Former cop became cop watcher after this fraught encounter with police

What would cause a former cop to cross the thin blue line and use his camera to monitor law enforcement and hold police accountable? For well-known police auditor James Madison, it was a fraught encounter with a police officer who threatened to falsely arrest him on his own property for filming him. In this week’s PAR, we speak to Madison about his conversion from cop to cop watcher, and about the deep issues that plague law enforcement.

Veteran Arrested for Sitting on a Bench

Imagine loosing a legal argument on every level to a completely drunk man while you’re the police lmao

 

The fact that the department defended this cop’s actions shows exactly why cops cannot be allowed to police themselves.
If he can call himself an Uber and wait for that Uber calmly in the middle of the night, he is basically a model of how you should act when you drink.
VET: “I’m waiting for my Uber” COP: “Cool, man, I’ll just hang out and chat with you until it gets here. How was your night?” It could have been that easy.
“You’re intoxicated in public” Literally sitting outside a bar, waiting on a ride You can’t even be responsible and not drive drunk anymore. 🤦🏾‍♂️
Clearly a military vet with PTSD who drank until the bar closed. Really… we don’t need Sherlock to get to the bottom of this case.. the police questioning is embarrassing to watch.
apart from mass surveillance, I can see no reason how knowing this mans name or seeing his ID would assist police in doing their job in this situation.
I like how the “closed business” is a bar with a handy bench in front for exactly this purpose and its suspicious to use it exactly as intended.
Let me get this straight… An obvious customer at a bar that recently closed, who is sitting on a bench waiting for his Uber ride, has broken the law because he’s drunk waiting for his Uber ride? We’ve clearly removed “free” from our “Land of the free” slogan. Don’t tell those officers how many people walk out of bars intoxicated and catch Uber rides, they’ll be in for a shocker.
Mr James gets an A+, because although he was clearly very drunk, he managed to remain cool and collected. He was more reasonable than this police officer harassing him for doing absolutely nothing.
“you’re intoxicated in public… at a closed business, in a high crime area” very nice of the officer to list his three different unlawful justifications.
“You’re a danger to yourself.” Yes. He certainly appeared that way while sitting quietly on a bench.
Cop: “I don’t think, I don’t think you’re making good choices” Vet: “I’m waiting on my Uber which is the best choice… the worst choice would’ve been driving” How is a drunk man making more sense than a completely sober cop 🤡🤣🤣
“You can’t call an Uber that’s not how it works.” As if “Calling an Uber” isn’t how literally everyone says it
He’s clearly drunk but he makes 100x more sense than the cop.
This exact situation with cops happened to my neighbor and after he got home from his Uber ride, he looked online for a good lawyer and sued the police department for $78,990.00 and he won his case. This guy needs to lawyer up. This is an easy win.
He’s literally done everything perfectly. Quietly minding his own business and waiting on a ride after drinking. He should have been praised by the officers
I worked in Scotland for a few years. I was so drunk one night I fell down and couldn’t get up. A cop picked me up and gave me a lift home and made sure I got inside OK. American cops need to be re-trained across the board. They’re here to help us.
I’m continually embarrassed for the cops in your videos. Its remarkable how many stops are made with little to no illegal activity being done.
The police caused a lot of harm here. Respect to the guy for calling an Uber instead of driving himself and respect for being so patient and calm with such unprofessional police
The hate for cops is never going to stop, because of officers like this one,
Officer: “We can do this one of two ways, sir.” Reply: “You can either respect my rights or you can be sued for not respecting my rights.”
For sitting on a bench in a country he fought for and served! Wow! That should grind anyone’s gears, man. 🇺🇸
Back in my day the cop would offered you a ride home or called you a cab. Now today it’s show me your papers. We used to make fun of the communist countries of this, but now here we are
When an intoxicated man destroys your legal arguments when you’re a police officer, it’s time to find a new profession.
“Calling an Uber” is a colloquialism for hailing, or ordering a ride. I’ve used the term “calling” for an Uber while sober. That cop is a joke. Not to mention, when the drive confirms the trip, you can actually call them, which I’ve also done numerous times.
Watching and listening to these police officers so called doing their job, makes me completely understand why the majority of Americans distrust and treat them with hostility. This episode could have been so different and the officers could have come away with loads of kudos and admiration. Instead, they come across demonstrably as wankers.
