Individuals involved:
Observations from the video
At timestamp: 1:50 We observed:
It appears the traffic stop is completing without any significant incidents.
At timestamp: 2:55 We observed:
It appears that the driver decides to return to talk to the officer in the marked unit. Seems he's complaining about being filmed by the auditor.
At timestamp: 3:22 We observed:
The officer tells the auditor that the other driver "is a civilian" and he needs to stop videotaping him because "he's a civilian" - we know of course that this is not accurate. You can record anything you can see in public pursuant with your first amendment rights to the press. The officer continues harassing the auditor letting him know that not recording the "civilian" is "not an option to you."
At timestamp: 4:00 We observed:
The auditor appears to overhear the officer call him a "loser" as he was rolling up his window, getting ready to leave. Keeping them Liable approaches the window asking the officer if he did in fact call him a loser. The officer appears to call in the situation to dispatch and gets out of the vehicle to confront the auditor.
Video Screenshots
Our opinion and additional thoughts on this video.
This 1st Amendment Audit Video begins in the city of Revere with the auditor walking up to what appears like a traffic stop inside a parking lot. The individual pulled over is stopped by a marked unit and next to it is an unmarked unit, this unit is a black Toyota truck. It appears there are two officers on the scene, one uniformed and the other in plain clothes. The uniformed officer is speaking to the driver that is pulled over. While the plainclothes officer appears to be communicating with someone over the radio, it seems as if he’s running the plates on the vehicle.
There is a 3rd patrol unit parked about 40 yards from the main scene, within the same parking lot as the auditor and first two units already identified.
The plainclothes officer approaches the driver and has an exchange of words, seems like he’s explaining why they’re questioning him or why they have him pulled over. The auditor has also mentioned that this officer is a member of the city’s S.W.A.T. After the officer finishes explaining, he wishes the driver a good day and hands him a piece of paper. It’s unclear at this point whether the paper is a citation, or a warning or just documents being returned to the driver. Both officers acknowledge each other and appear to go their own ways back to their vehicles.
A few moments later the original driver comes back to the uniformed and marked unit and tells them that he doesn’t want to be in the auditors’ video. This prompts the officer to tell the auditor to stop recording the driver because he’s a “private citizen” a “civilian” and he has the right not to be recorded. This assertion causes a confrontation when officer baby tantrum decides to take a massive shit on this man’s civil and constitutional rights by escalating things. Remember folks, this officer decided to throw a fit over a camera. Over an activity that is protected by the 1st amendment. It is our opinion that this officer should not be dealing with the public.
As the officer tries to escalate things, the auditor demands the officer to identify himself but the officer refuses and continues to throw a fit. Cop continues to yell and talk about the civilian not wanting to be recorded. The officer baby tantrums decides to chest bump the auditor in order to instigate a fight. More officers arrive on scene and then Officer baby-tantrums continues to harass the auditor and even whines and cries as he explains the situation to the new officers arriving on the scene.
Eventually, the offending officer has to swallow his ego and pride just before walking away in a glorious walk of shame back to his vehicle. The officer was identified as Dave Wilson, ID #253