Here is a video that is being circulated around town that was posted on YOUTUBE from a citizen known as "bagelmanb".Below is the commentary written by the video's creator, posted here for discussion purposes and the letter that accompanies the video was written by the same "bagelmanb" and reflects his opinions not necessarily those of the Insider Staff.
http://www.youtube.com/user/bagelmanb?feature=watch
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Published on Jun 6, 2013
This is a film of my encounter with
the Middletown CT Police Department on June 5th, 2013. In the 10 minutes
before this video begins, I was filming police entering and exiting the
MPD building, then filming their rear parking lot. All filming was done
from on the public sidewalk, and I did not enter the building or the
parking lot.This video begins as I was walking back to the front of the
building. As I was passing the side entrance, Officer Peck exited the
building so I started filming him. Officer Peck illegally detained me without Reasonable Articulable Suspicion that I had committed or would commit a crime, as required by the Constitution (See: Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)). Officer Peck then lied to me and told me that filming the police department building and parking lot was a crime.
Eventually the officers gave up on detaining me since I was doing nothing wrong. Immediately after this film ended, my brother happened to ride up on his bike, and I started talking to him, telling him what had just happened. After I left, the MPD retaliated against my brother for associating with me, and wrote him a $90 citation for riding his bike on the sidewalk.
The officers that were involved in this illegal detention are:
Officer Peck, Badge #7099
Officer Schreiner, Badge #8666
Officer Maturo, Refused to provide Badge #
I do not know what officers detained my brother as I was not present for that encounter.
To complain about these officers' violation of 4th Amendment rights, please contact the Middletown Police Department:
(860) 638-4000
For more information on why this detention was illegal and a violation of my 4th Amendment rights,see:
Seems like you were baiting the police so they would react the way you wanted them to.
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age of terrorism, taking videos of police coming and going from the station does seem suspicious.
If your brother was riding his bike on the sidewalk, and it is not allowed(which he probably knew)then he deserves a citation.
I agree with the last comment- first off, why were you filming them? While not a crime, it does seem suspicious. What was the purpose of this?? Simply to get a reaction??
ReplyDeleteI'd also be suspicious if you were filming people coming and going from my residence. It does indeed seem like you were trying to poke them to get a response.
The police had every right to stop you and question why you where video taping the police department. They also had every right to ask you to identify yourself. If you had you would have been on your way much faster. You violated the law. There is case law that not providing identification to a police officer is a crime. It's called interfering with and officer. Look it up hot shot! The officers had more then enough reasonable articulable suspicion to stop you.....and yes ...especially In this day and age, you narcissist twit! You are lucky you got a rookie cop and a supervisior that was to lazy and obviously stupid to know what to do! Get a life loser!
ReplyDeleteRiding a bike on the sidewalk was breaking the law....so they acted on it! That was not retaliation ....that was doing there jobs. This punk should have been arrested for his actions, and frankly, I'm a little bothered the cops didn't do more to identify him. What if he was recording the PD for retaliation reasons or worse. I think the PD should do a warrant for this guys arrest and a search of his home to make sure he isn't going to try or plan something crazy. He comes off as a mentally deranged person.