A Missouri cop threatened to arrest a man for obstructing an investigation even though the man was standing more than 30 feet away.
But the man was holding a camera, which obstructed the Byrnes Mill police officer from creating his own truth in the investigation he was conducting – something that department has been accused of doing in the past.
“How far do you want me to move back,” asks the videographer.
“Far enough to where I can’t see you,” the officer responds.
Translation: “Far enough to where you can’t record me.”
The videographer abided by the officer’s request to avoid arrest, but posted the video on Youtube, which is posted above.
In 2010, former Oakland Raiders offensive lineman Rich Stephens [__challenged__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/richard_stepens_former_raider_wants_to_fight_missouri_cop.php) Byrnes Mill police officer Tim Walker to a mixed martial arts caged fight after accusing the officer of kicking and showing him during an arrest.
Stephens drove around town in a pick-up truck with a huge sign on the back stating, “What is short, round and fat all over? A Byrnes Mill cop,” as you can see in the above video.
It doesn’t appear that Walker took Stephens up on his challenge.
In 2007, Byrnes Mill police officers demonstrated so much unprofessionalism during traffic stops, that a state representative had to call for a town meeting to hear complaints from residents.
Byrnes Mill Police Chief Ed Locke Sr. defended his officers to the fullest extent, according to the [__Meramec Journal:__](http://www.byrnesmill.org/police.html)
> Locke and his officers have been the target of a great deal of criticism of late, with much of it generated through a June 28 town hall meeting called by state Rep. Michael Frame, D-Eureka. Members of the public were invited to attend the meeting to voice their views, pro and con, about the department. Frame said he initiated the meeting in response to numerous complaints made to his office about the Byrnes Mill officers, particularly their behavior during traffic stops.
Locke has been chief of the Byrnes Mill Police Department since 2001 and was named in a lawsuit in September 2007, according to the [__St. Louis Post-Dispatch.__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/27854-mo-woman-sues-byrnes-mill-over-police-actions-traffic-s.html)
> BYRNES MILL — A local business owner sued the city of Byrnes Mill on Monday, saying she suffered “emotional distress” and alleging that her constitutional rights were violated by Byrnes Mill Police Chief Ed Locke during a traffic stop earlier this year.
> The suit was filed in U.S. District Court at St. Louis by Linda Schroeder, an owner of a sod and soil business in House Springs. She seeks an unspecified amount of damages for the fees she incurred when her car was ordered towed by Locke and also for the distress she says she suffered during the traffic stop on Jan. 3. The suit asks for a jury trial.
> Schroeder has been active in a group called Citizens for a Better Byrnes Mill, which has been campaigning for changes in the way Byrnes Mill police deal with motorists.
> Group members have said Byrnes Mill officers, including Locke, have been unnecessarily abusive during several traffic stops. In some cases, motorists said, their vehicles were ordered impounded and towed for relatively minor traffic violations.
> Other motorists said they had been verbally or physically abused or both by police officers.
His son, Ed Locke Jr., was police chief of the Bella Villa Police Department in neighboring St. Louis County until he was [__forced to resign__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/index.php?title=St._Louis_Area_Police_Abuse) after several women accused him of sexual assaulting them during traffic stops.
*Please send stories, tips and videos to* [*__carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com__*](mailto:carlosmiller@magiccitymedia.com)*.*
***CARLOS MILLER’S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND***
*I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from* [*__my arrest__*](https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2012/article/i-was-arrested-covering-the-occupy-miami-evacuation) *in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was* [*__able to recover.__*](https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2012/article/i-recovered-the-full-uninterrupted-video-police-deleted)
*My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.*
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