North Carolina photojournalist threatened with taser gun during arrest

North Carolina freelance photojournalist Carter Rabil was arrested April 26th after refusing a police order to move back as he was filming an accident scene involving a fatality.
Cameraman Carter Rabil is arrested by police in North Carolina

Now the State Bureau of Investigations is investigating the Smithfield Police Department to determine whether they acted improperly.

Rabil’s video shows Smithfield Police Captain Bruce Gentry ordering him “away from the crime scene”, which is clearly on the other side of the intersection.

Rabil can heard arguing with Gentry, who is standing directly in front of the camera, not allowing Rabil to film the scene. Rabil asks to speak with the department’s police chief before finally telling the captain to “get the fuck out my way”

That was when Gentry arrested Rabil, telling him that he is being charged with disorderly conduct stemming from his “abusive language”.

Another journalist at the scene, Mickey Lamm of WMPM 1270 radio, told the Dunn Daily Record that Rabil’s arrest was unfair.

“When Rabil was arrested he was clearly outside the boundary of the crime scene tape,” Lamm said. “During the arrest, police threatened to use their Taser gun on Mr. Rabil unless he dropped his camera equipment.”

Rabil believes he is being personally persecuted by Smithfield police because of his 1991 lawsuit against them.

“I sued them before and settled out of court in 1991,” he said. “Then I started keeping records of the way they were behaving again. I shoot video all over the state and they’re the only ones I have trouble with. I have footage of other instances when I was treated unreasonably by the Smithfield Police.”

Here’s hoping Rabil’s other videos make it on the Internet.


Thanks to GM for the tip.
159

North Carolina freelance photojournalist Carter Rabil was arrested April 26th after refusing a police order to move back as he was filming an accident scene involving a fatality.
Cameraman Carter Rabil is arrested by police in North Carolina

Now the State Bureau of Investigations is investigating the Smithfield Police Department to determine whether they acted improperly.

Rabil’s video shows Smithfield Police Captain Bruce Gentry ordering him “away from the crime scene”, which is clearly on the other side of the intersection.

Rabil can heard arguing with Gentry, who is standing directly in front of the camera, not allowing Rabil to film the scene. Rabil asks to speak with the department’s police chief before finally telling the captain to “get the fuck out my way”

That was when Gentry arrested Rabil, telling him that he is being charged with disorderly conduct stemming from his “abusive language”.

Another journalist at the scene, Mickey Lamm of WMPM 1270 radio, told the Dunn Daily Record that Rabil’s arrest was unfair.

“When Rabil was arrested he was clearly outside the boundary of the crime scene tape,” Lamm said. “During the arrest, police threatened to use their Taser gun on Mr. Rabil unless he dropped his camera equipment.”

Rabil believes he is being personally persecuted by Smithfield police because of his 1991 lawsuit against them.

“I sued them before and settled out of court in 1991,” he said. “Then I started keeping records of the way they were behaving again. I shoot video all over the state and they’re the only ones I have trouble with. I have footage of other instances when I was treated unreasonably by the Smithfield Police.”

Here’s hoping Rabil’s other videos make it on the Internet.


Thanks to GM for the tip.
159

Support our Mission

Help us build a database of bad cops

For almost 15 years, PINAC News has remained active despite continuous efforts by the government and Big Tech to shut us down by either arresting us for lawful activity or by restricting access to our readers under the pretense that we write about “social issues.”

Since we are forbidden from discussing social issues on social media, we have created forums on our site to allow us to fulfill our mission with as little restriction as possible. We welcome our readers to join our forums and support our mission by either donating, volunteering or both.

Our plan is to build a national database of bad cops obtained from public records maintained by local prosecutors. The goal is to teach our readers how to obtain these lists to ensure we cover every city, county and state in the country.

After all, the government has made it clear it will not police the police so the role falls upon us.

It will be our most ambitious project yet but it can only be done with your help.

But if we succeed, we will be able to keep innocent people out of prison.

Please make a donation below or click on side tab to learn more about our mission.

Subscribe to PINAC

Bypass Big Tech censorship.

Carlos Miller
Carlos Millerhttps://pinacnews.com
Editor-in-Chief Carlos Miller spent a decade covering the cop beat for various newspapers in the Southwest before returning to his hometown Miami and launching Photography is Not a Crime aka PINAC News in 2007. He also published a book, The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, which is available on Amazon.

Leave a Reply

- Advertisement -

Latest articles