Man arrested after refusing to give camera to police at crash scene

Well, the piggies are at it again, this time arresting a New Jersey man for filming a single vehicle accident.

Andrew Flinchbaugh filmed the aftermath of a single-vehicle accident in Ocean County, N.J.

Flinchbaugh, who has contributed in the past to a local news Web site, claims he was given permission to film by those first on the scene. However, one police officer seems to have taken exception to Flinchbaugh's presence.

Flinchbaugh posted a 10-minute video of the events to YouTube and the footage appears to show him cooperating, while refusing the police's principal request: to give them his camera as "evidence."

As NBC 10 reports, the police officer in question was a detective from the Ocean County prosecutor's office. Though Flinchbaugh offered to give him a copy of the video, for reasons that are still unclear, the detective wanted the camera.

Last I checked, unless he was interfering with an investigation, Porky had NO REASON to demand the camera.

Thankfully the DA most likely will not follow up on the arrest.

One quote from the article terrified me to be honest:

One San Diego police officer described a Samsung Galaxy as "a weapon."

Here is the video


Story

Time for false arrest and strongarm theft charges for the detective. Oh, wait, cop. Nevermind.

eta: that "pretend you think it's a cell phone gun" thing was trendy a while back, but a few cops were caught demanding the person turn off a camera prior to attempting to claim that, and they got minor rebukes for it. It sort of fell out of favor. It's not very defensible to tell someone it's illegal to record them, then when told they're lying their asses off, suddenly squall "cell phone gun!" and smash the phone.

In a sane world, a few theft or destruction of evidence charges made to stick against cops for this sort of thing and it would end entirely, but DAs will never do it.

etaa: we actually had a "brain storm" back home wherein the cops decided that the LED on a phone was a laser, and that they could jug you for illuminating them with a laser under the state's 'laser sight' law that forbids pointing a laser at cops. I'm sure it was a sad sad day when they got stomped in court. Lawyers really ought to try getting a technical consult prior to filing stupid charges. Ours wasn't the only pd that tried it, I recall a couple of stories nationally that documented similarly stupid filings.

originally posted by: HomerinNC

One quote from the article terrified me to be honest:


One San Diego police officer described a Samsung Galaxy as "a weapon."

Yup- that would scare me, too.

And...the cat's out of the bag. The guy who wrecked was a fellow detective. The detective on scene was punishing the guy for taking photos of his buddy. The DA has already admitted the bust was bogus and has dropped the charges.

You will not, however, see the detective demoted, fired, or disciplined in any way (nor his fellow failure-to-restrain cops at scene) even though it was blatantly illegal to arrest the guy. Because cop.

a reply to: HomerinNC

You know at this point to protect yourself just say you are an independent journalist and ask where to stand. Most cops would just direct you to a spot think "crap the media is here". Although you do have to comply with whatever spot they tell you to go to.

Ah I wrote too soon...I thought I heard him say he worked for the media.