During the apprehension of an alleged stolen vehicle, “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” was heard blaring through a Santa Ana neighborhood. The music was played to foil the recording of a YouTuber who was videoing the police interaction. Since the song is copyrighted, if posted, the video could be taken down for the violation. The department has released a statement condemning the actions of the officer playing the music.
Ok, genius tactic just deployed at the wrong time.
Look I’m not going to get in how you would feel if a stranger constantly held a camera in your face while you were at work. I understand that the stakes are higher in police work than at your accounting desk. I’m fine with police accountability. Even though with most states mandating body worn cameras that record every police action, you can argue they’re held more accountable than any other profession. That’s fine. According to the information given in this article, this particular YouTuber didn’t seem intrusive. But this new genre of Police Audits have taken on a whole other life of it’s own.
If I told you to memorize every word of three Harry Potter books by heart, could you do it? Not without an eidetic memory you couldn’t. But you’d still understand and remember the overall story. Police officers are not going to know every single law ever written. There’s too many. Just like how every surgeon doesn’t know how to do every surgery, or every lawyer know every case’s verdict, or every gardener know every single flower off the top of their heads. Sometimes it involves looking things up, collaboration, or cross referencing. But that’s what a lot of these YouTuber’s look to exploit.
I’m ok with people videoing the police. What I’m not ok with is people trying to make the police look like dickheads while being pieces of shit. Allow me to explain with these true stories.
There was one gentleman who went into Post Office with a video camera. He didn’t wait on line, didn’t receive any mail, didn’t have anything to mail out. He was videotaping everyone coming in and out, taping the women working there, and pointing his camera behind the counter to record any “behind the scenes” activity. It’s a small town, all the workers that particular day were senior citizens. They were old ladies. They got spooked and called the police. But see the Post Office isn’t a regular business, it’s a government building. The man knew that, he’d probably spent hours reading the fine print. The officer that responded was looking to ease the minds of the women behind the counter. When he asked the man to stop recording, the man had a speech ready with obscure statutes and rarely used laws. His action, suspicious or not, now turned into cries of violations of his rights. He was playing fuck-fuck games and worked hard to get the officer suspended.
Another time, different YouTuber, found herself in the parking lot of a police department. She was peering into cars and videoing all vehicles in the lot. Let me be clear here, not police vehicles, but the officer’s personal cars. When confronted, the YouTuber was ready with how she was legally allowed to record in a public setting and that there was no wrongdoing occurring. She’s absolutely correct. But now those officers’ vehicles were going on YouTube for anyone who might have payback on their mind. Think that would piss you off? Some of those vehicles belonged to the officers’ spouses. The only thing you can do there is walk away or face a lawsuit and potentially lose your job. Luckily these particular officers walked away.
Not all, but I’d wager a lot of these people don’t have many friends. They have a whole lot of time on their hands to play these gotcha games. Then they post their videos to YouTube and hover over their greasy keyboards answering commenters. I guess life’s less lonely when you have commenters validating your shitty ideals. But this is all for clicks. For some perverted interpretation of justice. These people think they’re Batman. But they don’t really care about police actions, they only care about their view count and their image.
So far I’ve only heard of one great way to thwart these YouTubers. They’re trying to get you to act emotionally, but police aren’t allowed that luxury. But one cop figured out a way to turn the tables. There was a female YouTuber playing her usual fuck-fuck games when she got a little too close to this particular officer. He was on a first name basis with her and said “Oh ______! Your breath stinks! Seriously, I have gum. Do you want a piece?” She malfunctioned. She slapped at her camera and screamed at the officer to be quiet. All of a sudden her sense of justice took a backseat to her online perception. She tried to continue her antics but it was too late, she’d already shown her hand. As politely and professionally as he could, the officer started giving advice and recommendations for the bad breath. She packed up and left, video was never posted. Apparently her crusade wasn’t nearly as important as people knowing she had rank ass breath.
I’m not one of those blue line weirdies who think police can do no wrong. I believe in your right to video the police. Like as of right now, it seems that California man wasn’t in the wrong for recording. As funny as it is to blast Toy Story, I’m not sure that was the right play. I’m not advocating for you not to pull out your phone. I’m just asking that when you do it, do it for the right reasons.
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