Police Chief Swiftly Fired For Misconduct

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers freedom of the press recording the police and public property and is brought to us by michigan constitutional crusaders channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we dive into the interaction i want to give a big thanks to the sponsor of this episode skillshare skillshare is an online learning community that offers membership with meaning not only does skillshare offer its members thousands of unique and thoroughly developed classes but it also allows members to connect to the support of fellow creatives and become a part of a community of inspiration and encouragement recently i've been taking room on alum's creative writing for all class to help me develop better writing habits and i also learned a lot from jeremy mora's adobe illustrator class skillshare is already the most affordable place to learn valuable skills from home but right now the first 1 000 people to use the link in my description will get a free trial of skillshare premium you have absolutely nothing to lose so click on the link in the description to start enhancing your creativity today thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this episode at around noon on november 13 2020 officers of the corona police department in corona michigan along with troopers from the michigan state police were called to the scene of an individual threatening to jump from a utility tower near the mitchell softball field in corona first amendment auditor and bennington township resident matthew roche arrived on the scene shortly after the officers and began live streaming the encounter after streaming for several minutes with no issues mr roche was contacted by trooper murphy and trooper muyador of the michigan state police what it's public property first amendment protected activity unless you got it taped off i can be here well that might be true but we're trying to do something okay and that's why i'm standing in good distance away well the more people he sees the more he's getting agitated i don't want to do that either that's why i'm staying way back here okay further like how far are you talking well we're closer than we want to be okay trooper murphy politely asks mr roche to back away from the scene and informs him that his presence may agitate the nearby suspect i have covered the topic of crime scenes and an officer's authority to establish a crime scene in many of my past episodes so i will not spend too much time on it in this video but the doctrine of free speech plays a much more significant role in this encounter many have raised the question of whether the first amendment's free press clause applies exclusively to journalists or to citizens as a whole and although many supreme court holdings have suggested that the press clause does not grant the press special freedoms the supreme court has not directly ruled on the issue and some justices have expressed support for a distinction between the constitutional protections afforded to members of the press and those of the public in the 1978 supreme court case of houchins vs kqed justice potter stewart argued quote that the first amendment speaks separately of freedom of speech and freedom of the press is no constitutional accident but an acknowledgement of the critical role played by the press in american society the constitution requires sensitivity to that role and to the special needs of the press in performing it effectively in the same year chief justice berger concluded that quote the court has not yet squarely resolved whether the press clause confers upon the institutional press any freedom from government restraint not enjoyed by all others in the case of national bank of boston versus belotti it stands to reason that members of the press are granted some measure of privilege given that they are allowed in exclusive information gathering locations and institutions that are not available to the public such as the white house press room although the supreme court has not directly ruled on the issue most circumstances where a citizen records an event involving government officials for the purpose of public dissemination have been upheld as protected under the first amendment particularly the recording of police officers all that said the legality of recording the police has largely been left to the circuit courts to decide and some circuits have rendered mixed results unlike a majority of circuit courts the sixth circuit court of appeals which presides over michigan has not directly upheld the right to record the police and courts within the circuit have reached contradictory opinions regarding the matter we will further discuss the legality of mr rosh's conduct in a moment but the point of this section is to highlight the fact that freedom of the press is somewhat of a constitutional gray area and that the sixth circuit court has not directly associated recording the police with the freedom of speech or freedom of the press all right what's your name and badge number my name's trooper murphy badger number 1189 thank you and what's yours ramona door248 okay how about i stand by that pole over there is that cool all right i'm willing to compromise the troopers returned to their vehicles and mr roche peacefully complied with their request to move further back from the incident according to this abc12 article mr roche claims that he was 477 feet from the encounter after moving at the trooper's request after moving back mr roche continued to record for several minutes without being disturbed until corona chief of police nick churros spotted mr roche and initiated contact hey you i need to get out of here nope this is a first amendment protected activity do not touch get out of here i'm not interfering you're going to get out far away you're going to get them upset that's why i'm standing behind the pool we don't need the camera here out of here like many states michigan statute for interfering with an investigation is relatively vague and the language of the law affords officers considerable discretion for its enforcement michigan penal code 750.478a states that a person shall not attempt to intimidate hinder or obstruct a public officer or public employee or a peace officer in the discharge of his or her official duties by a use of unauthorized process and the code fails to elaborate on what exactly constitutes obstructing chief churros is essentially putting forth the notion that mr roche is obstructing the officers by recording however subsection six of the code directly addresses free speech by stating that this section does not prohibit individuals from assembling lawfully or lawful free expression of opinions or designation of group affiliation or association subsection six's language is also somewhat unclear but it does at least acknowledge first amendment protections within the code itself although subsection 6 does not directly address the act of recording the police it could be inferred that recording the police would fall under the umbrella of the phrase lawful free expression of opinions but such a distinction would be left to a court to decide there is a legitimate argument to be made that mr roche's conduct did constitute an obstruction because the suspect involved was experiencing an altered mental status which could be exacerbated by the presence of strangers or a camera whether or not that argument would hold up in court is debatable but courts often consider the implications of the factual happenings of a case just as much as the philosophical significance of their ruling at this point in the interaction it would not be wholly unreasonable for a court to find that chief churros decision to tell mr roche to leave served a significant governmental interest but the chief's conduct becomes increasingly more difficult to justify as the interaction progresses what are you going to arrest me for for interfering how am i interfering standing far back back how am i expecting i told you to leave the city property i can tell you to leave yeah it's public property no city go go public property get out of here i'm gonna arrest