A U.S. Man May Face 16 Years in Prison for Posting a Video of His Arrest on YouTube
August 30th, 2010Via: Al Jazeera:
When police arrested Anthony Graber for speeding on his motorbike, the 25-year-old probably did not see himself as an advocate for police accountability in the age of new media.
But Graber, a sergeant with the Maryland Air National Guard, is now facing 16 years in prison, not for dangerous driving, but for a Youtube video he posted after receiving a speeding ticket.
The video, filmed with a camera mounted on Graber’s motorcycle helmet designed to record biking stunts rather than police abuse, shows a plain clothes officer jumping out of an unmarked car and pointing a pistol at the motorcyclist.
It does not portray the policeman in a positive light.
After he posted the video on Youtube, police raided Graber’s home, seized computers and put him in jail.
“The case is critical to the protection of democracy because I don’t think you can have a free country in which public officials are able to criminally prosecute people who film what they are doing,” David Rocah, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland who is representing Graber, said.
Research Credit: Uncle Remus
the cop didn’t actually point the gun at him, eh? while i agree even pulling the gun was a wee bit masturbatory of the cop (and frankly if the nutty bike driver is willing to endanger his life while not endangering anyone else’s, he should be allowed to do so), the headline’s a tad OTT. that said, if the case brings more attention to how out of control the police have become, it’s all good.
Like the way the cop takes soooo long to identify himself. Pulling the gun first and waving it around, and kind of just about remembering to identify himself as State Police as if he only just remembered that he jumped out of a plain car and is out of uniform…. for a while there he’s no different to any run-of-the-mill carjacker. He’s lucky he doesn’t get shot, acting this way. Hell, even T.J.Hooker knew that you have to identify yourself in a loud voice first, before you do all the other crap.
Still, one consolation for the USA – it shows that it is still a relatively covilised nation. If that cop pulled the same stunt down in Mexico he’d be dead seven ways ’til Sunday.
I meant ‘civilised’ of course. ‘Covilised’ is obviously what you get when the actions of the cops merge ‘cops’ + ‘civilised’ to create something less than civilised. Orwell would be proud of such a neologism. Pardon me for my Freudian slip is showing.