The Baltimore County cop had seen the young man in court not too long ago, so he approached him and demanded his identification, telling him he needed to check him for warrants.
But John Holt Jr. was doing nothing to raise suspicion that he was committing a crime.
Instead, he was simply walking into a store with his fiancee when the cop stopped him and demanded his identification.
The man’s fiancee began recording and the cop acted as if he was doing nothing wrong. Holt posted the video on his Facebook page stating the officer was a witness in his case, but did not specify anything about his case.
“I think you may have a warrant,” Baltimore County police officer H.R. Persuhn said. “Because I’ve dealt with you before.”
But that is still not grounds to demand a person’s identification in public. You do not permanently lose your Constitutional rights just because a cop has “dealt with you before.”
Holt accused him of harassing him, which the cop denied.
“It’s not harassment, it’s called, I’m doing my job,” Persuhn said.
And when Holt continued complaining, the cop ordered him to lower his voice, accusing him of causing a disturbance.
But the video shows Holt was hardly talking louder than the cop. Had he whispered, the cop would have had issue with that as well.
The cop was doing nothing more than fishing, thinking he had an easy target in Holt.
At one point, Persuhn loses his cools and gets into Holt’s face, telling him to stop talking loudly, but it’s clear he was just angry that Holt did not bow to his authority in seconds.
