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Dash-Cam Revelations In NJ Show Again The Importance Of Video As Evidence In Police Abuse

from the worth-a-thousand-words dept

Fri, Feb 28th 2014 4:13pm — Timothy Geigner

Several weeks ago, Tim Cushing wrote about a case in New Jersey featuring an officer accused of abusing a cyclist who failed to engage his dash-cam during the incident. As noted in the piece, the value of having optional tape of any incident occurring between an officer and the public should be obvious. On the one hand, the public is already under a great deal of public surveillance, which can often times be used as evidence in any criminal proceedings. Tape featuring law enforcement action is valuable both ways, first in holding our public servants to account should they fail to behave appropriately and second to exonerate them if they are accused of wrong-doing.

In this latest story, also in New Jersey, we see an example of the former. Marcus Jeter was met by police at the home he shares with his girlfriend after a domestic violence call made to police. Once there, police reportedly spoke to Jeter, who says he left amicably after briefly talking to officers. It's worth noting that no charges were ever filed for that domestic incident. What happened next, however, is another matter entirely. Jeter was pulled over by officers shortly after leaving the site of his home.

The New Jersey DJ, 30, was arrested in a 2012 traffic stop and charged with eluding police, resisting arrest and assault. Prosecutors insisted that Jeter do prison time.

The plea deal offered to Jeter was five years of prison time, for resisting arrest and assaulting police officers. Those were the charges levied in the officers' report. Those charges, as would later be determined by an active police dash-cam, were utter bullshit.

The video, which prosecutors say they never saw before filing the initial charges, shows Jeter holding his hands above his head.

"The next thing I know, one of them busts the [car] door and there is glass all over my face," he told ABC News station WABC-TV about the arrest. "As soon as they opened the door, one officer reached in and punched me in my face. As he's trying to take off my seat belt, I'm thinking, 'Something is going to go wrong.'" Jeter says the cops continued hitting him, telling him not to resist arrest.

Oops. As it turns out, there wasn't any resisting of arrest and the only assault occurring was when the officers beat the hell out of Jeter. On top of that, the officers in question elected to omit surely-unimportant details of the arrest from their reports, such as when one of them careened over a median into Jeter's vehicle, which was also shown in the dash-cam footage. On top of that, police had their weapons drawn almost immediately, despite the fact that Jeter had pulled over to the shoulder as requested and remained in his vehicle, terrified.

Thanks to Jeter's attorney filing a request for records, which included the footage, the charges against Jeter were dropped and charges were instead filed against the officers. Those charges include aggravated assault, conspiracy, and official misconduct.

Now, we can and should respect law enforcement, but that respect doesn't come without the public's right to verify our public officials are behaving honestly and judiciously. Let there be no argument: the public has a right to the footage of officers in action.

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Filed Under: abuse, dash-cam, marcus jeter, new jersey, police

29 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 28 Feb 2014 @ 3:11pm

I think my favorite part has got to be imagining the looks on the various thugs' faces when they realized that a camera caught the entire thing on tape.

They pull the guy over, beat the crap out of him and drag him out of his vehicle, try and frame him and get him thrown in jail for years, and then the video is presented. Oh the looks on their faces must have been priceless.

Nice to see the justice system working decently for once, what with the charges against the victim dropped and charges brought against the people who tried to frame him, hopefully the courts in that area are willing to actually go all the way in charging and punishing the thugs, and not just let them off with the typical slap on the wrist, 'don't get caught next time' type 'punishment' that happens far too often when an 'officer' finds themselves on the other side of the justice system.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2014 @ 4:20pm

These officers committed a terrorist act
They should be charged and prosecuted for it, and should face the death penalty.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2014 @ 4:24pm

Oh, and...
...do you think this is the first time that these pigs did something like this?

A competent and diligent AG would now be reviewing every arrest they've ever made where "resisting arrest" was part of the slate of charges. I'll bet these pigs routinely beat the crap out of people for no reason other than they could, then got them thrown in prison for "resisting arrest".

