Man vindicated for videotaping his own traffic stop

Uh, in all fairness...

...the trooper is a moron. So the guy is driving extremely dangerously. He got pulled over. Everything is good so far. Last time I checked, however, someone driving dangerously does not mean that they are a dangerous person once stopped. There is no call to draw your gun as soon as you exit your unmarked car.

Grenade, because it's the closest thing to a loaded gun.

A child in Africa dies when you speed or pull wheelies.

"In fairness to trooper...."

Did you watch a different video?

a) There's no way in hell that cop car saw him pulling the wheelie

b) There's no way in hell the cop saw him going above 90mph.

c) Weaving? I never saw any weaving and in fairness to the rider, aside from using his mirrors he turned his head a lot to check blind spots. Maybe with the camera shaking about you thought it was weaving?

d) Did you see any flashing blue lights? Neither did I. Wouldn't you feel aggrieved if a random guy in an unmarked car cut in front of you, jumped out of his car and pulled a gun on you?

Badge not gun, badge not gun...

Seems to me the cop needs to practice the phrase "Badge not gun, badge not gun", especially when pulling a, erm, unarmed motorcyclist. I would have shat myself if I were the biker and a dick comes pointing a gun at me. I think my reaction would have been to ride off, although that might end up with a bullet in the back.

Are cops not trained in the US? Looks like they're just given a gun and told to follow their instincts.

Mind you, the biker's not blameless....speeding and wheeling ain't so clever, but videoing your offences just provides evidence to the police. (That's police clever enough to spot the cam and use it, not police so stupid they miss a helmet cam, and pull out guns before badges).

Ah, merkins. Nice to feel so superior so early on a Sunday morning.

Doesn't EVERYONE have a gun there?

Considering there are more guns than citizens in the USA I can imagine covering someone with a gun when you're on your own is probably standard until you've got an idea of whether they're going to kick off.

I'm sure if the judge thought the cop acted questionably at the time the author of the article would have mentioned it.

Wait, what...

So all you need is a car and a gun in the US (and ability to shout "state police") for people to believe you're a cop?

What possible excuse was there for drawing his gun?

Seems to me they tried to prosecute him because he exposed the shortcomings of one of their officers.

I thought...

It was a scene from the latest Terminator movie.

I want your bike, your evacuated anus and another wheelie

It's not the gun, it's the camera that got him upset ...

Police, patrolling on their own, frequently draw their weapons when it comes to stopping people, often at the end of a loudspeaker and locking their fingers behind their heads, lying on the ground, etc. in the US of A. The police often handcuff a topped person 'for their own safety' (the civilian's and not the Plod's).

I took up using a motorcycle in a very, very busy city of 12,000,000 people where the driving is simply atrocious about 5 years ago. When foreigners are involved in collisions they are invariably expected to pay irrespective of guilt, made more difficult as numerous 'witnesses' come forward to testify against the foreigner.

I fitted an Oregon Scientific waterproof minicam to my helmet, concealed in a moulded fibre glass 'lump' on my helmet; I have never been held responsible for payment of any damages by the police since using it. The traffic police love seeing my accident videos. On a few occasions I have been stopped for bribery collection, by police, for driving in a car lane as opposed to a motorcycle lane and on every occasion when the police became aware of the camera they have simply returned my money and said Go!

Seems that the Plod, in the West, think they have more rights and privileges than the public and whilst they can video anything with impunity, the Plod get very uptight when the public pulls a 'Rodney King' clip of taping the Plod doing illegal things.

I hope this motorcyclist does the 'American thing' and sues for wrongful arrest.

The raid on his house was BS ..

He did have a momentary lapse in judgment he forgot to immediately identify himself. As far as drawing his gun .. because he wasn't in uniform his draw would be slow and clumsy if needed his gun, so he chose to have his weapon in hand and safely pointed at the ground.

The problem is when they found him guilty of contempt of cop and decided to abuse their authority, raid his house, seize is property. All to send the message don't f**k with us were are above the law.

Not even that much dangerous driving

Most of the other vehicles were causing more danger to everyone than this motorcyclist. He is on a freeway, so there are no pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians etc. to look for.

By far and away the greatest danger was to himself. He took this into account - yes he undertook, yes he sped - but he was actually relatively restrained compared with many people I've seen on bikes and in cars in towns.

Even unmarked cars in the UK have blue lights so you know you're being pulled over - that or a badge being flashed out of the window. The first thing this guy does is brandish a weapon and yell "get off the motorcycle", twice - I'd be assuming that there was a robbery in progress!

If he'd gone for the police badge with the other hand then there'd have been a lot less of an issue for the motorcyclist to deal with.

Nice try!

But this link had me ROFL :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uy1FnUG3qg

Just a point about the 'weaving' thing..

