Comment by ryanmercer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ryanmercer | Hacker News Reader

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>Then, as a cop, you arrest them

Sure, 1-2 officers responding to an incident are just going to arrest an angry crowd of 10, 20, 50 people while fearing for both their own safety and the safety of the public.

Go watch police cam breakdown/footage on YouTube. Crowds surround officer and start shouting, and even throwing things.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDwWSl-sVE here officers try to restrain a felon, in felony possession of a firearm, that had tried to assault officers while a felon unlawfully possessing a firearm, as people surrounded them to hold their phones as close to them as possible to take footage, then as 3 of them try to subdue the suspect that continued, while armed, to try and resist then has to escalate to non-lethal violence of gasp punching the guy to try to get him to submit. At 3:42 an onlooker throws a full trash can at the officers that are actively trying to handcuff an ARMED FELON that is fighting tooth and nail to escape.

This is moving the goalposts.

> Sure, 1-2 officers responding to an incident are just going to arrest an angry crowd of 10, 20, 50 people while fearing for both their own safety and the safety of the public.

… which has nothing to do with allowing citizens the right to film officers, nor with the point that I was making above: that, in that scenario, you can already arrest that person without needing an unconstitutional law to do so.

> video

This is exactly the sort of thing I want recorded. To one side, this is going to be "police brutality", and to the other, "resisting arrest". Recording it gives us evidence, and allows us the ability to decide on something more firm than the just what each side is going to claim happened.

Yeah, a trash can gets thrown; this thread isn't arguing for the right to toss trash cans at cops, and you're missing the point: that's separate from recording, and we already have laws that allow cops to arrest people that assault cops. So if you toss a can at a cop you already shouldn't be surprised when you get arrested¹. If the cops don't have the manpower to make the arrest, not being allowed your constitutional right to film isn't going to change that. The cops already have the (de jure) power they need here.

¹I'd also note that, here, cops need to understand their actions. While I disagree with the behavior of the people in the video, I can empathize & understand their point of view that this, to them, is police brutality. If you want to de-escalate a situation (which would help, if, as you argue, they can't make the arrest because they're being overpowered by the crowd), that starts by not doing things that enrage the crowd. Failing that, they just need backup, then.

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