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In a US federal civil rights lawsuit, a Connecticut man has shared footage to bolster his claims that police illegally confronted the pedestrian because he was filming one of them. Authorities seized Michael Picard's camera and his permitted pistol, and the officers involved then accidentally recorded themselves allegedly fabricating charges against the man.
Picard's police encounter began as he was protesting a sobriety checkpoint while lawfully carrying a handgun in a holster. The plaintiff often protests near sobriety checkpoints in the Hartford region and is known by locals and police in the area, according to court documents. "Cops Ahead: Keep Calm and Remain Silent," read the 3-foot-by-2-foot sign Picard held up to motorists ahead of the checkpoint in West Hartford last year.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday September 23 2016, @04:19AM
You're saying he was obstructing a checkpoint because a crazy "what if" scenario could have happened? Madness.
Even if that situation did occur, it would be the drunk driver's fault, not the fault of the protester. If we use the logic that you are responsible for someone else's actions, you could just as easily say that the police are at fault for the deaths of the drunk driver's victims. If the police hadn't set up an unconstitutional DUI checkpoint, the protester wouldn't have needed to be there and the drunk driver wouldn't have gotten startled. This logic makes free speech impossible, because you can always be blamed if someone reacts foolishly to your speech.