When the teen pointed out that the Cuba police officer was himself using foul language, the officer accused the teen of being “mouthy,” then demanded to know his name.
The teen pointed out that although New York is a stop-and-identify state, the officer must still have a reasonable suspicion that he is committing a crime in order for him to be legally obligated to provide his name.
This didn’t sit well with the officer, who then accused the teen of “acting smart.”
“You know the law?” the cop asked the teen. “How do you know the law so well?”
The teen responded by saying he had studied the law, which is not so hard to do these days with YouTube and sites like *Photography is Not a Crime.*
The teen then said he was not even at the park whenever the alleged foul language was used.
The cop then said the caller said the culprit was sitting on the bench, which, of course, the teen speaking just happened to be sitting on.
However, the teen said he had just sat on the bench, telling him, “I have done nothing wrong.”
That frustrated the cop even more, who responded by telling him, “you’re getting real close.”
After more back and forth between the two, the cop told him to “shut up” or else he would kick him out of the public park.
“I don’t have to shut up by law,” the teen responded, acting all smart and mouthy, not that it’s against the law.
The cop then ordered him to leave the public park, which the teen did, but remained standing on the street at the edge of the park, which was his legal right to do so.
The cop then returned and started speaking to another teen out of earshot of the camera. That teen then returned to the group and informed them that the cop had apologized for his behavior.
“He completely flipped out,” the second teen said after speaking with the cop. “My mom doesn’t like him, my parents don’t like him, so he came to me cause he was asking me for information, apologizing to me so I probably won’t tell my mom.
“So I probably won’t tell my mom, ‘hey, guess who talked to me,’ cause she would freak out.”
The New York teen who stood up for his right is named Josh, who was asked for comment by the videographer towards the end of the video.
“Another cop trying to exert his power on me when he knows absolutely fucking nothing about the law,” he said, still not breaking the law despite the foul language he had just used.
The video was upload to YouTube on May 31, 2016 and has been viewed more than 182,000 times.