A man is filming on-duty police in Hawthorne California. He is walking his dog on a leash. He is filming from a distance. He is holding his phone up, NOT like a gun but like a phone. When he is done either he hears the police say something or he believes that filming the police is illegal and submits himself to the police for arrest.
WARNING, GRAPHIC VIDEO. DOG SHOOTING.
Did the man know it was legal to do this? Did the cops? Did they arrest him for filming or some other reason?
I can see how the dog getting shot will upset people, but from the point of view of the police, a large dog is running at them. The dog doesn’t respond to verbal commands and the officers felt the need to protect themselves. They probably did nothing wrong according to their own guidelines. Also, the man did not have control of his dog during the incident. Of course he was handcuffed, but he could have put the dog in the car with the windows partly up or he could have giving the leash to someone else.
I’d really like more people to know the rules on filming police. This guy appears to know them. He doesn’t hold his phone like a gun. He does it openly and from a distance. Recent rulings in other states have said that filming police officers on duty from a distance and not interfering is legal. Yet the man either heard from the police that it was illegal or assumed it was illegal and submitted himself for arrest.
I spotted this on Reddit and I’m going to call my friends at the EFF to get an idea if they know about this. I spotted this article that seems to say it is legal, but of course I don’t know the whole situation.
I’m sure that the Hawthorne police will be on the defensive after Reddit gets done calling them. Here is their contact info if anyone wants to call them and ask the story about the arrest and the shooting.