Don’t drink and drive” Ok, I’ll call an Uber “Oh a wise guy eh? Cuff em”
“I don’t think you are making good choices.” -Cop, speaking to man who made the choice to take an Uber while intoxicated.
“I have no idea who you are or what you are doing. It’s my job to find out.” That is the most horrifying thing to have crawled out of that officer’s mouth. No joke, get defunded.
You watch enough of these videos you start to see why people are fearful and angry at “law” enforcement. It doesn’t provide the slightest bit of trust in them or anyone who supports them.
A good cop would be like: – I’ll just stay here until your uber arrives, making sure that you are safe. End of story.
“thank you for your service” as the cop proves that the freedoms the guy put his life on the line to defend barely exist any more.
I was drunk in Australia in my youth in a very similar position when the police pulled up. I told them I was waiting for a taxi, they offered me a lift home, I accepted and had an awesome free ride home.
Officer: “sir you cant even walk” Well maybe thats why he was sitting down
“We can do this one of two ways, sir.” “We can do this one of many ways.” One of the two of them understands how physics works, at least.
U heard it straight from the cops mouth, it’s “his job to find out who everyone is and what their business in the area is.” Not to stop and prevent crimes. Not to help assist and serve the public.
the fact these cops’ partners almost always dont see anything wrong with whats happening is concerning
Thank God the cops got there just in time to stop this man and his uber driver from carrying out their heinous crimes. Everyone knows the most the violent crimes start off with a veteran sitting on a bench minding his own business. You’re not fooling anybody with your acting drunk and respectful demeanor. We’ve all watched Rambo!
This makes me mad, especially when we all know cops invest time and money into inventing “feel good” stories to clean up their image. They have ample opportunities every day to make a positive impact, but so often they turn something that should have been an obvious opportunity to express good will and public service into a drama that only gets them more bad publicity. He should have just sat with him until the Uber arrived, but instead he had to go on a power trip.
“Is there anyone sober who can come get you?” “MY UBER DRIVER!”
And cops wonder why people have so much reserved anger towards them! This is wrong in so many levels!
Gotta love the fact that cops don’t even have to know the laws they “enforce”
As taught in the police academy, if you have contact with anybody, they are to be arrested, convicted and sent to prison. It’s scary these cops are actually allowed to carry guns.
thing really irked me about this. He said at the end, “You said you ‘called’ an uber. You can’t call an uber.” That really is a blatant attempt at criminalizing everything about the ordeal, like the narrator said. That really ticked me off cuz I’d want to be like, “What are you some kind of genius?? It’s an expression! You don’t ‘order’ an uber. Stop pretending not to understand common language just so you could justify your nonsense suspicions.”
I’ve always wondered what imaginary Fantasyland these cops live in because a logical person would see that he’s waiting for an Uber in front of a bar that he’s drunk and he’s doing the responsible thing but I think cops are mad that people are being responsible now
The argument that “he couldn’t take care of himself” makes absolutely no sense, when despite being drunk he had the ability to make the appropriate decision of calling an Uber for a ride instead of driving under the influence.
Bro he’s asking a drunk man dumb questions so he can incriminate his self. Just sitting there bothering no one, making the best decision of getting a ride 🤦‍♂️
The amount of CRIME going down in the US and this muppet wants to target someone doing nothing. I thought the US was a free country, apparently not. And if being intoxicated in public is an offence then that officer needs to get ALL bars shut down immediately.
Everytime I watch these videos it opens my eyes to see why people want to defund the police…now that is just plain stupid, but there needs to be an accountability to people like this. I won’t use the word officer, because that is a word of respect. These people don’t deserve or get that word from me.
I’ve been trying to justify some of the cops actions in these videos and try see it from their point of view but I think its impossible I give up at this video.
The butt-hurt that ensued when homie pulls out his camera is on another level. Straight up cuffs my dude.
You know there’s something wrong with society when the citizens know the law better than the people who are supposed to uphold it and we weren’t even taught it in school we had to learn it ourselves they were taught in school
Cops like these always ask why the public is losing trust in them and it’s things like this that screw up public relations. I want to have cops back but they just make it so hard…
