Saturday, April 17, 2010

Arrested for filming a cop

Maryland, My California
A Harford County man now faces up to five years in prison after he recorded a bizarre traffic stop last month in Harford County.

Anthony Graber was riding his motorcycle with a camera attached to his helmet recording his ride.

It happened near the Riverside exit of I-95. A Maryland State trooper in an unmarked car pulled over Graber for speeding. The trooper is seen in a YouTube video that Graber posted, jumping out of the car and tells Graber "Get off the motorcycle, get off the motorcycle! Get off the motor cycle, State Police."

The trooper is seen pulling his gun immediately after getting out of the unmarked car. It's not until five seconds after he exits the car that he identifies himself a Maryland State trooper. [channel 2 news] [tip from RAK]


Aside: When my son was about to buy his first car some years ago, I urged him to consider a used Mercedes in lieu of the 4x4 with spiked hair and piercings he was looking at.  He did, and purchased a Mercedes diesel that looked great, was built like a tank, and cheaper than what he was looking at. 

Skip forward about three years.

Boned Jello
He is now a co-owner and manager of a restaurant in Harford county, a DC bedroom community (chock full of government employees, e.g. democrat voters) .  He's pulling into a parking space at work when Harford County police swoop down at him, guns pointed in his face, and spread-eagled.  His crime?  He was driving a Mercedes, was young, and ergo most likely trafficking in dope.  That wasn't what the police told him, but after it happened again (he, released each time) it's what we reasonably surmised.

Nobody is more of a law and order guy than me.  But, I've noticed that more and more it seems to be people like me who are being targeted.  Traffic cams everywhere; more new laws than you can shake a stick at (helmet laws, seatbelt laws, gun transport laws, etc.).  The police are doing what they're told to do, for the most part, but their Maryland politician bosses are increasingly telling them to do  things that scare the shit out of me.  It seems.


7 comments:

root@localhost.localdomain said...

This is insane. In public, anyone can film anyone with a camera. This is every bit as stupid as the British Police in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dLf57DrAsk

Of course, the British Police in this video finally realized that they were wrong and were on their way. Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

In the west that cop stood a 50/50 chance of getting shot and/or ran over for acting like a criminal during the commission of a crime.
5 years??? for catching a hyped up cop operating outside recognized sop??
Maryland= Police State.
RAK

Anonymous said...

I have been a Cop for 34 years. It is perfectly legal to video record the Police in the performance of their duties as long as the person taking the video does not obstruct the officer in any way or create a safety issue (ie. standing in the middle of a busy street to take the video). This is because of the Police are "Public Servants" and therefore have no expectation of privacy when performing their duties.

The problem here is that this was in Maryland! That state passed some very restrictive "bugging" laws after the "Monica Lewinsky Scandal" when Lewinsky's friend taped and then released publicly those phone conversations with Lewinsky talking about her activities with Clinton.

The "Officer" in this incident was WRONG, period!!!! He should be disciplined by the agency.

I'm afraid what is happening now, with the charges, is nothing more than the Maryland State Police and the State itself intending on "getting back" at this man for embarassing them by putting this video on YouTube while intimidating others who might consider doing the same thing. They are applying a law beyond it's original intent for that purpose.

This too is WRONG!

Rodger the Real King of France said...

This is a great, instructive comment. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Would it not be illegal then for the police to have cameras on the dashboard of their cruisers ? smibsid

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Your question makes me wonder why every traffic cam does not display a warning that you're being photographed?

Billll said...

When someone in plain clothes runs you off the road and brandishes a gun at you, you're supposed to assume its the police.

In the very blue states, it's illegal for anyone else to do that, after all.

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