A man was body slammed by cops who said he had no right to film the police. Investigators are scrutinizing the incident, and so far, they seem to confirm the man’s account. It’s somewhat difficult for them to conclude anything else… since there’s a video of him recording his video.
Daniel Clement was visiting Baton Rouge from Virginia for the holidays. That’s when he saw the Baton Rouge Police Department abusing a suspect. Clement whipped out his cell phone and started recording.
The surveillance video from the Varsity Theater, captured almost all of the incident, unbeknownst to the officers.
Watch the video report below…
WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
Paramedics had been originally called to assist a female who had passed out at a holiday party inside. But with the paramedics came the police, looking for trouble “in reference to EMS and Fire needing assistance with a large hostile crowd making threats and not letting them do their jobs.”
This is what a responding officer said was his “probable cause” for investigating the party.
Clement said he was only recording police making arrests in what he thought was an uncalled for manner.
“I saw a police officer push somebody and I’ve always been told if something like that is going on, it’s important to have an objective source of data for what happened,” Clement explained. “So, I pulled my phone out and I started filming.”
That’s when a Baton Rouge cop was caught on surveillance video snatching Clement’s phone away.
“It got ripped from my hands and as I turned to see who ripped it, another officer slammed me into the railing outside,” Clement continued.
That’s when the cop choked him and body slammed him to the ground.
“They threw me on the ground and started throwing their knees into me,” he added.
Police spokesman Cpl. L’Jean Mckneely said that there is nothing he can really say about the incident, since it is part of an open internal affairs investigation. He did acknowledge to us that it is absolutely legal to record the police making arrests or performing their job in any other public capacity.
Source: http://truthfight.com/cop-chokes-body-slams-man-recording-arrest-cellphone/