More police taking advantage of their power?

[ohthejosh]

http://jalopnik.com/5920653/frustrated-sheriff-arrests-motorcyclist-for-wearing-a-helmet-camera?utm_campaign=socialflow_jalopnik_facebook&utm_source=jalopnik_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

tl;dr? cliffs;
-Guy rides with helmet cam for memorial day cruise with bunch other dudes
-Guy gets pulled over
-Officer says I'm using your camera as prrof of stuff other guys did
-Officer goes to car comes back and arrest guy
-Arrested for obstructed license plate

Frustrated Sheriff Arrests Motorcyclist For Wearing A Helmet Camera
While on a Memorial Day Weekend highway cruise, sportbike rider Chris Moore was arrested. He was not speeding. He does not appear to have been breaking any law. Thanks to Moore's helmet cam video, the Sheriff's department has opened internal affairs investigation on the arrest.
Moore was on a cruise with something between 50 and 100 other sportbike riders. Last year, these riders illegally shut down the freeway and this year they continued to taunt authorities watching the cruise, including one Deputy Sheriff James Westbrook. Westbrook pulled over Moore saying that he was going to take Moore's helmet-mounted camera and use it as evidence for the crimes committed by other bikers.

Moore: Was I doing something wrong? What am I being pulled over for?

Westbrook: The whole group of you guys.

Moore: No. I was not, individually. How can you pull me over?

Westbrook: The reason you're being pulled over is because I'm going to take your camera, and we're going to use it as evidence of in the crimes that have been committed by other bikers.

Moore protested.

I have not committed any crimes, and you cannot take my personal property from me, sir.

Westbrook gives this some thought, steps away, and returns to arrest Moore for having a concealed license plate. Moore contends that this is a trumped up charge, but he still spent eight hours in jail for it.

Were it not for his helmet video recording the whole event, that might have been the end of the story, but the video was picked up by WFAA-TV, who brought pressure on the department to review what appears to be an illegal seizure of property (the camera) without a warrant. Watch the video (Moore is pulled over at 3:28 and arrested at 6:31) and it looks clear that Moore was simply guilty by association.

Is it a surprise that Moore was arrested? Of course not. He rides the motorcycle of choice of speeders and hooligans, and he was travelling with a group of reckless riders with a history of breaking the law. Thanks to the proliferation of cheap video cameras, however, he might get justice.

[Pantless Spency]

saw this in the youtube thread.
pretty terrible, hopefully the rider gets justice and the cop gets in trouble for his retarded actions.

[Mlarsen]

Well that cop just lost his job.

[Herr Faust Schinken]

It didn't even seem like the bikers where doing anything wrong in the video

[Swanny]

Well that cop just lost his job.

Na just got moved to another department. Ya know catholic church style.

[Thizzelle]

search the this is youtube thread next time

[VinniE30]

Yeah I posted this in the youtube thread yesterday.
But i'm glad you made a thread for it. More people need to wake up and be aware that there are a lot of police out there with issues and take advantage of their power and couldn't care less about serving and protecting us.

We wouldn't have this problem if there were better checks and balances for the system. The sad truth is that they are all in it together and won't rat each other out and will do everything they can to protect each other even if they are in the wrong like this situation for example.
When a cop commits a crime he should be prosecuted as a regular citizen (or more harshly if anything).
When a cop does something wrong on the job there should be action taken against him like any other job. He should be fired for this but probably won't be. At least with it on tape there is a better chance of him being fired since the police chief has a reason to do it because of the publicity. If it weren't on tape it would just be his word against theirs and we all know how that would go.

[Cong405]

Well that cop just lost his job.

I doubt it. Probably suspension with pay or working behind a desk for a few weeks. Cops these days are fucking ridiculous at what they do. I wanted to join the force before but the area I live in, they just don't give a shit about cops due to shit like this and what they do. These fuckers really do give bad names to the good ones.

[ohthejosh]

search the this is youtube thread next time

I saw it in there, I felt like it needed its own thread for discussion. This is a blantant abuse of authority. The guy wasn't even read his miranda rights when arrested.

[Mlarsen]

Let me rephrase that, he should be fired.

[reelizmpro]

Disgusting. Meanwhile, people are getting robbed/burgularized every hour and no one gets caught unless caught in the act. This reminds me of the time I got pulled over for having a euro plate BEHIND my state plate. I wasn't ticketed but I should not have even been stopped.

[e30jake]

That shit made me sick just watching it. I wonder how many times this kind of thing has happened before it finally got caught on camera...

[reelizmpro]

This is nothing new. This has been happening. If they don't have probable cause they will just make one up. Just like that concealed license plate BS. From what I understand, they can stop you for having a frame around your plate if they really wanted to. "Oh, your car fit the description of a suspect vehicle"...etc etc. Yeah right. Musta been another bronzit E30 on chrome ACS. Some of these fools are a joke.

[mrsleeve]

I am just going to keep my yap shut on this one

[BamaE30]

I used to ride a lot and worked for Triumph and Aprilla this shit happens all the time. But is offset by a few good officers out there also.