Officers arrest men for videotaping them
ALBUQUERQUE — Undercover officers with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety that were out Saturday night trying to bust drunks leaving bars arrested three men for videotaping them.
The three men showed up in court Sunday morning with an attorney to fight the felony charges they are facing. Jacob Traub owns the Downtown Distillery, David Garcia and Lance Gomez both work for him.
One criminal complaint says an officer asked one of the men to stop videotaping for security reasons since he was working undercover. The complaint also says the man told the officer they were harassing the customers in the bar.
The men’s attorney Paul Kennedy told KRQE News 13 that they were videotaping on a public street and there is nothing illegal with what they did.
“Every citizen has a first amendment right to videotape public officers in the performance of their duties on public property and that’s all that was going on here,” said Kennedy.
Deputy Director of the Special Investigation Division Jim Plagens spoke with KRQE News 13 regarding the arrest.
“These three individuals were arrested for obstruction of the administration of the liquor control act. To comment any farther at this point, I think would be inappropriate,” said Plagens
Kennedy plans on filing an injunction in state court and a civil rights lawsuit.
All the men are charged with obstruction of the administration of the liquor control act. They are out on bond and allowed to go back to work.
I get so tired of the over used “officer safety” excuse, used to arrset those videoing police. Its the biggest bunch of BS.
As a resident of Albuquerque and someone who works in that area of town let me tell you what is really going on. Earlier this year our Alcohol and Gaming Commision was going to change the regulations about over-serving of a bar patron from serving someone who is visibly intoxicated to serving anyone who blows over a .14 two hours after leaving an establishment, without any notification to any of the involved bussiness’. They then proceeded to enter bars exclusivly in the downtown area (which was recently revitalized by the same bar owners that were arrested as well as others,who invested millions of their own dollars in an area that was run down and had a serious drug and gang problem) and bullied patrons into giving a breathalyser test without just cause (one was told if he didn’t submit he’d go to jail. In New Mexico you do not have to submit to a breathalyser unless you are driving). Also despite what was reported none of these officers were undercover at the time, as the tapes show. Most of these patrons were not driving and had no intention of doing so. Also our police force has had several incedents of intimidation when it comes to being video taped. Recently this last weekend there was an incident much worse than this one. A city vehicle sped down an alley between two establishments, almost hit some patrons who were walking down a closed street, hit a car of a band who was unloading equipment, ripped an electrical box off one of the establishments, and promptly left the scene of the accident. A local bar owner, John Montoya, called the police to report the incident. Soon there were police aggressively blocking off both ends of the alley and not allowing bands who had been parked there to unload equipment to leave saying they were going to tow the vehicles (it is legal here for a band or a business to unload in the alley). John was running over to tell a band member where he could park to unload since the alley was blocked, a police officer as he was running by stood as if to strike him, and he told the oficer that it was ok to just chill and touched the officers shoulder to reassure him that he meant no harm. That is when all hell broke loose. He was tossed to the ground by four police officers, and had his faced slammed into the concrete after he was down resulting in permanent eye damage. John’s wife was there and began to take photos with her camera phone, she was then arrested. She passed the phone onto one of their employees, who continued to take pictures. She too was arrested. Ther was never any mention of the original incident in any newspaper or in any press release from the city. Our police force in the past two years has had over 400 complaints of excessive use of force, only a handfull were ever even investigated. Our police believe themselves above the law and therefore untouchable. As a former resident of Los Angeles I left to avoid the crime and drug problems caused by crooked and inept policing only to find myself in a worse situation here. For the record many in my family a police officers, and neither they or most police officers are bad people. Most simply want to help make their communities and cities safer places to live. The problem lies with those who have no respect, who are basically thugs and those in the city ans state goverments who allow abuses to continue in the name of safety.
I for one welcome our new police overlords
Im gonna do this every post now Thank you
starting tomorrow
“The problem lies with those who have no respect, who are basically thugs and those in the city ans state goverments who allow abuses to continue in the name of safety.”
True in any profession. Cops are no exception. They are men, just like everyone else. One bad apple does not make the bushel bad.
Bad enough. In this case these men have guns and enforce their interpretation of law. It seems when these things see any light, they slap some wrists and circle the wagons. Who will police the police?
Are these isolated instances, where police are resisting the ability of ordinary citizens to gather video evidence of the way in which they perform their work? I really don’t know, but it’s very disturbing. They seem to prefer a situation where any dispute becomes their word against the word of a criminal or drunk. Whom does that overwhemingly favor?
#32 — Too bad someone there didn’t have a more than a camera to shoot with….that would have been a real service to society.
These cops think they are some type of demi-god. How dare a common citizen place their hand on the shoulder in non-threatening way.
The only difference between cops and any other ‘gang’ on the street is that the cops, and all of their thugery, are mandated by law.
Mike “piece of shit” T
I don’t care about good PR. Any other places you want checkpoints? How about just stopping everyone to make sure their seat belts are fastened? Maybe search everyone for drugs? Perhaps they have illegal cigarettes?
one bad apple dorsn’t make a bushel bad, but many can certainly make you think twice about taking a bite. This isn’t about one or two incedents. It is a symptom of a far more widespread disease. A favorite saying of President Bush’s supporters is “If you have nothing to hide, than what do you have to be afraid of?”. Why are officers so afraid of being video taped? I know of similar events happening here in New Mexico. We have a disease of corruption in our police force which renders good cops helpless and often makes them so jaded that they give up completely. Our police oversight board, city mayor, and even the citizens turn a blind eye to the many problems inherent in our current system. They believe that all the incidents of police overstepping their bounds and the use of excessive force are all unrelated, one bad cop. These incedents are reported of every few months in the local media, unfortunately most are never heard of. The ones you will never hear of are the ones of those too poor or unconnected with those in power to do anything about it. The local media certainly doesn’t care if if some old Abuelita is pushed to the ground and cuffed, all because the police got the address wrong and the city didn’t even care to say sorry. How about all the African American, Latino and Native American who are pulled over and detained for hours more than any caucasian would have been and subjected to searches so thorough the interior of the vehicles was ripped apart? Many New Mexicans share similar stories like these with me every day. This isn’t just about some bar owner being arrested for taking pictures of men who identified themselves as police officers to bar patrons (it’s on the tape). It’s about the slow and antagonizing process of media, local government, and police either turning a blind eye or even encouraging, an assumption that all citizens are potential criminals. These makes all of us in the eyes of the law enemies of the state.