Footage recently posted to YouTube shows an Oregon man being arrested for filming, or “interfering” with, a militarized police raid across the street from his apartment.
The man - whose YouTube account is Skylow Production - said he was sleeping at his Gresham, Oregon apartment at around 4 a.m. local time on Sept. 2 when he heard the sound of broken glass and flash bang grenades.
“I grabbed my iPad and ran outside as fast as I could to see what was going on,” he said in the video’s description. “There were 5 or more tank/military trucks just cruising through my neighborhood,” which is “right across the street from Mt.Hood Community College.”
In the video, two law enforcement officers, decked out in military gear, approach the man filming across the street, telling him to go back inside, as he was supposedly “interfering” in the execution of a search warrant.
“You go inside right now….it’s a lawful order….go inside right now,” one officer said while swinging at the iPad.
A third officer can be heard saying over a loudspeaker, “All neighbors stay inside and away from windows." The two cops addressing the man filming the action then turn around and begin handcuffing the man, as they say “quit resisting us.”
The man said he has been charged with interfering with a “peace officer,” as the Oregon law states, and for resisting arrest.
“I was assaulted multiple times and I feel like it was Gresham Police Abuse and my rights were violated. I now owe $5000 and i am charged with 2 crimes. 2 CRIMES! At first I was scared to post this video but now I dont care because the Gresham Police Department has already made a copy of it as proof of my crimes. I feel more like this is proof of their crimes or am i crazy?”
Last month, militarized police response to civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the police killing of an unarmed black teenager sparked new outrage over law enforcement agencies nationwide and their use of combat weapons to suppress basic rights and intimidate dissent.
Filming the police is legal in all 50 states as long as the filming does not physically interfere with officers’ ability to work. A federal appeals court recently affirmed this right, as RT reported.