NEW YORK -- In May, the Rochester Police Department arrested a woman on a charge of obstructing governmental administration after she videotaped several officers' search of a man's car. The charge is a criminal misdemeanor.
The only problem? Videotaping a police officer in public view is perfectly legal in New York state -- and the woman was in her own front yard. The arrest report of the incident also contains an apparent discrepancy from what is seen in the woman's own video.
That video, uploaded to the Internet this week, more than a month after Emily Good's May 12 arrest, begins by showing a black male being questioned by a police officer at about 10 p.m. The red and blue flashes of a police cruiser illuminate the scene on Aldine Street.
"I just got out of the house, man, I'm sick, man," the man who has been pulled over says. Other police officers search his car.
Then one of the officers, identified as Mario Masic in the arrest report, turns to the camera and asks, "You guys need something?"
"I'm just -- this is my front yard -- I'm just recording what you're doing. It's my right," Good replies.
"Actually, not from the sidewalk," the officer replies, incorrect about the legality of Good's actions.
"This is my yard," Good says.
"I don't feel safe with you standing behind me so I'm going to ask you go into your house, you understand?" Masic says.
From there, the conversation escalates into a confrontation, with Masic alleging that Good is threatening his safety, and that she expressed other, unspecified anti-police statements before the videotaping began.
"Due to what you said to me, before you started taping, I think, uh, you need to go stay in your house, guys."
Good's public defender, Stephanie Stare, told HuffPost she believes from her conversations with several neighbors who were present that Good made no threatening comments before the tape begins.
Ryan Acuff, a friend of Good's who witnessed the exchange and picked up the video camera after she was arrested, agreed.
"None of us was talking to them until they came to us," Acuff said. "The first contact was definitely on tape."
For more than a minute of the video, the officer and Good argue about whether she is threatening his safety. Finally, it appears, Masic has had enough: "You know what, you're gonna go to jail. That's just not right."
Acuff claimed that he and Good were complying with the policeman's order to return to their porch when she was arrested.
"The real reason they arrested her was because she was videotaping," Acuff said. Both he and Good are activists who have previously protested foreclosures in the area.
Acuff has posted his own account of the arrest on Indymedia. He said he and Good were videotaping the traffic stop out of concern about police misconduct.
The police report of the arrest contains another apparent discrepancy from what appears on the video: Masic writes that the traffic stop targeted three individuals who "were all chalkem south gang members."
"This gang is known for drugs guns and violence," Masic notes, underscoring the danger of the situation.
The video, while dark, appears to only show one man led out of the car. Good's public defender says that as far as she has been able to determine, only one man was pulled over.
The Rochester Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement released to the press, Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard said that while he had "researched" the incident, "With the case still pending and my unfamiliarity with the specific details, any assumptions at this time would be premature."
The police department has launched an internal investigation.
Good is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, where her public defender hopes the case will be dismissed.
If that doesn't happen, Stare said, she was not afraid of bringing Good's case to a jury trial.
"She was well within her rights."
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Man Faces Life In Jail For Recording Policeby ntyranny13,917 views
East Have, CT police tried this shit
douglajeunesse 2 days ago
The traffic stop takes place in public, and the law says you're allowed to film the police in public. She was recording from her own front yard, her own private property, which the cop had no legal atthority to even enter let alone make an arrest. The cop can't give her or anyone else a legal order when they're on thier own property, UNLESS Marshall Law has already been declared. This answer is obvious, because he changes her charge from failure to follow a lawful order AFTER the arrest.
cunard61 4 months ago
some cops are pigs! thats bullshit.
toxicfrost123 5 months ago
Absolutely ridiculous!
MegaJackMeister 6 months ago
She was getting in the way. Let the man do his job. Yeah right "free country, I have a right to record blah blah". How about some fucking respect for others privacy? I loved how she just whined towards the end, like she did absolutely nothing wrong.
It's just common courtesy to stay out of others business. When I'm caring for a patient at the hospital, do I allow the general public to come in and watch me start an IV on a patient? Do I let them watch me insert an NG tube, Foley??
B4Bronco6 6 months ago
@B4Bronco6 Explain to me why she should when she was doing nothing wrong.
bullballsallday 6 months ago
stupid bitch, just go inside. Who the fuck cares what's going outside.
B4Bronco6 7 months ago
@GODH8TZ
actually, it isn't irrelevant. Not in court - if she takes the cop to court.
Plus, I wasn't referring to her filming. The cop asked her to move from behind them, to step back, not to stop filming. In court it will not (most likely) be a discussion over her filming but over her standing behind the police and not moving when they asked her to move. Again, right or wrong this is the reality we all seemingly live in = often the police are not there to help you but to intimidate.
nanopodstudio 8 months ago
@Jususnolo How can you record one of the most important aspects of the stop, if you 're inside the house? You don't get the audio. that what's the officer was trying to accomplish
rswinger73 8 months ago
This is just typicle of the way things are going all over the planet, we have given too much power to the government and it's enforcers.It seems to me we no longer have the right to do anything! The fact that she was arrested, just shows how dictatorial are the owers that be!
VicoMcFly 8 months ago