Frustrating a Sheriff with Questions and a Camera

Adam sent in this video of himself and a few of his friends being harassed by a police officer for their ID’s. See these two videos below:

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office
918.485.3124

My name is Adam and I have been a follower for the last year and there are a lot of things that I learned that I didn’t know police could and should not do!

That being said we had officers respond to my next door neighbor’s house, a repo man was trying to take the car over there and they didn’t want him to, so my brother, wife and my brother’s girl all went over there to help before police arrived, my wife recorded, my brother set in the car with the neighbor, and his girl just stood by and watched.

Well the great sheriff shows up and starts barking orders! Telling everyone to fork over their ID’s. I knew at this point, as did the other three, what questions to ask. So they asked, are we being detained and are we free to go!

The video is great because it shows the officer saying, “Why would you be? Y’all called me?” So, the groups said they wanted to be free to go after determining that they were not being detained. The cop still told them no! After about a min or two, he came back and said the same thing, “ID’S NOW.” Again the three held strong. So now the cop threatened to arrest us for obstruction. Amber got scared and gave up her name and info at this time. However, my wife and brother did not! The cop then said why he truly wanted the ID’s.  “No one’s going anywhere until I run all your names for warrants!!!” BINGO.

The cop then blows his stack and handcuffs everyone! And the video goes off cause he shuts it off, three people in handcuffs, suspected of NO crime, ALL because they wouldn’t submit to the cop and let him run them for warrants. Not a single one of us has even had a traffic ticket! In the end, the cop makes it even worse when he tells them the only way they won’t go to jail, is if they fill out a statement. I thought we had the right to remain silent! That’s forced testimony. They finally released them, after I got on the phone with a supervisor and threatened lawsuits. Before they left, the cops said they were going to have a warrant issued for us at a later date. I called the sheriff and he said he is looking into this matter. I doubt that will go anywhere, since I don’t have that last part on video. And I’m sure that part will be missing from my open records request for said video. I’ll keep you updated.

Thanks
Adam

Thank you Adam for the submission and for having the courage to film the police. I’m not so sure it was a good idea to sit in the car being towed in the first place, but putting that aside, I’m pretty sure that two of those in these videos didn’t have to show their ID’s to this officer. Why he felt the need to demand that is merely a guess. I feel it stems from police training, because most cops are trained to ask you for ID. Most people think you HAVE to provide it (even cops believe you have to provide it), but they commonly forget to tell cops in the academy that it’s merely a request.

The laws are pretty clear that if you are not driving a car on a public roadway or if you are not suspected of having committed, or are about to commit a crime, than you have no legal obligation to provide proof of identity to any government agent. Of course, that’s what the law says and there’s a difference from what the law says and what police want you to do. There are times where this works and people are free to go on their way. Yet, there are other times where you refuse to ID and you end up in a cage. So, don’t think these magic words work all the time. This is something that should keep you safe, but with the wrong jackboot thug asking the questions, it could put you in grave danger.

That’s why it’s always important to have a camera rolling like Adam and his friends did. Thankfully, they only filmed a cop overstepping his bounds on identifying people and nothing more. I would have to say that the camera and lawyer friend on the phone probably kept this pig’s egregious actions at bay this time. Be sure to check out CopBlock.org’s “Film the Police” page for tips, tactics and ideas you can use during your police encounters or while out CopBlocking the police.

Frustrating a Sheriff with Questions and a Camera is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights