The video below is going viral on the Internet and purportedly shows Andrea Mears, 23, getting interestingly irate over a man flying a drone on a public beach. The beach is reportedly Hammonasset Beach in Madison, Connecticut. She is heard calling the police and objecting to his filming people. She is shown holding the man’s equipment and then the scene turns violent. During the fight, she is quoted as saying “Yeah! That’s what you get you little pervert.” However, it turns out that it would be Mears who would be arrested.
As we have previously discussed, just as citizens have a right to film police in public, they have a right to film other citizens as long as it is not harassing or endangering those citizens.
The woman was eventually arrested according to the PINAC website. She was charged with assault in the third degree and breach of peace.
What is interesting is that the man (who goes by the web name of “Hogwit”) claims that the woman then accused him of assaulting her and that the police believed her until he was able to show his videotape. Mears is quoted as saying during the fight “Then maybe you shouldn’t be taking pictures of people on the beach! I’m gonna beat your a** you little m*****f*****!” However, Hogwit says that she then claimed it was he who assaulted her. This is from a forum linked by PINAC:
They first listened to her story of lies (she claimed I was taking close ups of people in bikinis, and that she had asked me to stop flying before calling the police, and that I was the one that assaulted her, and and and). The police approached me very aggressively, believing her full story, and before anything else was said I brought up something that she missed… The fact that the cell phone in my hand has a camera…that was recording. I had video evidence that she went nuts completely unprovoked, and was the one that assaulted me.
The issue of innocent – until proven guilty; is an issue for the courts.
That being said, the rush to judgment by police, without a cursory review of the facts – tends to be inexplicable.
Irony is the culprit was “caught” by the contraption she vehemently despised;
now we know why!
So I guess while being anyplace but inside our own home we should behave as if we are being photographed or video taped. If it isn’t the government it’s some creepy jerk. Ain’t it great living in a free country? Privacy? How old fashion.
Crazy.
Much of this problem w/ photographing in public is generational. When I testified introducing surveillance video @ trials I would always assess the jurors as the tape was played. And, the attorneys would sometimes ask the jurors questions after the trial. Generally, young people grew up w/ the ubiquity of video cameras and are cool w/ it.
Whoa!! Hammonasset Beach is where I spent summers as a youth. Maybe this battle ax is in the witness protection program.
It is disturbing that she was not charged with more criminal charges such as lying to police, attempted fraud, etc.. She needs to spend a long time in prison to change her ways and stop using the female privilege of being believed before a man.
http://www.everyjoe.com/2014/06/09/crime/andrea-mears-photos-westbrook-connecticut-arrested/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=andrea-mears-photos-westbrook-connecticut-arrested#1
One of these days, an assaulted guy should withhold the video until way after he is charged and maybe goes to trial.
Just to see how far the system would believe a woman’s word over a man’s, and how long the woman would maintain the lie, digging herself deeper on every fact finding hearing. It might also make for better fodder in a lawsuit against the police and false accuser.
I’m a big believer in the right to photograph police in public while on duty. I’m not as sure that there should not be reasonable limitations on flying drones with cameras taking pictures of private citizens. Of course, the proper response if you believe that is to change the law, not go psycho and assault someone like it appears Ms. Mears did.
Her stance suggests rickets, which requires a lifetime of malnutrition to achieve. It will likely have effects on the mind as well. Her raw entitlement to take the law into her own hands is as disturbing as the lies she freely tells. So she sounds like any cop these days.
Jamie-While I share your concern over private drones (they are creepy as hell), that woman is a disgusting pig. She can be upset about it all she wants, but she showed that she’s a lunatic by: (1) assaulting someone; and (2) lying to the police to save her own ass.
The standard used to be that one could photograph most anything but publishing an identifiable image of a person could lead to a law suit, unless the photo were newsworthy.
In my view, there is a huge difference between a private citizen making images and NSA or the state tracking our movements and activities.
I may not like being in an individuals photos but I don’t find that particularly threatening.
The state is an entirely different matter.
“The video below is going vile on the Internet…” (headline taken from email newsletter)
Disturbing? Yes. Vile? Not so much.
Color me surprised they did not call out a SWAT team and kill him. Must have been a busy day.
There is an art to dealing with cops – a smooth practitioner has an easy time, a bumbler gets hassled.
One of the skills that one needs nowadays is the ability to manage dealings with cops.
The guy was definitely being assaulted. But if he also cried ”help, help, I’m being raped”, would a jury buy it?
She did not seem very civil
Everyone is now the NSA. Those remote control planes/copters are obnoxious as it is with their constant, irritating buzzing noises And while photography may not be a crime, those remote planes can be dangerous if they crash or are handled improperly. I’m not so much concerned with the photography aspect since it’s a public beach, but the remote controlled planes should be banned there for safety reasons.
Although the woman acted irrationally, I don’t necessarily blame her for being upset. Taking photos of children at a public playground generally would bring a parent’s attention to the ‘photographer,’ but as long as the venue is a public beach and a flying camera then anything goes? Does the less obnoxious public have any rights at public venues, or are public venues to be debased until they are only attractive to the debasing?
I’m surprised that the cops did not shoot and kill the man. Lucky for him.
Karma