I wonder how many of their fellow officers knew about this but were too cowardly and weak to rat them out?
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2014 @ 4:30pm

Now, we can and should respect law enforcement

Them first.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2014 @ 4:31pm

Re: These officers committed a terrorist act
Nah. But they should go to prison for a long, long time. We cannot tolerate this sort of conduct.
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AjStechd (profile), 28 Feb 2014 @ 4:33pm

Again, are police really that arrogant to believe they can continue doing this to people over and over with absolutely no repercussions? There are literally millions of "patriot" type people out there armed to the teeth and when the risk of giving up peacefully becomes to great, things will hit the fan all at once...I hate to say it but maybe that will be a good thing. In the meantime, personal surveillance is new concern I never thought I'd have.
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Ben (profile), 28 Feb 2014 @ 5:16pm

Re: These officers committed a terrorist act
Except, based on past instances of events like this, they will get paid administrative leave and then be returned to duty (maybe with a promotion!).
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Scote, 28 Feb 2014 @ 5:22pm

Dash Cam Off? Then presume the officer is lying.
This happens often enough that it seems that we need something stronger than the presumption of innocence for the accused. If a cop has a dash cam and it is off when an incident occurs, the presumption should be that whatever the *suspect* says is true. That would get those cops to leave the cams on.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2014 @ 5:42pm

"I think my favorite part has got to be imagining the looks on the various thugs' faces when they realized that a camera caught the entire thing on tape."

They left the dash cam on because they didn't believe they were doing anything wrong.

That is the current attitude of to many Law enforcement officers.

The way they serve and protect is to beat and intimidate.
They serve and protect themselves because if you are not a law enforcement officer you are a criminal.
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zip, 28 Feb 2014 @ 6:04pm

Re: Dash Cam Off? Then presume the officer is lying.
This is one of those rare cases when the police car's dash-cams don't inexplicably "malfunction" - and we all see the result. In a way it's sad that the cops didn't destroy the tape on the spot, since that means they probably felt they did nothing wrong and had nothing to hide.

If anyone wonders why police hate cameras so much, this should help answer that question.
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zip, 28 Feb 2014 @ 6:19pm

Re:
But that's a large part of the problem. Because cops in this country believe that everyone they come across just might be armed and planning to shoot them, it makes them more likely to use violence as a pre-emptive measure, just in case. Maybe people should ask why police in other countries (at least non-occupied ones) generally don't act this way.
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streetlight (profile), 28 Feb 2014 @ 7:25pm

I didn't know cycles had dash cams
That's what the summary seems to say.
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greenbird (profile), 28 Feb 2014 @ 9:53pm

Re: Re:
Because cops in this country believe that everyone they come across just might be armed and planning to shoot them

Except that's complete and utter bullshit. Shooting deaths of police officers last year were the lowest since 1887. Yes, that isn't a typo, 125 years ago when the population of the entire US was only a little over 50 million. Overall deaths were the lowest since 1957 and most of those were traffic accidents. So tell me again why the police agencies are arming themselves with military equipment and weapons?
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David, 28 Feb 2014 @ 10:17pm

Five years?
The plea deal for resisting arrest and "assaulting" police (there was no injury to be treated, was there?) was supposed to be five years?

Sorry, but that's ludicrous. For a first time offense, half a year on probation and a fine. A repeat offender half a year without probation.

Small wonder the U.S. is the country with the largest absolute and relative incarceration numbers.

