Ferguson cops “routinely” block public from filming them

[rhoenix]

The Department of Justice issued a scathing report Wednesday concerning Missouri's Ferguson Police Department, the agency that was cleared in this summer's shooting death of an 18-year-old African-American boy named Michael Brown. The DOJ investigation in the aftermath of the shooting found systematic excessive force and racism—but it also discovered that the police department took a constitutionally suspect hard line against people trying to film officers in the field—all in the name of "officer safety."

One man in a wheelchair filming a protest was arrested, the DOJ report said. Attorney General Eric Holder labeled the DOJ report "searing."

"FPD officers also routinely infringe on the public's First Amendment rights by preventing people from recording their activities," the report said.

The DOJ analysis said "officers claim without any factual support that the use of camera phones endangers officer safety. Sometimes, officers offer no rationale at all. Our conversations with community members and review of FPD records found numerous violations of the right to record police activity."

The teen's shooting, which was not filmed, prompted months of riots and protests in Ferguson and elsewhere. But it also fostered police departments from across the nation to implement a technological solution to the transparency problem. They began buying up body cameras—a move supported by President Barack Obama and even a presidential advisory task force focused on policing. Ferguson police even began wearing the devices, too.

What's more, Brown's shooting seemingly sparked a public conscience to be more vigilant and film the cops on the street. YouTube has become littered with such videos. And the media, including Ars, is paying closer attention to them.

Even so—and in the aftermath of Brown's shooting—the DOJ report found that the Ferguson Police Department continued to harass onlookers from filming officers on the job—as recently as last month.

... it appears that FPD continues to interfere with individuals' rights to protest and record police activities. On February 9, 2015, several individuals were protesting outside the Ferguson police station on the six-month anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. According to protesters, and consistent with several video recordings from that evening, the protesters stood peacefully in the police department’s parking lot, on the sidewalks in front of it, and across the street. Video footage shows that two FPD vehicles abruptly accelerated from the parking lot into the street. An officer announced, 'everybody here's going to jail,' causing the protesters to run. Video shows that was one man recorded the police arresting others, he was arrested for interfering with police action. Officers pushed him to the ground, began handcuffing him, and announced, 'stopped resisting or you're going to get tased.' It appears from the video, however, that the man was neither interfering nor resisting. A protester in a wheelchair who was live streaming the protest was also arrested. Another officer moved several people with cameras away from the scene of the arrests, warning them against interfering and urging them to back up or else be arrested for Failure to Obey.

Holder, the attorney general, said that a DOJ investigation also concluded that there would be no federal charges levied against Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Brown. The DOJ opened an investigation following local prosecutors' decision not to prosecute Wilson.

"Michael Brown's death, though a tragedy, did not involve prosecutable conduct on the part of Officer Wilson," Holder said.

Ferguson's mayor, James Knowles, said some officers had been fired in the report's aftermath. "We must do better," he said.

Yeah... I don't think we're all that surprised to see that these things happened in Ferguson. I'm very glad to see this sort of thing brought to light though.

[B4UTRUST]

Bringing it to light is great and wonderful, but until there are serious consequences and repercussions for this, it's meaningless. Until the cops are held accountable for their actions, it's all venting and words.

[rhoenix]

Bringing it to light is great and wonderful, but until there are serious consequences and repercussions for this, it's meaningless. Until the cops are held accountable for their actions, it's all venting and words.

Oh, I completely agree. This is the dangerous point at which either this all get swept beneath a rug with a false smile and suspect but reasonable-sounding terms, or this becomes a trend to continue to expose issues like this when they happen.

I'm encouraged regardless because for many decades, things like this were never reported and never shown - if you didn't live there or don't know someone who lived there, you'd never know. Now, it's far more visible, because the Internet is awesome like that as a level playing field. It gets "viral" on the Internet, and sooner or later media agencies have to either try to ignore it and hope all their competitors do too, or pick it up and pretend like it's new.