crime. out of the ordinary does not equal a crime.

 

[dross]

(1) I agree that seemed a little out of line. On the other hand, would it be THAT much different from what the cameraman was doing?

(2) Filming everybody is one thing, filming only police is another, and filming children at play at a day-care is yet another. If you insist on doing things "out of the ordinary," even if legal (like pushing a wheelbarrow with an obviously heavy duffel bag in it down the street while laughing loudly), you ought expect to be stopped.

I don't understand this. To me, police should look for reasons not to get involved with citizens.

Officer: Hey, why are you pushing a wheelbarrow with an obviously heavy duffel bag down the street?
Citizen: Mind your own damned business.

But what if he's stealing the duffel bag? What if it's full of illegal weapons? What if it's full of drugs or stolen kittens, or lopped off baby heads?

The same could be asked of any car on the street, any house on the block, the trunk of any police cruiser.

Leave us alone until you have reasonable suspicion of a crime. Operating a camera, pushing a wheelbarrow, or carving a piece of wood with a pocket knife are all none of the cops' business.

 

[level.eleven]

Leave us alone until you have reasonable suspicion of a crime. Operating a camera, pushing a wheelbarrow, or carving a piece of wood with a pocket knife are all none of the cops' business.

Hear! Hear!

Why are you soft on crime? Two words, Broken Window.

 

[VUPDblue]

I have a few heavy duffle bags in my trunk...

 

[Titanium_Frost]

Obviously, there are different interpretations of out of the ordinary.
Frankly, if one is openly carrying a firearm, I think it is not at all out of line for an officer to ask if you have a license.
A guy walking down the residential street carrying a crow bar? Yeah, stop him and ask what he's doing and get some I.D.
A guy of one race walking with a woman or child in a neighborhood that is predominately another race? No, not unusual enough.

As long as they don't get any more threatening than "Capt. Boomershine" (is that REALLY his name), I guess I'd cut him some slack.

What would the purpose of ID for a crow bar? You don't even have to "show ID".

 

[Denny347]

Can the 3 police officers in this thread walk us through the thought process that citizen with a video camera = SC? Yes, we all know of the TN event. Is there something larger occurring in the training or information being provided to think that recording police automatically equates to the officer thinking SC? Obviously the citizen is white. Is there anything else?

Well, we have been coming into contact with SC a lot more lately and I believe they've been aggressive during their arrests. However, I cannot speak about camera=SC. That is the Captain's line of thought. He is putting those together.

 

[VUPDblue]

I don't really give a crap about people filming me. I arrested a guy the other day who had a camcorder going from the first moment of the encounter. I told him to put it down but that he could leave it on if he wanted. I really don't care about being filmed because I know I'm riteous and operating within the law. that all said, someone going out of their way to film only police is a little suspicious. not that its worthy on its face of PC or even RAS of a crime, it may be worth a closer look, ie: a consensual encounter and line of questioning.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Well, we have been coming into contact with SC a lot more lately and I believe they've been aggressive during their arrests. However, I cannot speak about camera=SC. That is the Captain's line of thought. He is putting those together.

My understanding of SCs is that they generally function like most other people--go to work, pay the bills, etc., with the significant exception of being de facto anarchists in terms of rejecting government authority and generally rejecting the need for any form of official permission for anything including but not limited to refusing to use drivers' licenses, secure permits for regulated activities and such. Having not become acquainted with any of them, is this a sound understanding in your experience?

I should also ask, does seeing more of them mean that their group has increased from 7 to 23, or is the place crawling with them?

 

[Doug]

I don't really give a crap about people filming me. I arrested a guy the other day who had a camcorder going from the first moment of the encounter. I told him to put it down but that he could leave it on if he wanted. I really don't care about being filmed because I know I'm riteous and operating within the law. that all said, someone going out of their way to film only police is a little suspicious. not that its worthy on its face of PC or even RAS of a crime, it may be worth a closer look, ie: a consensual encounter and line of questioning.

This.

My neighbor has been broken into twice in three months. Both were daytime burglaries. I want the officer to talk to anyone he sees carrying burglary tools.

 

[level.eleven]

Well, we have been coming into contact with SC a lot more lately and I believe they've been aggressive during their arrests. However, I cannot speak about camera=SC. That is the Captain's line of thought. He is putting those together.

Thank you. I was unaware of the uptick in the movement.

 

[thebishopp]

The good captain's suggestion of arranging to have the department's criminal intelligence unit follow (stalk) the man sounded like a threat of harassment to me. While this incident in and of itself is not really remarkable aside from that bit of saber rattling, I do find it disturbing that police who so far have failed to eradicate crime are so fast to intervene with people presumably from among the sheep who are the least bit off-center (i.e., controlling the non-criminal population more so than controlling criminals).

Granted, you do not see people standing on the sidewalk on a busy highway filming with a video camera every day, but it isn't illegal. I am inclined to believe that it is often a matter of using any justification to shake someone's someone's pockets to see what falls out. Fact notwithstanding that there are some strange people in circulation, a little MYODB is in order. There are strange behavior patterns which may indicate illegal activity (emerging from a dark house wearing a mask carrying valuables for example) but I fail to see where operating a video camera in public has any implications for illegal behavior.

I would add that I find it strange that people who are engaged in mass surveillance themselves would find this threatening unless their own programs are far more nefarious than I realize.

Exactly. This paranoia about cameras by LEOs has cost tax payers quite a bit of money already. Much more so than OC encounters.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

The same reason people think that police won't smear crack cocaine on their car. Trust.

That would be wasting perfectly smokeable crack cocaine.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

He just shtopped to shee if he was a shovereign shitizen of Indianapolish.

I'd hate for anyone to find out if you had some unusual quality/characteristic that they could exploit and make fun of.

 

[Benny]

I'd hate for anyone to find out if you had some unusual quality/characteristic that they could exploit and make fun of.

Good thing I'm perfect in every possible way.

 

[griffin]

That would be wasting perfectly smokeable crack cocaine.

Yeah, we know LEOs would never do anything wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QETr-IJFh8g
https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...nt_sentenced_to_51_month_for_gun_running.html

 

[Denny347]

Yeah, we know LEOs would never do anything wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QETr-IJFh8g
https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...nt_sentenced_to_51_month_for_gun_running.html