Melissa Melton

Activist Post

Last March, a Florida resident wound up in jail after she recorded part of a traffic stop on her cell phone. She has now informed the Broward Sheriffs Office she plans to sue for excessive force.

Thirty three-year-old Brandy Berning was reportedly pulled over by Lt. William O’Brien for driving in the HOV lane, and as he approached her car, she decided to hit record on her cell phone. She recorded about 15 seconds of the conversation before informing Lt. O’Brien what she was doing. His response?

The officer told her she had committed a felony and demanded she hand over her phone. She refused.

Four minutes worth of arguing later, and Berning was arrested for it.

CBS Miami also reports that, at one point during the altercation, O’Brien reached into Berning’s car and grabbed and sprained her wrist.

Although Florida requires that all parties consent to being recorded, third parties are legally allowed to record police officers on duty.

Barry Butin with the Broward American Civil Liberties Union told the paper there’s was good chance that the law will be on Berning’s side.

“Finding they’re liable for what they did, using what we think was excessive force just because she was recording him on her phone, that would drive home the point that police officers can’t do this,” said Eric Rudenberg, one of Berning’s attorneys told the paper. (source)

Stories like this continue to happen all over the country, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that it is 100% legal to record police officers on duty.

In a time when our nation’s police forces are more militarized and weaponized than ever…

…when 90 percent of all U.S. cities of 50,000 people or more have a SWAT unit with some 40,000 SWAT raids conducted every year, people (and their dogs) are accidentally killed in no-knock warrants being served by said teams on the wrong house (many times for non-violent drug offenses), and stats show that 90 percent of all SWAT call-outs end with at least one shot being fired…

…and it seems that even when cops suffocate or beat a mentally ill man to death they don’t get punished for it…

How police officers can continue to operate under the false assumption they can wield so much power over people they are meant to “protect and serve” without any accountability is one of 100 reasons that secure America’s position as an Orwellian police state.

When cops are held accountable, by the way, studies show excessive use of force goes way down. Officers in Rialto, California have been participating in a study where the officers wear cameras while on duty so everything is taped. In the first year alone, complaints filed against Rialto officers dropped a whopping 88%, and their use of force dropped 60%.

As for the two-party recording laws or tossing wiretapping charges on people who film or record police, this commenter in the CBS Miami story made a very interesting point:

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple , where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!