The U.S. Department of Justice is coming down hard on the Baltimore Police Department as it prepares to issue a settlement to a man whose footage they deleted after he recorded them making an arrest.
The settlement stems from a 2010 incident at the Preakness Stakes, which prompted the Department of Justice in January to send a statement of interest to the judge presiding over the resulting civil suit, advising him that such blatant action violates the Constitution and should not be tolerated.
That letter provoked the police department into issuing a 7-page General Order to its officers February stating that citizens have the “absolute right” to record cops in public as long as they did not "violate any section of any law, ordinance, code or criminal article."
Baltimore cops simply expanded existing laws to allow them to continue cracking down on camera-wielding citizens, including threatening to arrest a man for loitering.
On Monday, the Department of Justice slapped the Baltimore Police Department with another letter, condemning it for writing such a vague general order and for allowing the harassment to continue.
POLICE DO NOT CARE THEY DO WHAT THEY WANT.
ReplyDeleteI think they need to start locking some of these cops up. Nothing worse then a crap cop breaking the law while all the other crap cops look the other way.
ReplyDeleteThe department is in complete disarray. Hence the early "retirement" of the chief.
ReplyDeleteThe officers are out of control and have cost the tax payers 17 million dollars in settlements for brutality and murder in the last 2 years.
But, they keep being the defensive, malicious , vindictive "glorify me" idiots they always are to innocent people just looking for an excuse to kick some butt and high five each other about it.