Well at least there are a few good cameramen here !!!
I guess when you work for a station its easy to say I couldn't get the shot because the cops made me move.... Sorry, Don't play that game..
I stood up to a cop and its now in federal court.
The funny thing is that every Lt,Captain and even the LAPD risk management after looking at my tape that the cops gave back to me after a year and a half said "Get Yourself An Attorney"
I took a bullet for the team
I sent out press release's and held a news confrence right in front of La Habra PD right where the PD didn't want it and I released the video that day and you bet everyone ran it along with radio and the paper....
Stand up for your right..
If Cops don't know the law it doesn't exsist untill a fedral lawsuit is filed....Here is what happened to me.
Whittier Daily News, The (CA)
April 12, 2004
Photographer sues La Habra police
Freelancer accuses officer of using excessive force
Author: Susan McRoberts, Staff Writer
Section: News
LA HABRA -- A freelance news photographer has filed a federal lawsuit against the La Habra police, claiming an officer used excessive force and violated his civil rights at the scene of a traffic collision. Troy Case said Monday he was pushed, injured and "slammed to the concrete" by
Officer James Mota as Case videotaped the rescue of a woman injured in an Aug. 10,2002, collision.
Case and his Montebello attorney, Luis A. Carrillo, announced the filing of the
suit at a news conference in front of the La Habra police station Monday. "It's pending litigation, so I can't comment on these things," said police Chief Dennis Kies , who is named as a defendant. "But I wonder, instead of trying to
sensationalize it in front of the media, why didn't Troy Case just let it go to court?
"I'm confident that my officers did the right thing," he added.
Case's video camera recorded the incident when Mota approached Case and told him to get out of the street and up onto a nearby sidewalk. In the police report, Mota claimed Case was belligerent and resisted arrest. "The tape presents a dramatically different account," Carrillo said.
When the criminal case went to court last year, the charge of resisting arrest was dropped and Case pleaded "no contest" to disturbing the peace. "No contest is not an admission of guilt," his attorney said. On the videotape, Mota can be heard saying, "Put your camera down or I'll drop it." Case protested,"No, you can't do that," Case tells Mota on the tape. Mota proceeded to repeat "I can't do what?" numerous times as he wrestled Case to the ground and handcuffed him. Case said his neck and shoulder were injured badly enough to keep him out of work for a year and a half. "Hopefully, I'll be able to go back to work soon here," he said.
Case has held valid press credentials for four years. The full-time Vons truck driver said he sold video and still pictures of news events to local media outlets in his spare time.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Friday, alleges that Mota assaulted and battered Case and arrested him without probable cause.
Kies, the city of La Habra and the Police Department are also accused in the action
of "knowing full well" that policy would "permit and cover up" the use of excessive force.
The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of monetary damages.
"I want justice for this police officer," Case said. "What he did to me is not fair. It's wrong. I went to the hospital that day in handcuffs. It hurts."