http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1522.asp

I cannot believe how much of a police state the US is. If you are stopped at a DUI checkpoint, you are guilty until a police officer thinks that you are innocent. The Constitution states otherwise, but a cop on a power-trip doesn't care. When I get my drivers license, you can be sure I am going to have a camera in my car. Only problem is where to store the video. You can't store it in the car, because it could be removed by a cop. Connecting the camera to a laptop with wireless internet to stream the data is the only way.

Umm, okay then.. WTF? Police officers really take their authority way way too far.

How much will he sue for? Probably $500,000,000.

Quote from supertrooper :

Officer #2: Hey uh, I can't drive a stick. (laughs about it) I can't drive a stick.

*reads the above in the voice of Cleetus from teh Simpsons, laughs heartily*
Duh-huuuurgh...mah mama's mah sister! :zombie:

What kind of frickin' halfwit COP can't drive a manual? They give 'em guns but no driving lessons? Dang

Nice police you got there, Missouri :up: Have they always acted like the Gestapo or is that a recent Homeland Security-inspired thing?

1. Bad Cop
2. DV Camera, records straight to PC

Pah, that's nothing at all! Read that if you wanna get really scared.

No one else thinks the guy video taping this did it intentionally? Sounds to me he was prepared to pick a fight with the cops from the start. For starters, who drives around with the camera on like that without a reason? And burning the clutch by stalling the car? WTF!! I drive a stick too and have stalled my car many many times - the clutch is still perfectly fine. It all sounds too fishy to me...

Quote from arco :

No one else thinks the guy video taping this did it intentionally? Sounds to me he was prepared to pick a fight with the cops from the start. For starters, who drives around with the camera on like that without a reason? And burning the clutch by stalling the car? WTF!! I drive a stick too and have stalled my car many many times - the clutch is still perfectly fine. It all sounds too fishy to me...

How could he have avoided it then? Of course you are allowed to say that "I don't want to talk about my personal life" but that's really all he did ...ehm... wrong...

I can understand why this guy wouldn't be interested in telling the cops anything if that sort of thing had happened to him before. I remember being a teenager and getting hassled by the cops everywhere I went - you lose patience with them.

Quote from arco :

No one else thinks the guy video taping this did it intentionally? Sounds to me he was prepared to pick a fight with the cops from the start. For starters, who drives around with the camera on like that without a reason? And burning the clutch by stalling the car? WTF!! I drive a stick too and have stalled my car many many times - the clutch is still perfectly fine. It all sounds too fishy to me...

You can drive a manual, that's the difference. The cop that drove his car couldn't drive a manual and it's very likely he did ream the clutch instead of simply stalling it. Anyway, if cops are going to be moving other people's cars, that in itself seems like a damn good reason to teach cops to drive manual cars. Most of the world can drive both automatic and "stick" ...

I don't see how legitimately refusing to answer an irrelevant question is picking a fight either. It's still the land of the free, isn't it? Or is that just a line in a song? If that transcript is accurate, it sounds like the guy was unfailingly polite in the face of pure, unreasonable antagonism. Which, I grant you, may well have been because his camera was on

But perhaps we'll never know why he was driving around with a camera on in the first place. Maybe he turns it on whenever he sees a checkpoint coming up, precisely because he's had this kind of problem before and wants to have his own records of proceedings. Maybe he's just a vigilant (paranoid) kid who's never had a problem and just got lucky with this tape

One instance of dickhead copishness I've had in the US:

Newark airport: I pull up to a cop and ask "Is this Terminal B?", he says "Yeah, pull over, your inspection sticker's out of date". He wants to see my insurance documents, I don't have them in the car, so rather than have me produce them at a police station which would've been convenient and simple for everybody he gives me a court date in Newark (a two-hour drive) in two weeks' time.

And it actually wasn't ****ing Terminal B!

Quote from thisnameistaken :

<snip>
And it actually wasn't ****ing Terminal B!

I guess you missed the huge signs with arrows indicating each of the three terminals then?

Officer #1: Where you headed tonight?
Brett: I don't wish to discuss my personal life with you officer.


I think that was the major problem. I know that situation and the police did not feel good if you don´t show them that they are "the law".

i must say... I don´t hate the police. I feel just much better if they are not around.