I seem to remember (correct me if I'm wrong) that on a 'freeway' in the US, overtaking is allowed on any lane. So no 'undertaking' involved.

let's be fair

In blighty you can get your head blown off by cops with no warning for the crime of looking slightly dusky on the London underground. And it's considered a lawful killing if they invoke the magic 'T' word, so the cops face no action at all and the police commander presiding over the debacle gets 'punished' with a promotion.

It's about time the UK cops got some training from these rather restrained softly, softly US cops.

As a former US resident...

The police pull a gun out when they stop you for speeding as they have to worry that you may have a gun and don't want to be stopped by the police. Having been stopped south of Seattle doing 73 mph in a 60 mph zone, I've experienced this. I was doing 13mph above the limit and told off. This motorbiker was probably doing 2X the limit at one point, which means way faster than anyone else will expect. I'm surprised he still has his license.

Still, glad to see that he's allowed to video the police. Me, I wouldn't put the evidence of my speeding up online.

First thoughts

This guy dressed in normal clothes, came out of a normal looking car holding a gun and demanding the rider get off his bike. Only after making this demand several times did he claim to be state police and at no time did he show a badge...

Had i been that biker, i would have assumed i was being robbed or the victim of a road rage attack.

Cop was wrong

The wiretapping case was thrown out, as it should be. Which is what the article is about.

What infuriates most about this story are the actions of the out-of-uniform, off-duty in an unmarked (likely personal) vehicle that pulled his weapon for no reason. I know plenty of current and former police officers, and their response hasn't been supportive of this guys actions.

As someone else pointed out, by the time the officer had exited his car there was already a marked patrol car on the scene. There was no point in him being involved. If he witnessed a crime he should have called it in and then waited for the officers authorized to make the stop to do their job. He would then be required to testify in court to the offense.

From there he failed to identify himself. He made the assumption that both the citizen and the patrolman that was in his line of fire would recognize him as an officer, and there was no reason for him to think that. While the motorcyclist possibly broke several traffic laws, NONE them justified deadly force. This video is a tutorial on how NOT to do a traffic stop.

As for those of you with your ignorant bias towards Americans. Not everyone owns a gun. Most that do own guns do not carry them. They are purchased for hunting, sport (target shooting), and home protection. Those that do have the option to carry don't regularly do so because guns are heavy, awkward, and require restraints on your activities. No carrying in banks, gov't buildings, or ANY privately owned semi-public space where prohibited by the owner. (work place, retail store, etc) If you don't look like a paper target and aren't breaking into my house, you aren't likely to ever even see my 9mm.

Of course there are those that carry guns illegally, but that isn't unique to America.

As to traffic officers getting shot all the time, that's a statistic presented by people who have no clue about the facts. Rarely do officer pull their weapon on a traffic stop. Other than on TV, I have never seen it happen.

Also, traffic officers are not afraid of cameras. Nearly every patrol car in America has a dash cam now. They are more likely to be used to back up an officer's testimony than used against them.

Felony wiretapping charges?!

I find it very interesting how often we see this repeating pattern of police behaviour of them utterly hating being filmed and then doing all they can to find any way they can to punish anyone who tries to film them for the crime as they see it of filming them. This seems to be a repeating pattern around the world of people in police authority. They very evidently fear people seeing the truth. The question then is why do they fear people seeing exactly what they are doing? What are they so self concious about? ... Do they really fear so often being seen to be behaving outside of the laws that they themselves must also follow.

Knowledge is power so why do they fear more people knowing exactly how they are behaving, unless that knowledge gives power against them.

BAAAAAD cop

Seriously folks, that cop needs to find another line of work. Pull a gun and take that long to ID yourself? That's a good way to get killed and take others with you. No way a cop can actually/really charge someone, so there's a conspiracy to charge the victim to cover up the mistake. Not good. Somebody needs to go down hard over this one.

I have long thought that we need a new crime: assault with the legal system. If convicted, the sentence is the sum of max jeopardy of all of one's intended victims plus any applicable conspiracy charges and other crimes. Does the name Mike Nifong mean anything to you?

BTW, the guy on the bike is a jerk. It's one thing to drive like that on an empty road, but in traffic, there's no excuse.

Hoooray! the justice system worked!

For once we get a story that the justice system actually did what it was supposed to - it self-corrected a mistake made by the public employees.

Rather than beating the dead horses of whether the motorcyclist or the cop Did Things Wrong, people should be cheering the Maryland state judge for, in no uncertain terms, putting things.

Frankly...

... I wouldn't have bothered stopping him: I'd have just shot him from the driver's seat. Dozy twat.

i am not surprised he was stopped.

He is riding on the wrong side of the road.

" @Mr Young " may be an inadequate title but it will have to do this time

Thanks for the link, but we do those sorts of things most Sundays here and our pillions join in the fun !