you for what i just told you as discussed on many previous episodes of ata states and municipalities do have the right to control their own property and citizens can be legally trespassed from public property under certain circumstances in the 1983 supreme court case of perry education association versus perry local educators association the court held that quote with respect to public property that is not by tradition or government designation a forum for public communication a state may reserve the use of the property for its intended purposes communicative or otherwise as long as a regulation on speech is reasonable and not an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose the speaker's view the perry ruling affirmed that not all locations are appropriate for first amendment expression and that states may dictate how their property is used within reason but the parry ruling did not end there in an effort to further clarify which locations were considered appropriate for free speech the court went on to develop the doctrine of public forums the public forum doctrine divided the general public into four distinct forums for free speech traditional public forums designated public forums limited public forums and non-public forums traditional public forums include areas that have been traditionally open to political speech and debate such as public parks and sidewalks speakers in this forum enjoy the strongest free speech protections but even in this forum speech is still subject to time place and manner restrictions there is no doubt that mr roche is exercising a first amendment protected right within a traditional public forum and thus is entitled to a considerable degree of constitutional protection however chief churros would have to prove that his restriction of mr rosh's free speech was not content-based and that it was narrowly tailored to advance a significant governmental interest you want to get a lawsuit i don't care what you do you're getting out of here no i'm not we're trying to negotiate something here and i don't need you here that's why i'm standing so far back get out of here you believe i'm arrested last time i'm going to tell you this is public property sir last time i'm going to tell you what's your name and badge number i'm the chief police and what's your name nick nick what do you not know the constitution that you swore to uphold get out of here do you not know the constitution last time i am media chief churros places mr roche into handcuffs and makes some interesting statements while leading him to the patrol car what's your name don't go through my pockets you got no right to you shut the hell up unlawful arrest and you're unlawfully going through my pockets garrison road oh and then you throw my equipment on the ground nice it's not gonna be real huh well you're being one so why not no yeah you're violating my right listen i give about your rights right now really i'm not politically correct so show that up here i could give you're going to jail you're going to learn the hard way i told you about four times i'm not going to learn the hard way you are no i'm not oh yeah you you guys thinking about logic for me pull this down in my eyes what do you want for uh charging unifying resisting obstruction the suspect in the utility tower was successfully brought down and given mental health treatment and mr roche was arrested and taken to the shiawassee county jail where he was detained for 22 hours before being released with no official charges four days after the encounter the corona city council voted seven to zero to fire chief churros after receiving hundreds of calls emails and voicemails from outraged citizens abc12 also reported that because chief churros was fired without cause he will keep his pension and benefits in the same report mr roche declined to comment on whether or not he would be pursuing legal action and the former chief as well as the current city manager and mayor all refused to comment overall chief churros gets an f for displaying a blatant disregard for constitutional rights maintaining a hostile and confrontational attitude throughout the encounter and arresting mr roche for exercising his first amendment rights in a public forum any public official who displays such reckless neglect for constitutional rights should have their authority questioned at the very least and in this case chief churros sealed his own fate via the court of public opinion setting aside the chief's unprofessional remarks much of his conduct could likely be considered unconstitutional and if mr roche decided to sue the department or city it could potentially set a long-awaited precedent for recording the police in the sixth circuit there are still many steps in the legal process before reaching that point and many cases like this one result in an out-of-court settlement but this case certainly has the potential to force the sixth circuit court to rule on the issue if it were to be appealed to that level chief churro's conduct was unnecessary likely illegal and only served to create conflict and i commend the corona city council for their decision to discharge him considering that chief churros was planning to retire in a month and that he managed to retain his pension and benefits there is little justice served in his firing mr roche gets an a because although he could have chosen to remain silent more often he did an excellent job of remaining calm and professional during the encounter and maintained a healthy balance between invoking his rights and complying with the demands of the officers mr roche's willingness to comply with the initial trooper's request added significant credibility to his conduct while interacting with chief churros mr roche peacefully invoked his first amendment rights and articulated his points in a respectful manner i commend mr roche for appropriately challenging the chief's authority and maintaining a collected demeanor throughout the encounter it will certainly be interesting to see whether mr roche decides to pursue legal actions and i recommend subscribing to the michigan constitutional crusader for updates on this story you can find a link to his channel in the description below trooper murphy and trooper muyador get an a plus for approaching mr roche calmly and respectfully politely requesting mr roche move back rather than issuing a command and for compromising with mr roche to find a solution that was fair to both parties the michigan troopers deserve recognition for their professionalism and civility much to the contrary of chief churros conduct the troopers did a great job of respecting mr roche's rights and i commend them for their reasonable attitude and courteous policing style let us know if there's an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe for more police interaction content you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,540,853

Rating: 4.8713989 out of 5

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: 70koOPIXSrU

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/OuchLOLcom]

"Fired" he was one week away from retirement and got to keep all his benefits.

[u/odb281]

If he was able to keep his pension and benefits, he wasn’t fired.

[u/outoftowner2]

While he was fired "without cause" I would say that in any lawsuit arising from this incident he would lose any claim of "qualified immunity". There is already established precedent that what he is doing is stifling the guys first amendment rights and falsely arresting him. So he cannot claim that a "reasonable officer" would have proceeded as he did. Further his statement "I don't give a fuck about your rights" is a strong evidence that he knows that the guy is engaged in lawful and constitutionally protected activity, but arrested him anyway.

If the courts are really going to follow precedent the former chief should be forced to pay any lawsuits out of his own pocket. I hope he ends up paying his entire fucking pension to the guy he illegally arrested. I hope he is financially destroyed and ends up living on the fucking streets. Maybe then, he will be the next guy climbing a fucking tower and threatening to jump.