I can't see that the officers did anything wrong. He gave them grounds to be suspicious, and then acted like a prick when they acted on those suspicions.

No chance that I give my carkeys out of hand. No cop has the right to drive my car. Not for 50 meters. My aunt used to have a automatic-driving licence 40 years before. I did not know that there are still people that can´t drive manual. Very rofl imo.

Quite alarming, but it seems deliberate to me too.
Also, It i beyond me how you can't let the motor run while getting out of the car... just neutral gear and handbrake, and voilá, your manual car isn't moving.

fishy

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I remember being a teenager and getting hassled by the cops everywhere I went

I didn't know british teenagers hung around donut stores that much.

Quote from FL!P :

Pah, that's nothing at all! Read that if you wanna get really scared.

Um WOW thats really ****ed up they didnt even tell them what he had done thnak god im a kiwi lol hahahahahaha our cops are really realy really really really nice

depends on the car you buy wheels4hummer

anything with a front grill (ie bmw ) is good for mounting a camera behind... also just above the front/rear license plates is also a good spot

Quote from Forbin :

I guess you missed the huge signs with arrows indicating each of the three terminals then?

I suppose not! Neither did my girlfriend who was also in the car.

Actually every encounter I ever had with Newark cops gave me a worse impression of them. They were as bad as state troopers. We once got pulled over just for driving into The Oranges and asked why we were there!

Quote from FL!P :

Pah, that's nothing at all! Read that if you wanna get really scared.

this.... is.... SICK

The perpetrator is know to the police. This means they know he's done stuff and what he's done they just dont have the evidence to make it stick. In this instance the perp knew he would attract the attention of the police by parking there, he went prepared with a camera and everything.

I've watched this as far as the situation getting out of control, beyond about 2 minutes it's just icing either way, and it's my view that the perp was unco operative and deliberately antagonistic. He answered every question with a counter question instead of giving answers, he was interrogating the officer.

Given the background between the perp and the local law enforcement I am not suprised the officer lost his cool. Given the extreme sensitivity we have to show criminals these days (in the UK it is so bad that if a burglar injures themselves on your property then you are liable) it also does not surprise me that the officer would probably loose his job over this.

Finaly, it doesnt surprise me at all that the kid went out with his camera looking for this opportunity and engineering this situation, because he does know the law (contrary to the police officers opinio) and he knows he can get a lot of money in damages. A lot more if he manages to get the officer to strike him (I didnt watch that far).

Quote from Becky Rose :

... Given the extreme sensitivity we have to show criminals these days (in the UK it is so bad that if a burglar injures themselves on your property then you are liable)

Is there a legal precedent for this? Sounds like the sort of typical bollocks myth often perpetuated here in the UK by people who are xenophobic enough to keep weapons in their bedrooms.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I pull up to a cop and ask "Is this Terminal B?", he says "Yeah, pull over, your inspection sticker's out of date".

New Jersey must have some really awkward laws. Because, in Virginia, an out-of-date inspection sticker is just a secondary offense. You cannot be pulled over for an out of date inspection sticker. You can, however, be fined for an out-of-date inspection sticker if you have been pulled over for a reason.

Quote :

Is there a legal precedent for this? Sounds like the sort of typical bollocks myth often perpetuated here in the UK by people who are xenophobic enough to keep weapons in their bedrooms.

I'm not sure how paranoia is quantified as xenophobia. Anyway I believe there was a precent for it, but i'm not going to go researching that (waaaaaaaay too much effort). You might be right, but that's not the point I was trying to express anyay so i'm not going to get hung up on the details.

"Innocent" people are far easier to arrest than serial criminals, which is why a significant number of 'crimes' (I wont say most as I cant be bothered to look up statistics) are committed by people with no previous, yet the same drug dealer has been peddling class B's to children in the graveyard opposite my house for 2 years now, as well as vandalising the cars and homes of those of my neighbours who have reported him.

He vandalised my car once too and tried to steal the hanging basket from my porch. Personally I try to stay out of it, but my point is he knows the law and is 'wise' enough to not get caught even though we've got him on CCTV and had a valid footprint cast. He's too much effort & too much of a time investment to prosecute.

If I were to whack him over the head with something i'm absolutely confident I would serve time for it, even though he clearly deserves significantly worse.