He pulls out the cuffs the moment the man gets his phone recording, this definitely seems retaliatory for the act of filming. This officer was power tripping over a drunk man minding his own business.
8:29 Officer – “I have no idea who you are or what you’re doing, and it’s my job to find out.” This officer literally doesn’t know what his job responsibilities are.
I love when they know they’re wrong so they pedantic. “You can’t CALL an Uber, thats not how it works”. Like buddy you know what he means
He did not authorize them to check his phone, he was forced to do it while being handcuffed and on the back of a patrol.
The officer could have said “oh, that’s cool man. I’ll wait with you since this is a high crime area and the business is closed” or even “oh hey, if they’ll be awhile, I can just give you a ride home.” But hey, the officer had to be a douchenozzle.
Guilty until proven innocent. I love how most cops have no idea about the laws they try to uphold. The US police force has the least amount of training out of any other country in the world. We NEED to fix this.
The more I watch these videos it just gets my blood boiling it’s insane almost like it was Nazi Germany, Cops need to calm down not everyone’s the bad guy. I thank this man for not drinking and driving !!!
Reminds me of sitting on a park bench on Manhattan one afternoon with one of my knees up, as my ankles had some venous stasis from standing all day In the heat. A huge officer yelled at me to take my knee down from the bench like I was some criminal. I took it down, but my face probably revealed my shock in how he treated me. As he walked away, he suddenly stopped and turned around, hoping to catch me putting my knee back up. If I had put it up, I’m sure he would have arrested me, as he was that angry. Total abuse of power.
Cops like this give honest cops who actually serve the public and uphold the law properly a bad name.
I like how this cop claims he was being reasonable with him. Sure if it was 1980, and we were in the soviet union.
It seems that often a cop gets angry on a personally level when their authority is questioned, even if they have exceeded it. They then go out of their way to abuse their power to teach the public a lesson. Its not very professional.
This cop is not doing his job. He is assaulting a law abiding citizen. “I was trying to be reasonable with you”. This was just an ego trip gone wrong.
Veteran gets an A++ He did the right thing and never showed anger or threats. Officer escalated the whole situation.
Love how the cop asked to see the Uber receipt one time, literally, kept implying as if he asked him 100 times
It’s such a shame that officers are wasting their time with this, when there are gangs causing trouble all around the town.
He broke the worst law you can break, he argued with a cop. The cop even says, I wanted to talk with you and all you did was argue with me. That’s really what got him cuffed. These cops have such egos they wind up breaking the law to satisfy their ego.
The Wheat Ridge police department issued a self-serving explanation of what happened which was untruthful and deceptive. How can we trust cops when this kind of stuff happens?
No. “Guy arrested for sitting on a bench”, him being a veteran has no bearing on the interaction, nor should it. He has the same rights as every other citizen.
About 2 seconds into the interaction, before he knows anything about the guy; “This can go one of two ways”. Yeah pretty obvious this dude only became a cop so he could attach some actual power to his giant ego
To me a big thing is that I imagine a lot of cops go their entire careers not meeting one person willing to stand up for their rights, and when they do their behavior is sometimes symptomatic with what the cops see because of their experiences as someone who’s actually up to no good. So I think that a big part of preventing things is going to also be showing people to educate themselves and not allow themselves to be walked all over.
every cop ever: I need to confirm your identity for no justifiable reason informed citizen: no thanks, I haven’t done anything cop: i’m going to need backup, this person has assaulted my pride.
nice. so glad the police are protecting and serving me from this peaceful intoxicated man trying to get an uber home. he was CLEARLY a threat to himself and others……sure
They use that “danger to oneself and to others” in florida and i’ve seen them use it just for simply having a disagreement or because of gossip they heard.
10:15 Cop: “ Is there anybody sober that can come get you?” Yea.. the urber driver if you let me leave!! Cops are a pain in the ass.
The one constant in all these videos with police interactions is the cops ego’s. This man told you he’s waiting for an Uber so you escalate with the man then want to throw him in the drunk tank. How is any of that the human thing to do? The man said he’s waiting for an Uber and you threatened to put him in the drunk tank, then you bully him and unlawfully search his phone.
He’s just sitting there….MENNACINGLY!

