Aggressive, Unsafe Driving and Threatening of Motorists by Off Duty Cops

This post was shared via CopBlock.org’s submit page.

Date of Interaction: September 8, 2015

At about 11:00 pm on September 8, 2015, my companion and I were leaving the Stubhub parking lot near Angel stadium (Anaheim, California) after the Angels/Dodgers game. We were in the turn lane to make a left onto Katella to then get on the freeway and drive home. Two cars ahead of us was a white Lexus also making a left turn. Without warning, a large dark blue or black pickup with a double cab came racing out of the parking area, going the wrong way down the one way street where you would enter the parking lot. The truck came very close to hitting the white Lexus. I did not hear a horn honk, but clearly someone inside the Lexus made a gesture or said something to the occupants of the dark blue truck.

As we continued down Katella, we came to the intersection at State College rd. Traveling westbound on Katella, right past State College, is a high density condominium development. Both I and my companion observed the blue or black truck cross State College against the red light, then stop in the right lane in front of the condos. The white Lexus was stopped at the light, along with us and many other drivers. Across the street, where the truck was stopped blocking traffic, a man got out and began waving his arms in “tough guy/bro” style communicating, “You want a piece of me?” The light was long, probably a couple minutes, and the guy got back into the truck, and backed into a side street in the condo complex.

It was at this point I began recording. The light changed, and the truck pulled back into the stream of traffic ahead of us in order to harass the occupants of the Lexus. When we got to where the freeway entrance was, we got closer to the black or blue truck, and observed 4 or 5 young men inside shouting at the Lexus. Both my companion and I observed that at least one of them was flashing a police badge. Unfortunately my battery had died, and the footage I shot was useless, but for future reference, I plan to always be prepared to film encounters such as this dangerous, arrogant, probably drunken abuse of authority.

I was not directly involved in the incident but had we pulled out of the parking lot a few moments later, we would have had a truckload of angry drunk tuffy boy cops screaming and threatening us. I am glad I thought to film the encounter, not even realizing that these were cops, however my two mistakes were not having enough battery power to get useful footage, and neglecting to get the license plate number of the blue truck.

Editor’s note: The author of this post had the right idea when they chose to begin recording the encounter even before knowing the men in the truck were police officers. Police should be held accountable for their actions, and so should everybody else.

Livestreaming apps are invaluable in situations where your mobile recording device may become damaged or taken – the footage will still be accessible without the device it was recorded on. For information on various livestreaming apps, check out CopBlock.org/apps

You can also view CopBlock.org/cameras for camera recommendations, including dash cams and discrete cameras.

Aggressive, Unsafe Driving and Threatening of Motorists by Off Duty Cops is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights