She Doesn't Like Being Recorded - A Sergeant Steps In

foreign [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 public information filming police and constitutionalism and is brought To Us by Gavin seems Channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserved on January 21st 2017 YouTuber and constitutional activist Gavin seem was traveling through the town of Clute Texas with his family when he noticed a traffic stop taking place and decided to pull over and film The Encounter after observing the stop for a few moments Mr seam was confronted by Officer Kyle Garcia and officer Amy Cantrell of the Clute Police Department how you doing sir to help you well we're just observing huh we're just observing okay what's going on here all right why do you have somebody in handcuffs for a traffic stop well it's not something you're concerned okay well it's very much my concern you work for the people and I'm just observing to try and make sure that nothing untoward's going on but I'm just it's just a I think it's a reasonably curious question is it normal to put somebody in in handcuffs for a traffic stops that's her business okay oh hi ma'am how you doing no it's not but you do need to get off my truck no I don't I'm just observing what I'm telling you is the person that was arrested it's not any of your business because that's her personal business what she got arrested for so it's not a year No actually that's a matter of public record although interactions between members of the public and law enforcement are public information there are proper channels for retrieving that information and as discussed many times on this channel police officers are under no legal obligation to disclose the details of an interaction to any single member of the public the Texas Public Information Act which was formerly known as the Texas open records Act was established by the Texas legislature in 1973 as a response to a major stock fraud involving State officials the language of the ACT is spelled out in chapter 522 of the Texas government code and Most states have similar Provisions this concept also exists at the federal level in title V section 522 of the United States code also known as the Freedom of Information Act both of these acts along with similar State Provisions detailed the specific methods by which the public can request information and generally include written requests for information or a specific form that can be filed with a public records custodian or officer these laws are absolutely necessary to ensure transparency between government organizations and the public and all members of the public have the right to request records and documents within the public domain there are certain exceptions to which documents are available to the public and each state maintains differing levels of transparency in regards to what information a Citizen May request it should also be noted that there are certain fees associated with procuring requested information and those fees May scale according to how much information is requested and the difficulty associated with retrieving the information nonetheless this is important information for any citizen to know as it can play a major role in holding your government officials accountable and has been a very useful tool for journalists Nationwide Mr seam is not entitled to the information about the stop without requesting it from the city's database and he acknowledges this immediately oh sure and I can't force you to tell me I mean it would be it would be cordial of you today do so but I'm just observing I'm not here to interfere and you guys shouldn't be uncomfortable with being filmed I mean that looks like you have body cams yourself so it's not like you should be uncomfortable can I ask how old you are can I ask how old you are yeah so can we ask you a question okay you can ask the reason why we're here right now talking to you is because we're on a traffic stop and you pull it behind us okay right and we don't know who you are yeah I'm well behind you so actually what's weird to me is that you're in a traffic stop and you're over here talking to me instead of dealing with your traffic stop well she's already detained okay what's your name sir I'm officer Garcia Garcia I'm Gavin what's your name man Cantrell you're pretty young are you new all right you have a good night can y'all go ahead and leave the same um am I am I causing you some concerns yes you are because you're behind at our traffic stop would it make you more comfortable if I pulled up on the side here it's even closer to us either you can leave my scene or both you are going to be arrested you don't get to dictate that but Texas Courts have generally upheld the right of citizens to film police in the course of carrying out their duties and as recently as 2017 the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed this right in the case of Turner versus driver it is worth noting that the individual who was involved in this case Philip Turner is a First Amendment auditor and has a channel on YouTube called the batosi although the officers involved in Mr Turner's case were granted qualified immunity for impeding Mr Turner's First Amendment right to record the police once an officer is granted qualified immunity no other officers are entitled to it for the same conduct so if an officer impedes a citizen's right to record the police in the future in Texas it is likely they would have no claim of qualified immunity now that it has been clearly established in the Turner case and Mr Turner's case is a prime example of the positive effect the First Amendment activism Community has made unfortunately for Mr seem the Turner decision was issued in February of 2017 and and this interaction took place sometime in January of 2017. the right to record police is relatively fundamental and although it has not been directly ruled on by the Supreme Court many higher courts have affirmed this right there are some exceptions to recording the police and officers are generally within their authority to order citizens to film from a safe location the time place and manner restrictions associated with the First Amendment also apply to recording police and government officials are allowed to dictate appropriate locations for expressive acts all that said the clued officers are attempting to assert the notion that Mr seem is interfering with their investigation under the language of Texas Penal Code 38.15 which states that a person commits an offense if the person with criminal negligence interrupts disrupts impedes or otherwise interferes with the peace officer while the peace officer is performing a Duty or exercising Authority imposed or granted by law the key phrase of this code is with criminal negligence and although recording the police is not necessarily a criminal act citizens who choose to record the police must do so in a manner that does not interfere with the officer's ability to carry out their duties Mr seam was not interfering with the officers and the officers cannot