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The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)
Sun May 12, 2013, 04:34 PM May 2013

Beaten for Filming a Beating, Woman Says

Beaten for Filming a Beating, Woman Says


BALTIMORE (CN) - Baltimore police beat up a woman and smashed her camera for filming them beating up a man, telling her: "You want to film something bitch? Film this!" the woman claims in court.

Makia Smith sued the Baltimore Police Department, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and police Officers Nathan Church, William Pilkerton, Jr., Nathan Ulmer and Kenneth Campbell in Federal Court.

Smith claims she was stuck in stand-still rush hour traffic in northern Baltimore when she saw the defendant officers beating up and arresting a young man.

She says pulled out her camera, stood on her car's door sill and filmed the beating.

"Officer Church saw plaintiff filming the beating and ran at her," the complaint states. "He scared her and she sat back in her vehicle. As he ran at her, he yelled, 'You want to film something bitch? Film this!'

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/10/57519.htm

13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Beaten for Filming a Beating, Woman Says (Original Post) The Straight Story May 2013 OP
Video interview of Makia Smith Purplehazed May 2013 #1
Great story for Mother's Day. Her 2 yo daughter was in the car.... Spitfire of ATJ May 2013 #2
Police thuggery coverup. If public officers aren't ashamed, let us see what they do. nt Bernardo de La Paz May 2013 #3
We have become a nation The Wizard May 2013 #4
I call them badge sniffers and you're right Nanjing to Seoul May 2013 #8
Yep. Not me though. tblue May 2013 #12
Someone raised their eyebrow at me... awoke_in_2003 May 2013 #5
And somebody recently said . . . Brigid May 2013 #7
That would be good, too... awoke_in_2003 May 2013 #9
Up until recently, titanicdave May 2013 #6
That bullshit is about to be over Incitatus May 2013 #10
That's the way: stream live to the cloud especially if it is a shared link for immediate backing up. Bernardo de La Paz May 2013 #11
I just tried both links for the app and they have both been taken down. dogknob May 2013 #13
 

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)
2. Great story for Mother's Day. Her 2 yo daughter was in the car....
Sun May 12, 2013, 05:29 PM
May 2013

Imagine the horror of that child watching someone beating up their mommy.

The Wizard

(12,482 posts)
4. We have become a nation
Sun May 12, 2013, 06:31 PM
May 2013

of uniform worshipers. Anyone in uniform is a hero. The Rodney King beating recorded on video and subsequent acquittal by a jury sent a message that police are always right.

 

Nanjing to Seoul

(2,088 posts)
8. I call them badge sniffers and you're right
Sun May 12, 2013, 07:42 PM
May 2013

But one of my posts got blocked for saying the same thing you said.

But the cops can do no wrong (and other RW talking points) posted on DU survive juries.

tblue

(16,350 posts)
12. Yep. Not me though.
Mon May 13, 2013, 02:09 AM
May 2013

There are too many bad cops and too many soldiers who enlist so they can blow someone away with impunity. I respect them all and I am concerned about the well being of the injured and the good ones, but I don't put all of them automatically in that category.

 

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)
5. Someone raised their eyebrow at me...
Sun May 12, 2013, 07:11 PM
May 2013

in the Silva thread because I said I wouldn't call 911 to tell them I had video proof that the cops killed Silva, I would call the local TV station. Here is a hint, folks- cops are not your friends, and if you can prove they broke the law they will beat, or try to kill you, too.

Brigid

(17,621 posts)
7. And somebody recently said . . .
Sun May 12, 2013, 07:41 PM
May 2013

That if you get footage like this, quickly send it to someone else to preserve it.

Incitatus

(5,317 posts)
10. That bullshit is about to be over
Sun May 12, 2013, 07:52 PM
May 2013

Cops Vs. Clouds: New App Will Keep Authorities from Deleting iPhone Videos

Scott Shackford|Jun. 29, 2012 11:45 am

Carlos Miller of Photography is Not a Crime is helping publicize (and test) a new iPhone app that automatically streams video as a user is recording it and stores it remotely in a cloud, thus preventing grabby law enforcement officers from deleting footage.

http://reason.com/blog/2012/06/29/cops-vs-clouds-new-app-will-keep-authori

Soon we will see the first video of a cop destroying someone's camera and thinking the evidence is gone.

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,789 posts)
11. That's the way: stream live to the cloud especially if it is a shared link for immediate backing up.
Sun May 12, 2013, 08:43 PM
May 2013

"The internet treats censorship as a routing problem and routes around it." -- John Gilmore.

"Given enough eyes all bugs are shallow." -- Eric Raymond. Note: you can think of a violation of a person's civil liberties as a bug in the social fabric.

Note that destroying a camera is attempted (and possibly successful) destruction of evidence which is a crime. In California (for example) the destroyer must know that the evidence is going to be used as evidence.

3. Penalties for destroying evidence

The California crime of destroying or concealing evidence is a misdemeanor .19 The maximum penalty is up to six (6) months in county jail, a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both.20


A cop destroying a camera filming them beating somebody knows they are destroying evidence.

First, you have to know that the evidence is going to be used as evidence.4 If you own a small business and throw away some old accounting records, and a year later the government decides to investigate your business for tax fraud, you're not going to get in trouble for having destroyed the records...because you probably didn't know that they were going to be relevant to an investigation.

Second, you have to have destroyed or concealed the evidence "willfully."5 This means that you need to have actually intended to do it.6


Because it is a cop doing it, there might be additional charges something like "abuse of public trust" or corruption.
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