Of course it does not help that the police considers themselves above the law and employs some of the worst criminals, but the justice system is totally off sanity as well.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2014 @ 10:32pm

Oh, Timothy, why do you hate the police so much?
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zip, 1 Mar 2014 @ 12:10am

Re: Re: Re:
And why do so few police get killed these days? Their hyper-aggressive paramilitary tactics and "shoot first/ask questions later" mentality might have something to do with it.

i.e., Just shoot the guy dead the instant he reaches into his jacket, then there's nothing to worry about in case it turns out he actually had a real gun.
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That One Guy (profile), 1 Mar 2014 @ 1:11am

Right back at you
Oh AC, why do you love sadistic thugs wearing badges who abuse their authority and power so much?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Mar 2014 @ 1:31am

Re: Re: These officers committed a terrorist act
Nah, just send them in for three months and let the jail gossip know about it. IT then becomes a self-resolving problem.

I have no tolerance for police thugs - I do, however, appreciate that there's some times when increased force are called for.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Mar 2014 @ 2:51am

and this sort of thing is not only happen ing more and more, almost on a daily basis, how can anyone have any trust in or respect for the law? the police are playing by a totally made up set of rules that they seem to think gives them the right to beat up and/or shoot someone, for apparently, the flimsiest of excuse. and people still think the USA isn't fast becoming a Police State? with this type of occurrence becoming a daily norm, you gotta be kiddin' me!!
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David, 1 Mar 2014 @ 5:20am

Re: Re: Dash Cam Off? Then presume the officer is lying.
This is one of those rare cases when the police car's dash-cams don't inexplicably "malfunction".

I am not convinced that the "off" switch didn't work properly. If the officer testifies that the camera was supposed to be turned off, the recording might be considered to be made without permission and inadmissable as evidence.

Yes, this sounds totally bat-shit crazy. But since we are talking about the U.S.A., not bat-shit crazy enough to be sure.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Mar 2014 @ 8:05am

Stop overusing that word
Their crime was not designed to cause terror in the general population.

Also, the death penalty is a barbaric relic of the past.
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PRMan, 1 Mar 2014 @ 10:17am

Re:
He hates bad cops. I'm pretty sure he was the one that highlighted the good cop who took the time to explain as well.
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KissMyWookiee (profile), 1 Mar 2014 @ 7:17pm

NJ = Nazi Jersey
Well NJ dresses their police officers in Nazi uniforms, so it's no surprise they act like them too.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Mar 2014 @ 9:47pm

I was agreeing with the comments about police brutality until I noticed one thing. The individual was a DJ. Don't DJs deserve anything they get?
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BitterReality (profile), 2 Mar 2014 @ 10:33am

Traitor Cops
Those that wage war on fellow citizens are traitors, they should get their trial then executed on national TV Pay Per View.

10% of cops are decent, but until they clean out the remaining 90% psychopaths polluting every precinct, all cops have to be treated as psychopaths looking for their next thrill kill.

citizens can't take down a psychocop because psycho's protect each other.
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John Fenderson (profile), 2 Mar 2014 @ 5:55pm

Re: Traitor Cops
There is something very wrong with wanting show trials followed by public executions, especially for this (which isn't anything like treason).

A regular trial (with charges reflecting their actual crimes) and prison terms would be sufficient.
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BitterReality (profile), 3 Mar 2014 @ 5:56am

Re: Re: Traitor Cops
The parasites have show trials all the time... just returning the favor :-)
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me@me.net, 3 Mar 2014 @ 6:32am

Re: Re: Traitor Cops
It would be more appicable as a reverse insurrection. The State's instrument (cops) have effectively in some areas declared war on the citizens thereof, and are the predators, not protectors of their communities. In some places contact with police is downright hazardous to your regardless of context. Luckily my area is not yet like that.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2014 @ 10:09am

Re: Stop overusing that word
Their crime was not designed to cause terror?

But it did.

Thugs like these are TERRORIZING people. Call it what you will, I don't care, they're scum.

And if the death penalty is suitable enough for their victims, for them to dole out in the streets, it's good enough for them too.

I think the death penalty is abhorrent, but until it's gone, it should be applied to everyone equally. Let the pigs have a taste of their own awful medicine.
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