6 Police Officers Respond to a Freedom of Information Request

It took 45 minutes, 6 police officers, and 5 office staff to field a FOIA request.

The police wanted to solicit a disorderly conduct charge because he swore and talked back to them after the clerk invocked his mom.

Comments

how many helpful cops does it take to get a signed copy of a FOIA request?

 

I know some people will give this auditor a hard time about professionalism but the female clerk mentioned something about the auditors mother. The disrespect and unprofessionalism by the clerk was uncalled for and the give what you give approach is what this auditor did. Some people do like this style while some do not.

 

If you give an inch they take a mile. This guy shows the power of knowing your rights. He completely mentally disarmed about 6 different police officers in a 20 minute video. People get the same respect they give and that clerk is rude as hell.

 

I don’t understand why so many people in the public think this guy isn’t trying to protect their rights? People will say “ oh he’s just trying to be trouble” when in reality if the public workers treated the way they do everyone without a camera nothing would have happened but paying getting his copy and leaving. Why does a camera mean he doesn’t get served or cops called on him?

 

these cops were just there to help this guy 🤣🤣🤣 kinda like when i paid $197 jaywalking fine in pennies

 

Another example of a “under resourced” dept that can spare 6 officers to stand and do nothing, for no legitimate reason

 

4:53 Cops will always interrupt, or turn their attention elsewhere whenever a member of the public tries to educate them on case law…

 

many ignorant cops in one place who ask questions and do not listen to so they just keep harassing this law abiding citizen

 

I love this guy. It is so crazy that people want to work for the public, but hate the public. She needs to be fired and the officers re-educated on the law and Constitution. They called the cops over hurt feelings and the idiot cops showed up and tried to enforce the “feelings”.

 

“don’t you want us to help you?”
“no”
that question backfired on that cop lmaooo

 

Not to be as dramatic as John Filax but any time a cop says “okay” they know the game is over and all they can do is save face by escalating.

 

Funny how all these incidents start from people being in their feelings.

 

As a retired police officer, with over 20 years of service. This video is 100% correct. I was constantly, battling my “alleged” superiors (they hated me), over what the law states vs. their personal opinion. So many times, I was told/ordered… “Do as I say, not as I do” Ad-nauseum! That’s why I retired early. I worked for three separate departments and they were “ALL” the same! The only thing I learned I was going to continue to do, what was right (follow the law). Not what was popular by a bunch of ignorant/god complex supervisors. Supervisors who were the first to put an officer under the bus to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions! That’s known as… A FACT! I speak from over 20 years of dealing with that CRAP!!!

 

the only way this will stop is if it is MANDATORY that all cops state the actual law that is being broken when first contacted. Then if your recording you have the so called law on record.On traffic stops the first thing out of the officers mouth should be why he or she pulled you over. If not stated then the driver should be let go.Also needs a law that cops cannot touch your vehicle at any time during the stop. Always seemed to me of planting evidence on personal property.

 

When cops start losing the argument they go straight to open ended questions in the hopes that if they do it long enough you will eventually lose patience and THEN they get you for disorderly, etc.

 

he is well known to the police there. he has the right to get the video anonymously and thats why he asked for it anonymously , not because he need to stay anonymous. the video he asked for is from a police station where police attacked him without he doing anything wrong. (they ambushed him also on the streets, crazy ambush without warning) thats why it took so long to get this video, the police fucked up big time there and he has all on video. the whole town conspires against this man, the city attorney, the police ,… i went in rabbit hole on his channel the other day and thats one crazy ride all his intereactions with public servants on this matter. i can say you this man has absolutely no fear and this story will be a good one, because he documents every step and he does his law suit and complain every time and he will win in the end-

 

I cant believe it takes that many people for one simple request.

 

This is what happens when people take the attitude of: “we talk; you listen”. If instead one or two of these employees had spent a little more energy listening then they would not take an hour to produce a copy of a piece of paper.

 

They tactically surrounded you. You should’ve questioned them on their hostility. There was no need for that.

 

I would strongly advise the auditor to always bring a friend, and have that friend be completely silent while recording

“Give what you get” is one of the first principles that kids learn in kindergarten. As they mature, some kids learn that they can better accomplish their goals by not playing or joining in that game.

He should have at least let the cops know the clerk was talking about his mother, and so he was returning that vibe.

How many cops does it take to screw with a photographer? The world may never know

The best part is you had six police officers ask you if you needed help and not one of them helped you.
This is why there is a disconnect between the police and the public.

Respect is earned not given and government has never earned respect

I love how that woman sitting down looked at him the entire time like he’s trash. Spectacle!

How many cops does it take to copy a piece of paper,…we still don’t know

I’m not sure what annoys me more, the blatant waste of time, the lecturing of officers, or the $40 cost for a public record to hold government accountable… time wasted and paywalls to accountability… this is why government is failing…

He is lucky he wasn’t arrested for not letting them help him 🤣

Qualified immunity needs abolished. That’s why cops just laugh &/or cuff you when threatened w a lawsuit. Bc the taxpayers are the only ones punished for bad cop behavior!

This guy has a mouth. I’m surprised that they didn’t try to recruit him on that alone.

