Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Media, Society

Citizen Captures Connecticut Troopers Discussing Charges Against Protester To “Cover Our Asses”

Screen Shot 2016-01-31 at 9.41.22 AMA new citizen videotape has triggered an internal police investigation of Connecticut State troopers who are heard discussing charges for Michael Picard, 27, who was warning citizens of a DUI checkpoint. One of the officers is heard to say “we gotta cover our asses.” The officers are also heard threatening the citizen recording them. The police union has said that the officers acted appropriately.

Picard was standing near a state police DUI enforcement checkpoint near the on-ramp to I-84 on Park Road at about 7 p.m. holding a sign that read “Cops ahead. Keep calm and remain silent.” The troopers are shown discussing any possible charges to levy against Picard.

Picard is first told that it is illegal to record the troopers. The videotape is another example of the value of videotape in the proving of police abuse. 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.

When Picard objects that he is allowed to tape officers, he is told that he is on “state property.” That would seem a highly questionable claim that treats public property as state property for the purpose of banning citizen videotaping. One officer identified as Trooper First Class John Barone is captured in this exchange:

“It is illegal to take my picture,” Barone told him. “Personally, it’s illegal.”

“No, it isn’t,” Picard told him.

“Did you get any documentation I’m allowing you to take my picture?”

“No, but you’re on public property,” Picard told him. “You have no expectation of pri ….”

“No, I’m not,” Barone responded. “I’m on state property. I’m on state property.”

The officer is then heard asking the other officers “Want me to punch a number on this? We gotta cover our asses.” One responds “Let’s give him something.” The police then confront Picard about his possession of gun, but Picard explains that he has an open carry permit. He was detained for 40 minutes to check that claim but then given citations for other crimes.

The officers appear to be working out the possible crime theory with one saying “I think we do simple trespass, we do reckless use of the highway and creating a public disturbance.” Another says “and then we claim, um, in backup we had multiple people, um, they didn’t want to stay and give us a statement, so we took our own course of action.”

When Picard got to court on his $178 ticket, a prosecutor offered to nullify the charges if he paid a $25 fine. He refused. However, critics say that the purpose of the citation had already served its purpose: to stop a citizen from exercising his right to both protest and videotape police. It further imposed a penalty in making him appear in court and fight the citations.

Here is the videotape posted on YouTube:

What do you think? If you believe that the officers were manufacturing charges, what is the appropriate punishment for the officers?

60 thoughts on “Citizen Captures Connecticut Troopers Discussing Charges Against Protester To “Cover Our Asses””

  1. oky1: Speaking of American hating trash….

    In the first place, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, not BLM, so whatever. It’s a little like invading Iraq because of the actions of a small group of terrorists based in Afghanistan.

    Secondly, I watched the video hildegard linked to and I’m not convinced that Bonehead Finicum was summarily shot down as is asserted. The idiot was trying to pull his gun with every intention of going out in a blaze of glory. Well, he can scratch that off his bucket list now.

    The only thing wrong with the way the occupation is resolving is that this bunch of buttholes didn’t all “stand their ground” instead of scurrying away like a bunch of frightened rats. All, except for the four remaining brainiacs who won’t leave until they receive immunity for their unlawful behavior, which includes the vandalism of native American burial grounds.

    Frankly, because the native Americans never officially ceded the land to the United States, I always thought it was a good time for an old fashioned Indian war. Your cowboy punks would run like frightened little girls.

  2. All too common in Law Enforcement. It is not only unethical, it is also unlawful to “fish” for charges as a way to exercise authority over a situation you may dislike. This is enforcing the letter of the law only, which is wrong. Read COPS vs. The Constitution. Good book 🙂

  3. Enough for you now, but more later if you wish to be punks, trolls or assorted American hating trash.

    I’ll wait to see you boyz true colors first.

  6. stevegroen, Monty Z,

    Have you gents never learned the art of research or is it you’re to high on something?

    Or maybe you don’t understand property Rights being you’re in your late 30’s and still living in your grand ma’s basement?

    stevegreon: “I hope I’ve spelled correctly everything in this post. I apologize for the contractions, but the reason for them is that, well, I’m lazy, sort like Cliven Bundy relying on government freebies.”

    Federal Judge: BLM Engaged In A Criminal Conspiracy Against Ranchers

    Print The Alex Jones Channel Alex Jones Show podcast Prison Planet TV Infowars.com Twitter Alex Jones’ Facebook Infowars store

    Court opinion exposes BLM’s true intent against Cliven Bundy

    Kit Daniels
    Prison Planet.com
    April 17, 2014

    For over 20 years, the Bureau of Land Management engaged in a “literal, intentional conspiracy” against Nevada ranchers to force them out of business, according to a federal judge whose court opinion exposes the BLM’s true intent against rancher Cliven Bundy.

