Cops Arrest Priest For Filming Them
A Roman Catholic priest who monitors law enforcement treatment of minorities with a video camera released footage that appears to contradict the police account of his own arrest.
A police report says the Rev. James Manship was confronted and arrested Feb. 19 because he was holding an "unknown shiny silver object" and struggled with an officer who was trying to take it from him. But a 15-second video released this week by Manship's attorneys shows East Haven police Officer David Cari asking Manship, "Is there a reason you have a camera on me?"
"I'm taking a video of what's going on here," Manship replies.
"Well, I'll tell you what, what I'm going to do with that camera," Cari says as he approaches the priest. The tape then goes blank.
The arrest has reignited the debate about racial profiling and ethnic discrimination in East Haven, a working-class community of about 28,000 that borders New Haven. The shooting death of an unarmed black man by an East Haven officer in 1997 sparked harsh criticism by minority groups that has lingered. Manship and his parishioners say officers have been unfairly targeting Hispanics in recent months.
Hugh Keefe, a New Haven attorney who represents East Haven police, said the videotape shows only a small portion of what happened and confirms part of what Cari wrote in his report. He also said the tape doesn't show what happened from the time the camera was turned off until Manship's arrest.
Marcia Chacon, co-owner of My Country Store, where Manship was arrested, said Friday that the priest surrendered peacefully after the camera was shut off.
"He didn't say anything," she said.
Manship was not at his parish, St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven, midday Friday and did not return a telephone message left Friday afternoon. He is due in court March 27 on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer.
Keefe criticized Manship for "creating controversy where none needed to be."
Chacon, a 36-year-old immigrant from Ecuador who moved to the U.S. 15 years ago and a parishioner of Manship's church, said she had called the priest to her store that day because the two officers were confiscating license plates displayed on the store's wall, saying they were illegal. She and her husband, Rodrigo Matute, were given a $372 ticket.
She said the seizure and ticket were part of a pattern of racial profiling against Hispanics by town police over the past eight months.
"I don't know why it happened," Chacon said of the priest's arrest and the seizure of the license plates. "We work very hard and ... everything we do is legal."
Keefe said there has never been a complaint, oral or written, about town officers harassing Hispanic people. If a complaint were filed, city officials would look into it, he said.
Last weekend, anti-immigrant fliers apparently printed by a white supremacy group were left in front of Chacon's store, she said. And on Monday, someone broke the window of her home's basement door, she said.
"I'm very scared," Chacon said.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A police report says the Rev. James Manship was confronted and arrested Feb. 19 because he was holding an "unknown shiny silver object" and struggled with an officer who was trying to take it from him. But a 15-second video released this week by Manship's attorneys shows East Haven police Officer David Cari asking Manship, "Is there a reason you have a camera on me?"
"I'm taking a video of what's going on here," Manship replies.
"Well, I'll tell you what, what I'm going to do with that camera," Cari says as he approaches the priest. The tape then goes blank.
The arrest has reignited the debate about racial profiling and ethnic discrimination in East Haven, a working-class community of about 28,000 that borders New Haven. The shooting death of an unarmed black man by an East Haven officer in 1997 sparked harsh criticism by minority groups that has lingered. Manship and his parishioners say officers have been unfairly targeting Hispanics in recent months.
Hugh Keefe, a New Haven attorney who represents East Haven police, said the videotape shows only a small portion of what happened and confirms part of what Cari wrote in his report. He also said the tape doesn't show what happened from the time the camera was turned off until Manship's arrest.
Marcia Chacon, co-owner of My Country Store, where Manship was arrested, said Friday that the priest surrendered peacefully after the camera was shut off.
"He didn't say anything," she said.
Manship was not at his parish, St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven, midday Friday and did not return a telephone message left Friday afternoon. He is due in court March 27 on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer.
Keefe criticized Manship for "creating controversy where none needed to be."
"You've got to conclude that he was out there with a video camera in an attempt, in my view, to provoke the police to do something," Keefe said. "If his goal was to attempt to stop the perceived harassment of the Hispanic community in East Haven by the police department, why didn't he go to the mayor's office?"
