Do they teach LEO’s how to trump up fictitious charges in Cop 101 to intimidate citizens who lawfully assert their rights? It’s anyone’s guess just how often this happens across the nation, but the following video documents exactly that in Chicago
By Carlos Miller of PINAC
Chicago, IL — A Chicago police officer slapped a man’s camera then threatened to arrest him for disorderly conduct because he had video recorded her car after she parked on the side of a road in what appears to be a bustling commercial area of the city.
The officer was in full uniform, but the car she was driving appeared to be her personal vehicle instead of a department-issued one. She had a couple of shirts strewn about the dashboard, prompting the man to ask about them.
She instructed him he was not allowed to record her car, telling him it was “illegal.” When he stood up for his rights, telling her it was not illegal, she slapped the camera, a move that would have gotten any ordinary citizen killed had they behaved in the same fashion toward her.
She ordered the photographer to cross the street, to “go on about your business,” telling him she would arrest him for disorderly conduct, which is your usual ‘contempt-of-cop’ pretext/cover-up.
It is not clear when the incident took place. It appears to be spring or summer. The clip was uploaded a few days ago to a Youtube channel called PoliceBrutalityDOTus, which uploads these types of videos. It could have been posted elsewhere earlier.
The incident may have taken place after December 2012, when a court order forbade Chicago police the use of the state’s eavesdropping law to arrest people who record them in public, else the LEO likely would have seized that pretext instead of ‘disorderly conduct’.