DeLoyd Scott was riding his bicycle through a residential street in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho last year when he came across a group of officers making a traffic stop.
One of the cops stopped him and asked for his identification. He asked them if he was under suspicion of a crime. The cops said he was.
He refused to provide his identification until he was provided with “assistance of counsel” – which is his legal right in Idaho, according to the local news report.
That prompted the cops to wrestle him to the ground and use their Taser on him. Twice.
During the melee, he grabbed an officer’s flashlight and engaged in a verbal standoff with the officers, refusing to allow himself to be handcuffed until they provided him with assistance of counsel or at least called the local sheriff, whom he said had jurisdiction in that area.
Scott is clearly enraged and understandably so. One moment he was riding his bike down a quiet residential street and the next moment he was stopped, told he was under investigation and then Tased.
He ended up getting Tased several times more for a total of seven times.
Much of the incident was being filmed by Cory Temple, a neighborhood resident who happened to be filming the traffic stop.
However, the video is shaky. The lighting is horrible. And the editing is non-existent.
But the audio is loud and clear.
Especially the moments after the Tasering when the cops try to confiscate his camera as “evidence.” Temple refuses and the cops relent.
Now that video is a vital piece of evidence in a lawsuit against the Coeur D’Alene Police Department, which Scott filed in February.
What’s also alarming is how the officers approached Temple even before Scott rode up on the scene, telling him that although it is not illegal to film officers, many officers may end up fearing for their lives because “a lot of people produce cameras into weapons.”
Really?
These cops actually believe somebody would go through the trouble of converting a camera into a gun just so they can stand outside pretending they are taking pictures when their real intention is to kill a cop?
If somebody is crazy enough to shoot a cop at random, somebody is probably crazy enough to use a real gun without having to resort to constructing a James Bond-like weapon. After all, what difference does it ultimately make? A real gun is much easier to conceal than a bulky camera.
And I have yet to hear one story of this happening, so what news reports are reaching Idaho that are confirming this new trend?
“I’m just saying that it is not illegal to film but a lot of officers perceive it as a weapon,” the cop continues.
While it’s true that many cops are threatened by cameras, it is not because they discharge bullets but only because they document the truth.
To make sense of what occurred that night, it’s best to watch the video from the squad car dash cam before watching (or hearing) the video recorded by Temple.