Seriously folks, the biker *was* doing quite silly speeds and certainly invited constabulary attention. The gun-toting plain-clothesman would have been liable to police disciplinary proceedings ( but probably not prosecution ) in this part of the world - I wonder whether amateur recordings like this would be admissible in such a case ?

Anyway, kudos to hizonner for a common-sense ruling.

Right, time to warm up the 850 and be off to get bug-splattered !

You have a beer, I'm driving...

Wiretapping?

Do Americans hire professional wiretappers to cover their weddings? Or have irritating friends that insist on showing them their holiday wiretaps?

Stopped biker threatening?

Last time I tried to pull my weapon out in a hurry, while wearing bike gloves and leathers, I came close to a senior incident (Side of road, bushes, caught short, etc.).

Well, MINE didn't pull a gun on me...

But apart from that, I got a similar reaction from the fuzz a little while ago - and I wasn't even on a bike. I was a tourist to London, taking photos outside the British Museum...

Either way...

...the motorcyclist is one massive dickhead.

Filming yourself going at stupid speeds and pulling wheelies on a public highway - oh yeah, so clever. Wonder how clever he would feel if he caused an accident that killed someone?

What a twat.

Take your bike to a frikkin' track day or something.

Oh dear

"When we exercise that power in a public forum, we should not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny.”

Oh Jesus, I need a lie down, just....too..,much...common...sense...from...a...public...servant....

I also

Watched the video even after reading the whole article and still had that OMFG i'm being robbed feeling.

But any thought of "fleeing" was quickly out as I would be an easy target and hitting a pedestrian with a small bike like that wouldn't have gotten him away so easily.

On my K1200 LT I would give it a damn good try though!

Also may I say as a biker there was nothing wrong with the guys riding!, yes the wheelie on a public road is silly but he only sped/wheelied between empty spots of traffic and was a risk to no-one but himself for that very short moment of silly fun.

No reason at all to pull a gun on someone and shout several times to get off the bike BEFORE you remember to say oh yeah I'm a cop, not that this will make you feel any better.

As for the filming, the guy didn't go out to film the cop, so the offence really seems to be posting it up, but then helmet cams are not exactly inconspicous!

I got one purely for the number of times some idiots hit me or caused me to take emergency evasion then f**ed off so I had something to take to the police and my insurance company, nautrally no silly hijinks recorded.

And it would be fairly easy to rig a setup to stream the recording to a secure store online rather than a solid state media locally with only minimal sotrage for spooling during low/no signal periods.

As a biker....

1. When I do something stupid either for fun or without thinking, I don't want any evidence, that said for every ghost rider who films himself there's some numpty who drops off the back of a clutch wheely, all these end up on youtube, there's skillful clowns, clownful skills and just clowns.

2. If he mushes himself it's likely (but not definite) he won't take anybody else with him, so it's stupid in the same way as nose studs, smoking dope and pink hair is stupid (why not if you not affecting anyone else, it's not for everybody but hey!) - note, most fatal bike crashes are caused by "other driver", so car drivers take note, by all means call bikers stupid for popping the odd wheely or misplacing the speed limit, but also remember to look both ways when you pull out, use your mirrors when changing lanes and maybe indicate a bit more, your stupidity may not be as in your face, but it does prove to be more fatal.

3. Assuming that cop #1 was responsible for the charge he went from being over cautious possibly to the point of inappropriate intimidation to a twat (probably out of embarassment), everyone of my engagements with the boys in blue has been respectful and honest in both directions (UK).

A Most Wonderful Thing

Some background. In Maryland, it is against the law to record Audio, not Video, without the conset of all who are recorded. So the basis of this prosecution was the fact that the Maryland State Police Trooper had not given his consent to being recorded and published on the internet. Following the local news reporting, it is not clear if the Harford County District Attorney decided to pursue this on his own or if the Maryland State Police were pissed and raised a stink. Regardless, this state judge's decision is amazing and gratifying. Most states in the US allow secret video and audio recording of most anybody, but Maryland is different. This issue came up during the Clinton Impeachment because Linda Tripp was a Maryland resident when she recorded Monica Lewinsky's telephone calls about servicing Bill Clinton's penis.

This Is A Most Wonderful Thing, so now in Maryland, if its public, there is no expection of privacy. Unless you are Inciting, Resisting Arrest, or Failing To Obey The Lawful Commands of a Peace Officer. So, film the police in action all you want, just let your lawyers sort it out in the end.

Side Note: After viewing the video of this incident, the on duty and off duty Maryland State Troopers did what they were supposed to do: supress and dominate the sitution. Then, offer peaceful / reasonable solutions or arrest everyone in sight. This Motorcyclist was pulled over on a ramp from Northbound I-95. When he stopped, he had a Maryland State Police Cruiser behind him on the ramp with flashing lights, a screaming siren and a P.A. or loudspeaker, telling him hands up, don't move.