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/federal-judge-blm-engaged-in-a-criminal-conspiracy-against-ranchers.html

    1. Oky1, does Cliven Bundy owe $1,200,000.00 or more in grazing fees or not? On his theory, he could have grazed his cows in the Rose Garden.

      And is the federal government entitled to decide use of its land or not?

      Finally, when is armed resistance anything other than insurrection?

      Insurrection’s fine, but you better have a good enough reason. Cliven and son never had one.

      1. stevegroen – should the federal government own more than half the land in the West while it own only the national parks in the East? All states are to become states equally, however the feds took land from the Western states which they never did from the Eastern states.

  8. Steve and Monty. Way to go boys, You never even watched the video or considered the other side of the story. Why bother commenting at all? I can watch CNN if I want your one sided opinion.

  10. Michael Picard is a total ween-bag in need of a serious beatdown. He’s another George Zimmerman waiting to happen. The world would be a much better place without him.

  11. Oky1 Thanks for being awake regarding the Oregon “standoff’ that wasn’t. The whole thing makes me sick and all Darren Smith (the moderator here) can do is make fun of misspellings in a protest sign and point out an error in a video. So many just miss that these good ordinary people are displaying extraordinary courage in trying to save ALL of our ass*s including the ignorant intelligentsia who apparently are superlative spellers and God d*mn it; they know how to construct a sentence!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmeIZkqMLDg
    Hands up and shot dead.

    1. Hildegaard writes, “these good ordinary people are displaying extraordinary courage . . .”

      It would take extraordinary courage to jump off the Empire State Building, but unless there’s some reasonable basis for doing it the courage is like drain water flowing toward the sea.

      There was a five-year mandatory minimum sentence set by Congress. The federal court had no authority to deviate from that sentence and the appellate panel made that plenty clear.

      Imagine what would have happened had Occupy Wall Street been an armed resistance.

      I hope I’ve spelled correctly everything in this post. I apologize for the contractions, but the reason for them is that, well, I’m lazy, sort like Cliven Bundy relying on government freebies.

  14. There is a law against everything.

    If America were free, people would be required to accept the outcome of freedom.

    Swift and sure justice within a body of law about the size of the Ten Commandments is all that is necessary.

    Most of the time, Americans don’t get caught. If America doubled its police force, the entire population would be in prison for something.

    All of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination were hanged by the neck until dead within 3 months.

  15. Karen S

    I am not specifically familiar with the criminal procedure in this particular state, but I can imagine there certainly may be possibilities if prior cases relied heavily on the testimony of officers later convicted of perjury.

    Someone in the know should provide a better answer than I can.

    1. Darren – if I was a defense attorney where these cops are, I would copy this video and use it against any testimony they would use in court. Goes to the credibility of the witness, your Honor!

  16. Darren:

    Wouldn’t this also taint their testimony in prior criminal cases that hinged on their word, and open the door to getting convictions overturned?

  17. {Where in the Hell are the Cops, Lawyers & Judges at in Defending the 4th Amendment against these Illegal DUI checkpoints? No Where!!! American Hating Scum. }

    BTW: By no means to I wish to paint all Cops, Lawyers & Judges as bad, but there are many that are.

  18. Where in the Hell are the Cops, Lawyers & Judges at in Defending the 4th Amendment against these Illegal DUI checkpoints? No Where!!! American Hating Scum.

    Why is the US govt involved in funding these State Roads DUI check points in the 1st place? It’s none of USG Biz!

    The number of drinks one can have legally has dropped almost in half now from since I was a kid too almost no drinks at all.

    Now the DOT is thinking about cutting it in half again.

    Hell, at that point if I even look at a beer bottle cap the gov wil attempt to claim you & I are all Drunk. Phk’in bass tard Tyrants!

    Now, below is what appears to be a video is from a very decent American, a retired cop, explaining some legal points about the suspected murder of Lavoy Finicum.

    http://www.infowars.com/retired-cop-reviews-lavoy-finicum-murder-video/

  19. For those who feel the need to document their interactions with others, there are a number and variety of apps and programs that securely upload videos from cellphones to ‘the cloud’. The resulting videos cannot be accessed/altered/erased by unauthorized parties. One such source is: http://www.copblock.org/apps/

  20. It is my opinion the officer who signed the citation should be charged with either perjury or false reporting. The others participating, perhaps inchoately, also should face prosecution.

    This is a serious violation, more so than what those outside the police world might realize. Each one of these officers involved now faces the probability of being labeled Brady Cops and their testimony will be tainted in future cases. The Sergeant involved will most likely be demoted if not outright sacked because he not only failed to prevent this unlawful citation but he helped justify it.

    I could see this matter swept under the rug if it was some Podunk PD where the town government is intermarried but as a state police agency, it’s going to be dealt with seriously because the cat’s out of the bag and they have to force the matter before someone at the top gets their hands dirty.

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