Daytona Beach police told a man he was not allowed to video record them without their permission, even though he was standing in a public bus terminal.
The altercation began when the man began video recording a cop and a security guard, the latter who informed him he could not record him or anybody else without permission.
Instead of the cop informing the guard that the man was allowed to record without permission, she took his side and told the man to stop recording.
“He’s asking you to turn it off,” she kept telling him, which is a common tactic cops use when they know they can’t order you to turn it off.
The perfect response would be to ask them to respect your First Amendment right to record, which easily outweighs a cop’s preference not to be recorded in public while on duty.
Adding to the absurdity in the video, a random woman walks up and says, “when the Daytona Beach Police Department tells you to do something, do it. You have no choice.”
The man, whose name is Jason Sparks, according to his Youtube channel, turned the camera off, claiming he was only doing it because he was getting on a bus. The bus terminal is owned by [__Votran,__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/www.votran.org) the Volusia County public transportation system.
But then another cop showed up, so he turned the camera back on. That was when he was told he would be cited for trespassing if he did not stop recording.
When he asked them to be more specific about how they could have him trespassed from the property, considering it is legal to record on public property, the security guard told him “harassment.”
After all, the guard told him, “you’re violating my Constitutional rights” by continuing to record.
The stupidity from the guard, the random woman and cops in both videos are painful to watch, multiplied by the fact that Sparks not only records with the camera in the vertical position, he does it in a way where the video comes out sideways.
Meanwhile, PINAC’s Jeff Gray and Epic Old Guy are making plans to visit the same terminal, so stay tuned.
Call the Daytona Beach Police Department at (386) 323-3569.