Chacon, a 36-year-old immigrant from Ecuador who moved to the U.S. 15 years ago and a parishioner of Manship's church, said she had called the priest to her store that day because the two officers were confiscating license plates displayed on the store's wall, saying they were illegal. She and her husband, Rodrigo Matute, were given a $372 ticket.
She said the seizure and ticket were part of a pattern of racial profiling against Hispanics by town police over the past eight months.
"I don't know why it happened," Chacon said of the priest's arrest and the seizure of the license plates. "We work very hard and ... everything we do is legal."
Keefe said there has never been a complaint, oral or written, about town officers harassing Hispanic people. If a complaint were filed, city officials would look into it, he said.
Last weekend, anti-immigrant fliers apparently printed by a white supremacy group were left in front of Chacon's store, she said. And on Monday, someone broke the window of her home's basement door, she said.
"I'm very scared," Chacon said.
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The answer to this question is getting simpler and simpler.
REQUIRE COPS TO WEAR AUDIO VIDEO RECORDERS WHILE ON DUTY.
Have you seen the size of the latest iPod and Cellphones with cameras? Some manufacturer should easily be able to build a clip-on AV recorder that can store DAYS worth of video. This should be done, officers should be required to wear them. Failing to wear one should be a firing offense.
Cops should want to wear them too. The fact is that 99% of the lies come from accused criminals, not the cops. The recorders would help the vast majorty of cops. They would deter or expose the few bad ones. Everybody wins.
The answer to this question is getting simpler and simpler.
REQUIRE COPS TO WEAR AUDIO VIDEO RECORDERS WHILE ON DUTY.
Have you seen the size of the latest iPod and Cellphones with cameras? Some manufacturer should easily be able to build a clip-on AV recorder that can store DAYS worth of video. This should be done, officers should be required to wear them. Failing to wear one should be a firing offense.
Cops should want to wear them too. The fact is that 99% of the lies come from accused criminals, not the cops. The recorders would help the vast majorty of cops. They would deter or expose the few bad ones. Everybody wins.
Um... because he would have received the same chickenstuff stonewalling you're giving him right now... instead of having the hot, bright laser he needed to slice through the innumerable layers of delay and obfuscation that tyrants always use to muffle the truth. When the system is broken, only a moron expects the system to correct it. HAL isn't going to open the pod bay doors, Dave, no matter how nicely you ask.
Marjorie Cohn
Counterpunch
March 4, 2009
Seven newly released memos from the Bush Justice Department reveal a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution. The memos provide ?legal? rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties. According to the reasoning in the memos, Congress has no role to check and balance the executive. That is the definition of a police state.
Who wrote these memos? All but one were crafted in whole or in part by the infamous John Yoo and Jay Bybee, authors of the so-called ?torture memos? that redefined torture much more narrowly than the U.S. definition of torture, and counseled the President how to torture and get away with it. In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.
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Have you watched any television or read any newspaper or magizine lately? The people in Hollywood who KNOW that cameras are upon them all of the time behave with even MORE stupidity, immaturity, and irresponsibility than these police officers did. The same goes with the politicians these days - Democrat AND Republican.
The problem is, the majority of people these days feel that they have absolutely no responsibility for themselves or their actions, so they behave and speak as they wish without ANY regard for any other human being or living creature.
Shame on these police officers for abusing their power with both the store owners and the Priest.
And shame on our society for allowing things to get to where they are.
1. The ordinary criminals.
2. The rich folks who could pay their accountant, tax guys and lawyers to kill and steal
legally through our court system. Their "jail"is in their posh million dollar property!!
3. The law binding citizens who work for the Government and don't thing the rules apply
to them, just like the the rich folks in #2. The court system is on their side.
yes ... because you're abusing these people's rights ... just like you're going to do to me in a few minutes ... when you taser my azz ... and i want to make sure i capture it for the nightly news so that everyone can see how you abuse your power because you have a gun and a uniform.