New York cop illegally trespasses private property, arrests woman for filming suspicious traffic stop

Thursday, June 23, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: cops, caught on video, health news

(NaturalNews) A young woman from Rochester, NY, is facing criminal charges for allegedly "obstructing governmental administration," after she filmed a suspicious traffic stop taking place in front of her home. Officer Mario Masic from the Rochester Police Department (RPD) illegally approached 28-year-old Emily Good on her property without due cause, and eventually arrested her because she refused to obey his illegal orders.

It all apparently began when Masic and several other RPD officers pulled over a young man in front of Good's home. According to her account of the event, Good and her friend immediately went outside to observe the traffic stop, which ended up involving four police cars, and began to film it. Unprovoked, Masic approached Good and first demanded that she move off the sidewalk where she was filming, and eventually commanded her to go inside the house.

You can view Good's video of the incident here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ZkFZkejv8

After calmly informing Masic that she had every right to stand on her own property and film the incident, Masic began to threaten her with arrest and imprisonment for not following his arbitrary orders. He eventually walked right up to her, put her in handcuffs, and hauled her off to jail right in front of her friends and neighbors.

According to Good's testimony, Masic and the other officers had handcuffed the man they pulled over for no apparent reason, and put him in the back of a police car while they searched his vehicle. They eventually found nothing, and released the man without giving him a ticket. It is unclear exactly why officers pulled over the man in the first place, which may be indicative of why Masic went after Good for filming the event.

In a letter to both Rochester Chief of Police James Sheppard and Mayor Tom Richards, General Counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher from the National Press Photographers Association Inc. had this to say concerning Masic's behavior, according to the Democrat and Chronicle:

"While it may be understandable that your officers had a heightened sense of awareness, that is still no excuse for them to not recognize a citizen's right to take photographs/video of an event occurring on a public street." He also added such incidents involving police and innocent citizens are "happening across the country on almost a daily basis."

According to Pixiq, Masic also runs a business on the side called Harvest Moon Malamutes. You can contact him through his business email at [email protected]. You can also contact RPD by visiting:
http://www.cityofrochester.gov/police/

Sources for this story include:

http://www.pixiq.com/rochester-police-arrest...

http://rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/disp...

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbc...