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[XSPWR]

http://youtu.be/eyYlRZAdPGk

[Gumbo]

Makes me want to move to Dallas 

[jchammer123]

WOW!  That's pretty crazy.  What I'm wondering is where the other two cops just ran off to???

[larry_357]

Asshole cop needs to go bust a few real criminals but no balls a little scared maybe.

[xcaliber]

and cops wonder why people don't like 'em.

[jchammer123]

and cops wonder why people don't like 'em.

 

[SouthernXer]

Wow... Welcome to the Police State.  Thanks Obama! 

[TheWatcher]

I have a lot of respect for LEO's, this one needs a full reprimand along with his superiors, hope the guy on the bike does well after all the litigation is over with.      

Of course, I wish I could have seen all of the video, including the LEO's.

 

[bluestreak]

I think it's obvious by the number of cops in the area at that time and that they were stopping some if not try to stop all of them............this was some sort of sting going down. The cops were after this group for one reason or another.  Maybe prior trouble from the group before.  I find it more than coincidence that there were four cop cars in the vicinity at that time to be just on patrol.  Arresting him was stupid and unwarranted for the reason the cop stated but the rider wasn't being cool right from the start and that's never a good thing.  A cop can stop you for any reason he wants for his "proable cause" arrgument..............but it's never a good idea to act disrespectful or non-compliant.  That's asking for nothing but trouble.
There were mistakes made by both parties.  

[Niterider]

As somebody who worked for 10 years as a prosecutor and whose career suffered for being too hard-nosed, I still think this officer screwed up big time.  At the very least, the officer needs some serious re-training on the law, and someone needs to look very closely at those who trained him in the first place.  This incident more than likely will, and should, cost the county some bucks and embarrassment.

The thing that struck me first is that the officer never stated the reason he was pulling the rider over until after he placed him under arrest.  Second of all, I wonder if that is even an offense for which a person can be placed under arrest.  If the rider had commited any offense and failed to produce identification, that would be grounds for taking him into custody, but there is no indication that he failed to produce identification.  In fact, it appears that the rider gave his license to the officer when the officer first approached him.  I suspect the other officers were running away because they knew something wasn't right.  After fulfilling their duty to respond to a call for assistance, they wanted to literally distance themselves from the situation.

Having said all that, I think the rider could have handled the stop more shrewdly and, perhaps, even avoided his subsequent arrest.  I'm not faulting him for the way he acted, but he could have gained the upper hand if he would have responded to the stop in a courteous, business-like, non-argumentative way.  There's a time to argue and a time to restrain yourself from doing so.  When you're stopped by the police, they're in control, and you're not going to get them to back down and relinquish control by arguing with them.  The tables are turned when you're before a judge, especially if you have a lawyer, and that's when to argue the fairness and legality of your stop.  Believe it or not, there are even effective ways to lodge a complaint with the sheriff's office if an officer is abusing his authority.  The sheriff is an elected official and the people directly under him are also very politically conscious.  Chiefs of police, while not elected, also tend to be politicians and are very concerned with public relations.  While they normally will not act on a single complaint about a particular officer unless it's especially outrageous, they will follow through on multiple complaints, and a bad egg in the department will, over time, provoke more than one complaint.  During my career as a prosecutor, I saw it happen.  The point, though, is that a citizen has nothing to gain, and absolutely everything to lose, by being uncooperative and confrontational during a stop.

If the rider would have responded intelligently, he might not have provoked the officer to escalate the situation into an arrest.  When the officer demanded the camera, he could have complied and still had documentation of the stop since, as he said on the video, he was also recording the stop through another device that the officer didn't otherwise seem to be aware of.  He didn't need to demand the officer's name and badge number.  If the officer had eventually released him without issuing a citation, then all he would have suffered was the inconvenience of a stop that wasn't worth lodging a complaint over.  On the other hand, if he had received a citation or been arrested, he would have had access to the officer's name and badge number through his own copy of the citation and the arrest documentation.

Fortunately, this officer is not typical of most, but there are some screw-ups out there, and it's important to know how to deal with them.

[Niterider]

Apparently Bluestreak posted a reply while I was typing up mine.

He makes a good point about what might have been going on behind the scenes.  The group shown on the video before the stop didn't appear to be a bad bunch, but looks can be deceiving.  The speed with which the other officers arrived at the scene could certainly mean that they were working as a group, but the police can respond within minutes to a call from an officer for assistance.  If they were working as a group, then I would expect that the two officers who ran off after the rider was handcuffed would have been running back to their own car in preparation for another stop, but I didn't see any car in the direction they were running.  Of course, the car of the officers who helped in the arrest could simply have been out of view.  That, in turn, might support Bluestreak's speculation that they were working as a group.

If the motive behind the stop was to keep a tight leash on a gang, then I would certainly feel differently about the officer, but even if I sympathized with his motivations, I'm not sure that he handled the stop correctly.  The rider certainly did not, especially when he started complaining about "police brutality".  That was bulls**t too.  The video didn't show the officer using any more force than the amount necessary to handcuff the rider and place him in the patrol car.

[Isorg]

after some reading, the cop in question he being looked into by IA because of this.

there is no in car dash cam for some reason.

the Dallas police released a dash cam video from another cop being harassed by motorcycles (sports bikes), clearly not the guy that was arrested in this video.

here is a quote of the conversation that happened in the above video

[/quote]
MOORE: "Was I doing something wrong? What am I being pulled over for?"

WESTBROOK: "The whole group of you guys."

MOORE: "No. I was not, individually. How can you pull me over?"

WESTBROOK: "The reason you're being pulled over is because I'm gonna take your camera, and we're gonna use it as evidence of... in the crimes that have been committed by other bikers."

MOORE: "I have not committed any crimes and you cannot take my personal property from me, sir."

WESTBROOK: "That's fine. Need to see your license and registration."

But after a few minutes inside his squad car, Deputy Westbrook returns with what appears to be a new concern -- an obstructed license plate on Moore's bike.

WESTBROOK: "You're under arrest for your license plate being obstructed. Place your hands..."

MOORE: "Are you kidding me, dude?"

WESTBROOK: "Place your hands behind your back."
[/quote]

[Niterider]

Bryce,

Your post is very helpful.  I had some difficulty hearing the conversation between the rider and the arresting officer on Youtube.  I'm more convinced than before that the officer acted outside the law, but Mike's comments and the release by the Dallas police of a dash cam showing an officer being harassed by sports bikers may reveal the true motivation behind the stop.  As I think back on the video, I remember that the bikers were passed by at least two patrol cars before the stop took place, so maybe there was some sort of organized activity going on among the police. 

The biker was within his rights to object to the seizure of his camera, but his words and the tone of his voice, from the beginning to the end of the stop, suggested to me that this may not have been his first encounter with law enforcement.  Others may disagree, but to me he was talking too much like a jail house lawyer.  When an officer is acting outside the law, that kind of attitude from the person who is stopped only provokes the officer to go further beyond his authority.

[dougvtx]

What registration are we supposed to legally  carry on our bikes?  I carry my license and my insurance card.

[xcaliber]

In other words Niterider, you need to pick your battles or as I say " Is this the hill you really want to die on" not me . However I read on the National that in order to confiscate the camera an arrest had to be made so the cop drummed up the BS charge on the plate. What say you Mr. prosecutor.