Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Media

Video: U.S. Marshal Shown Rushing Woman and Smashing Her Cellphone To Stop Her Videotaping A Public Arrest

Screen Shot 2015-04-21 at 10.50.12 AMWe have another video of a police officer destroying the cellphone of a citizen who is filming an arrest in clear violation of her constitutional rights. New reports indicate that the officer holding an automatic weapon in the videotape below who is seen charging the woman and smashing her phone on the ground is a United States Marshal in California.

The video shows the woman standing out of the way while filming an arrest. She is actually backing up when an officer rushes her, smashes the phone on the ground and then kicks it before walking away. Unfortunately for the officer there was a second person filming and the woman asks “Did you record that?” She did.

We have been following the continuing abuse of citizens who are detained or arrested for filming police in public. (For prior columns, click here and here). Despite consistent rulings upholding the right of citizens to film police in public, these abuses continue.

The question is what to do with this officer absent some unknown reason for this assault. I cannot imagine the justification for such conduct. However, if it is as it appears, there is the question of whether this officer should be allowed to retain his position. The level of contempt for the constitutional rights of this woman is shocking. I would be very concerned about the judgment and the level of personal control that would be shown by this officer in other circumstances.

What do you think?

104 thoughts on “Video: U.S. Marshal Shown Rushing Woman and Smashing Her Cellphone To Stop Her Videotaping A Public Arrest”

  1. issac:

    The woman was audibly being a b*tch. She has the right to film but not to mouth off at police doing what ever they were doing.

    Whether she was being a b*tch or not, I am pretty sure that she does have the right to “mouth off” to police. She can’t actually endanger them or impede them from doing their jobs, but I am pretty sure that being able to peacefully (not necessarily politely) express her displeasure to government officials is sort of the heart of the 1st amendment guarantee of free speech.

  2. Another Angle to the story

    From Jim Stone

    A U.S. marshal who was disguised as a normal police officer smashed a woman’s cell phone for taking video of police activity in the Jade Helm region. The woman was taking the video because the police had a large number of people from her neighborhood detained and lined up. When they discovered the woman videotaped them with their line of people, they smashed her phone.

    PROBLEM: Other people were video taping them smashing her phone and when they figured out that they had been busted, they let the people they detained go. It is possible then that they are now rounding up Americans to be shipped to the detention centers as part of Jade Helm and they don’t want any video footage of this happening. If others did not catch what they were doing (others they realized were there after smashing the woman’s phone,) it is my guess they would not have let the people they detained go. Here is the article that talks about this and though the article mentions nothing about jade helm, fema or anything else, if you read between the lines here, the police and federal marshals were not on the up and up with whatever they were doing, which means a connection to Jade Helm and detention of dissidents is rightfully suspected.

    They certainly would not have let real criminals go just because someone videotaped the bust, they would only have let regular citizen dissidents go because they could be identified by the videos being taken, videos that could answer the question: Hey, where did Bob go? Any such dissident round ups are supposed to be TOP SECRET.

    It will be interesting to watch the blogs and see if anyone surfaces to talk about this.

    jimstone.is – http://82.221.129.208/

  3. power systems have a way of idk acting, using and exerting power.

    Yall act like it’s dofficult to indict law enforcement officers who kill civilians extrajidicially and ilegaly. Of course, people with that power will try and exert it when it seems to be at their advantage.

    Law enforcement officers are human, not supermen.

  4. I honestly can’t believe people are still stuck Walker and the “investigation”. It was all a sham and everyone from Chisholm on knows it. The judge gave a blank check to the DA in Milwaukee, who’s wife was a union steward and very involved in Act 10, to try and find something. Police terrorized their targets with middle of the night SWAT raids for non-violent accusations of a crime. I’ll say it again: SWAT teams were used to terrorized people because of their political alignments.

    Chisholm needs to go. He’s dirty and a rotten DA.

  6. fiver –

    Think it just maybe has to do with skin color????

    It seem’s the difference between a ‘policing the thugs’ and marshal law is a rather thin white line.And then you’re berated for your temerity in even mentioning it, as if you’ve misunderstood them all along. Priceless!

  7. I find it surprising people cite unsubstantiated charges by a rogue political operation as proof, as if these people were somehow beyond skepticism. But I guess that shows how people arrive at such bizarre conclusions: they simply accept as fact the most damning allegations any nut is willing to make. I suspect this is why a willingness to make idiotic statements in public is such a key element for advancement among extremists.

    Meanwhile citing the John Doe rules as if this somehow justifies the actions is absurd. The rules were intended for organized crime and other high risk investigations. Those running this investigation proved they didn’t believe the rules were necessary by tipping off the press in advance of the raid. But we’re supposed to believe someone can conclude secrecy was so important it justifies stifling the target’s civil rights but so unimportant it was safe to leak to the press.