order him to leave the scene simply because he was recording the officers would have been within their authority to offer Mr Seaman alternative location to safely record the interaction but instead they ordered him to leave the scene completely can you call a supervisor out and I can talk to him because we're over here speaking with you okay isn't it the Supreme Court has upheld our right just to film police officers I'll show you one more time okay so you're threatening my family with Force then is that what it is we're asking you to leave and you're going to use Force against me if I don't leave they are going to be arrested if y'all don't leave so you're gonna at the point of a gun you're gonna threaten harm to my family is that correct I never said that that's what you're saying okay one more one more chance either leave the scene or step out of the vehicle and you're going to be arrested okay well since you're threatening my life I'm gonna move away from the scene because you guys are threatening a lot my life and the life of my my four kids in here um you are well outside the law and normally if I was by myself I would probably refuse but I got my family in the car you are breaking the law right now you're violating your oath you're acting as criminals all right and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna move somewhere else and film you to make sure that you're not untoward to this I want your what's your badge number ma'am wait okay I I you I intend to have you held accountable for this what's your rank please I will I will move is what I will do I'm not going to leave I'm gonna move where I want to ma'am okay how you doing sir how you doing I'm doing pretty good I'm feeling very threatened by the behavior of your officers here okay because I'm exercising My First Amendment right sure and you guys are acting like bullies or they are rather I don't want to speak for you I don't know you okay identify myself I'm Sergeant Park I'm the food Police Department are you a supervisor of these guys yes sir okay great well I'm glad you're here because um they just they threatened my family's life just now how so because they said that we were both going to be arrested I got four kids in the car if we were both arrested not only that my wife has no control over me driving my vehicle I'm 30 feet back from them we as the civilian Reserve yes we have to look over our shoulders all the time to see if we're being followed or if we're going to be harassed and collected by a police officer in today's America anything wrong you don't have to worry about us that's nonsense because I wasn't doing anything wrong and they just threatened to arrest me and my wife which would result in my kids being taken by child perspective Protective Services thousands of miles from my home would you consider that a threat if you were out and about you're good go back you're good I don't understand you seem like a reasonable calm person I don't understand how you cannot understand the situations we face you as the officers are supposed to be out here keeping the peace and de-escalating situations and they're under arrest because they have warrants for their arrests that's not our fault they didn't pay their tickets so what kind of tickets are they I'm not allowed to tell you that because you are allowed it's public record it's okay well if it's public record you can go research it but I'm not going to disclose you have no relation to the person being arrested I don't know they're human I'm still comfortable releasing their information okay fair enough okay okay you've got somebody that's got let's say three or four traffic tickets whatever it might be on their record maybe it's a burnout tail light and you think it's law to go out and take people's cars to impound lock them away in jails with no victim because their tail light was burned out does that seem okay to you is that a very dude whenever we see a traffic offense we just issue the citation we don't do any judgment that's for the judge to do no it's not it's all accountable that is the procedure we haven't issue the ticket and then they get a court date or whatever the judge sets the fine now if they don't take care of their fine or whatever the municipality is the one that issues the warranty isn't there right and wrong aren't you accountable just like the people in the Nuremberg trials if you don't have that the difference in right or wrong plays into what we're talking about though all we know is that comes back that they have an active warrant and then we have to take them in to jail that's our job we have no choice there's no that's nonsense it's not your choice your job is this right here sir do you have a copy of this right here I don't carry it around with me well you should you don't you don't carry the Constitution do you know what the sixth amendment is the Fourth Amendment you don't you don't carry a copy of the Constitution you don't carry a copy of the Constitution with us sir why I want you to keep that you need one that's the best I'm not gonna take you that is your law book I have plenty of those I'm Gonna Leave it right here because I'm not gonna take your property okay the grander notion that Mr seam is alluding to is that the status quo of policing has drifted far from the foundational intent of the law established in the Constitution and although Mr seam asserts this idea rather candidly he does have a point in the book over criminalization the limits of the criminal law Rutgers University law scholar Douglas husack estimated that approximately 70 percent of American adults have committed a crime that could lead to imprisonment Mr Cusack also points out that federal laws alone include around 3 000 crimes and over half of those laws are scattered throughout various statutes that are not included in the official Federal criminal code any citizen who wish to abide by the law to the very letter would be hard-pressed to even locate all the laws much less draw a complete understanding of them Mr husack goes on to note that in addition to these statutes there are over 300 000 federal regulations that may be criminally enforceable at the discretion of various administrative agencies it is all but impossible for the average citizen to Garner a complete understanding of the legalities that dictate this country and nearly every citizen is subject to being stopped by police officers for frivolous violations what is even more concerning is that in the 1996 case of Ren versus United States the Supreme Court ruled that officers may use any violation no matter how trivial or victimless to initiate an investigation for example an officer may stop an individual for loitering in the hopes that the individual is guilty of possessing drugs so long as the person was actually loitering this is what is known as a pre-textual stop and it is a common tactic used by members of law enforcement to secure more serious charges by way of investigating negligible crimes this is not to say that policing does not serve a legitimate purpose