    You can tell when people are trying to support a worldview rather than honestly evaluate the circumstances by noting how studiously they avoid examining any evidence that might impede that purpose.

  8. A lot of this seems to attract a lot of mumbo jumbo concerning which law to use and how to legally address this. This has been shown to be a black hole from which no real progress is being made. No one pays attention to this sort of thing after a few months and by then the officer is back on the streets and more often than not bolstered by getting off, ie. getting a ‘good’ lawyer.

    The woman was audibly being a b*tch. She has the right to film but not to mouth off at police doing what ever they were doing. She should get a new phone to replace the one damaged and then told to film quietly next time.

    The officer should forfeit at least six months pay to go towards an anger and behavior management course-six months. This way he would be paying for an extremely necessary program and not the public. Pay at the pump. If a police officer was faced with losing six months pay and having to sit through six months of finger wagging, he or she would perhaps think twice. With the number of police officers overstepping their privilege of power and authority, there would be sufficient funding to establish an autonomously run behavior management experience for the less serious offenses. If an officer can be charged with the more serious offenses then the hammer should come down no less hard than if he or she were a civilian.

    The legal BS serves to bury the incident in academic mumbo jumbo.

  9. A simple way to address how to do the right thing within the scope of duties as a law enforcement officer is to just assume that when you are working with the public you are being filmed. Either you can be a celebrity or be a pariah. Which would you rather be? It ain’t hard.

  10. @John F BaRoss
    That was a very well done parody of a cop apologist – the massive overuse of the term “civilian” to define non-LEO’s (“mundanes” is the term usually used) had me rolling on the floor. And the bit about the lower animals needing certified training in the proper way to comport themselves should they find themselves in the presence of the Exalted Ones? Magnificent. I tip my hat to you, sir.

    (Sadly, I think there really are people like those you are parodying who think LEO’s are not civilians – mere mortals – but warriors akin to a Superman/Rambo/Chuck Norris hybrid who carry the sword of justice and the armor of truth into the never-ending battle against sin and evil and overdue library books, to whom The Law is not that which is dictated by mortal Man but the righteousness that burns within their pure and fearless hearts. I’m guessing the cop in this video would be one of them.)

  11. Annie
    Maybe Mr Walker can ask his sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson to cover the court costs along with financing his campaign.

  12. Golly Gee, let’s all write some letters and ask our elected officials to reform the police state. Gosh darn it, it seems to me that we can have an authoritarian society without the rudeness. Of course, it would help if citizens would comply with commands given by authorities. After all, the police state is there to enforce the laws our duly elected officials have instructed them to enforce.

    The next time a police officer smashes you in the face because you didn’t react to his commands fast enough, please remember he is only doing the tough job you have empowered him to do. For goodness sakes, have some empathy and try to understand that police officers are just human beings trying their best to make this a better world, right?

    A few eggs (and cell phones) must be broken to make a tasty omelet. The universe is just as it should be – they way you’ve made it.

  13. Pete Seeger was my favorite musician and composer.
    I agree with Justice Holmes comment early today.
    Someone commented that some judge will let the cops off if there is a prosecution. Well, the best way to address this is to sue the iqPay in Federal Court under Section 1983. Sue for damages and to hell with declaratory and injunction. When you sue for damages and get a jury, the jury will decide if he was a bad cop here. If a judge dismisses on summary judgment a court of appeals will likely side with the plaintiff. I have been there and done that in a prior life as a human. As a dog I would bite this cop on sight and even risk getting shot. What a pig!

  14. http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/report-john-menard-gave-million-to-conservative-group-tied-to/article_3db11626-5633-580e-87d5-02484f6c7893.html

    John Doe investigators wrote of the Gogebic donation in a court filing that “because Wisconsin Club for Growth’s fundraising and expenditures were being coordinated with Scott Walker’s agents at the time of Gogebic’s donation, there is certainly an appearance of corruption in light of the resulting legislation from which it benefited.

    The John Doe investigation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court, is probing whether Walker’s recall campaign illegally coordinated with Wisconsin Club for Growth to raise millions of dollars that it then distributed to other groups that sought to influence public opinion during the gubernatorial and Senate recall elections.

    Wisconsin Democracy Campaign executive director Matt Rothschild cited the reported Menard contribution as an example of the “potential of a corrupting influence” during testimony Tuesday before a joint informational hearing of the state’s Assembly and Senate elections committees about potential revisions to the state’s campaign finance laws.

    “This is part of the total wave of dark money that is leaving a stain all over the Capitol in Madison,” Rothschild said.”

  15. The Scott a Walker scandal. What it’s about.

    You should keep up with the times. Since that article 9 months ago the Democrats pet judge recused herself fearing her role would result in discipline and an unbiased judge ruled they never had probable cause to begin the inquiry.

  16. another ham-fisted oinker abusing petty power…sick man, truly sick…

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