and Law and Order are essential to the success of a Democratic Society but Mr seems sentiment that ethics and morality have been set aside in favor of the enforcement of law bears samarits and there is no doubt that some measure of the Constitution's Spirit has been lost within the complex entanglement of its enforcement what was the location of that call I was in route to yeah that is why I have to leave do you understand well okay but you came out here it wasn't too urgent or you wouldn't come out here well I was concerned for the safety I was concerned for the safety of my family and your officers threatened them and I want some disciplinary action taken on that first everything is going good if you would please just maintain your distance where you're at right now I would greatly appreciate it I'm gonna go ahead and go what I want you to think about tonight I know that you have this idea that you do your job but just remember there's no just doing your job there's right or wrong you took a note to this constitution whether you carry a copy or not okay and this constitution for law opinion okay so harassing police officers is probably considered wrong to most people we're just trying to do it I'm not harassing anyone you're trying to make our job harder okay that's actually I made no contact okay you realize that your officers contacted me I didn't want to order them I did not endanger them but I was well out of business IU they didn't do anything like that I wasn't giving them that option all I wanted you to do is just keep your distance to where you're at my distance was kept I was 10 feet away sir the difference between where I am now and there was nonsensical I just want you to see stay about this distance I'm not the only reason I moved is because you guys threatened my family with violence okay we didn't threaten anything yes you did that's what an arrest is you were threatened that you'd be placed under arrest for interfering with the policeman and if I had attempted to defend myself I wasn't interfering with nothing you guys were leaving your police investigation I'm trying to make sure that no interference happens I'm trying to the only one that's interfered here sir is you the only one that's violated their oath is your officers and that's what you need to think about if you got a call I don't want to keep you from it you better get going I am you have a nice night you too sergeant Park left the scene without further incident and Mr seam was not cited or detained not long after this interaction took place Mr seam left the United States and currently resides in Mexico to get the full details of Mr seam's story I would suggest taking a look at his channel which is linked in the description below overall officer Garcia and officer Cantrell get a c minus for threatening to arrest Mr seem for filming their interaction failing to offer Mr Seaman alternative location for filming and neglecting to employ any measure of de-escalation at any point over the years filming the police has become more normalized but the pervasiveness of First Amendment activism is still struggling to reach the rural areas of America and this interaction is a testament to that an officer's inexperience is often a major factor in determining the outcome of any audit and the attitude of these two officers could likely be attributed to rarely having dealt with being recorded however that does not excuse their actions and there are many aspects of this encounter that could have been handled with a higher degree of professionalism and respect for the law it's worth noting that the officers chose to call their commanding officer before taking any action and although they issued idle threats the officers waited for their supervisor to arrive before moving forward with those threats contacting a supervisor was the right thing to do in this situation and as much as the officers got wrong during this interaction they did manage to get one thing right sergeant Park gets an A plus for setting aside his ego and approaching Mr seam with a measure of objectivity engaging in a peaceful dial log with Mr seam and making a genuine attempt to listen to and understand Mr seem's concerns sergeant Park remained cordial and professional throughout his conversation with Mr seem and instead of blindly attempting to justify the actions of his officers he took the time to address Mr seem's concerns in a respectful and authentic way the sergeant even went as far as discussing philosophical issues of policing that extended far beyond the context of this interaction and did not take offense to any of Mr seam's points I commend sergeant Park for his patience and dedication to peacefully resolving this encounter and for his ability to set aside the ideological barriers of being a police officer to have a sincere conversation with Mr seam the Sergeant's demeanor throughout this interaction demonstrates the notion that not all police officers are consumed by their ego and blind loyalty to their departments and there are officers who wish to maintain a positive relationship with members of their community that is certainly a message that could use more attention in such a polarized Society Mr seem gets a b-plus because although Mr seam was well within his rights to film the clued officers he misrepresented the case law surrounding recording the police exaggerated the implications of being arrested and maintained a relatively hostile demeanor throughout the encounter a threat of arrest is not equivalent to a threat to life and Mr seems assertion that the officers threatened his life is inaccurate although the officers were wrong to issue a threat of arrest Mr seem overstated the gravity of their intentions and police officers are often criticized for using the very same tactic of distorting the truth that Mr seem employed here Mr seam also said that the Supreme Court had upheld the right to record police but the Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue because the right has been so thoroughly established among the circuit courts misrepresenting case law does nothing to advance a movement or educate citizens or police officers and only serves to discredit the movement as a whole while I commend Mr Seam for taking the time to record the traffic stop I do not agree with his tactics or certain elements of his philosophy all citizens are entitled to X exercising their rights as they see fit so long as it falls within the scope of constitutional protection but maintaining a radicalized perspective will likely degrade The credibility of your actions and craft a narrative that fails to see the whole picture nonetheless Mr seam's story is worth looking into and I encourage you all to take a look at his channel and draw your own conclusions about his conduct 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 [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,849,045

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: 6Pu4EwFAXy8

Length: 18min 34sec (1114 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2020