If it wasn’t for the video’s you wouldn’t believe how these public servants act toward we the people ( citizens ) they were rule, disrespectful and out right ignorant acting. And for her to bring up your mother’s name. Their treatment of you was outrageous, and should be fired, who do they think they are. Pure tyrants and 6 police officer’s for what? Keep videoing and exposing, you have my vote….Stay safe

The worst part of interactions like this is that the private citizen is citing laws that are actually being broken by public servants and the public servants are citing bogus charges against the citizen.

Perfect example of how police escalate in every situation. Great video exposing public employees that think it’s their building & they actually think that WE the people have to serve & cater to them.

I think he handled it very well the only thing I don’t understand is he said he filed the foia without his name because he wanted to remain anonymous and then he used either a credit or debit card that makes no sense

I have to honestly say I don’t know if I could control my temper with these officers are trying to create a situation that would allow them to throw me out!

11:00 FREE HELP?! Are they all volunteers today? There is probably more than $500,000 worth of LEOS just standing around harassing a citizen!

For all the help they claimed to want to provide, they just couldn’t get over their egos. Their disdain for the public and transparency was on full display.

There are 27 cameras back there. Why is mine the issue. “LOL”

Imo they act like this because they are hoping that the person will lose their patients to justify them making a hands on arrest? The person behind the counter is the one the Cops should of been talking to and observing as they were the one that started to make unjustified personal comments. Very good auditor who keeps his cool and explains things very well.

Overstaffed police department that’s for sure

A great example of how there isn’t any Law Enforcement, but Feelings Policing and Revenue Generating by today’s undereducated overpaid Governmental Welfare Recipients.

“That’s disorderly conduct sir..”

🤦🤦🤦🤦 They always try and pull that BS because most people don’t know their rights and will roll over for them.

One thing these videos show is the overstaffing of all these police forces. They are all sitting around doing nothing until they see an opportunity to hassle a citizen. Budgets should be slashed.

 

To charge a person with disorderly conduct there has to be a threat of imminent danger.
In NC there’s a law thst says if ya cuss a cop you can be charged with assault on a cop.
In this case, the cop could ask the man to stop cussing, but not demand it. Or call it disorderly conduct. That’s suppression of free speech. So is the law in NC.
Bring up my Momma & we gon tangle.

“They’re back there working on your request.” WTH? Do they have 6 monks back there copying the 10 Commandments for the last 45 minutes?

Look at the tyrannt who keeps covering his body cam!

He missed a few opportunites to say “You work here AND want to help me? Go get my stamped and dated copy of my paperwork… Why aren’t you moving to help me?”

This auditor went way too far with the verbal abuse. This is obviously all about getting clicks.

Will they ever get tired of pulling out old faithful “ disorderly conduct “ I doubt it it will be used to intimidate and threaten till the end of time.

Courts have ruled multiple officer s is a show of force and may constitute a detention

This auditor could learn a few things about professionalism by watching Battousai for a while.
I kinda dont like it when auditors get deliberately rude. I mean… I get it…. My mother is dead so if she said that to me I’d get a bit upset so…. I get it.

I know “she started it” but we really shouldn’t be propping up auditors who act like this. He CLEARLY heard something he could take and run with to ratchet up the confrontation and went 10x beyond what her little transgression reasonably called for, let’s be real. The overly-confrontational type of auditors make it about themselves instead of the big picture and even when they’re TECHNICALLY in the right, end up harming their own cause acting like jack-offs. Yes, the police sucked, so this is just immaturity on BOTH sides.

They actually believe they help people out 🤡

Seems like harrassment just to get public service

Why did he pay by card? They can now find out who he is!
>> Because they already know him from previous battles they lost.

You have to go at these lions like a lion. They are no longer public servants they are public predators. Reason and logic is not a flower that grows in any of their Gardens. They prey on the weak stand your ground be adamant about exercising your constitutional rights. Keywords are lawsuit and ending their qualified immunity. You made it clear you know you’re constitutional rights and the consequences that they will incur for violating your constitutional rights. FTP

A cop tried to keep him from recording a traffic stop, but now he’s fighting back to change the law

The battle over the right to record police is far from over. That’s because a case pending over a routine traffic stop in Lakewood, Colorado, where police interfered with a citizen journalist recording, could have a huge impact on a controversial legal precedent which shields cops from legal liability.

End Qulified Immunity Protections, & Civil Asset Forfeiture. Hold Cops Accountable.

Cops who break the law must be held accountable for their illegal actions !!!

This is also why you need to tell the cop that he is about to violate your rights and will lose his qualified immunity. Otherwise he can claim he didn’t know that law or right and use the qualified immunity as a defense.

Get it right in your heads people. “To protect and serve” means themselves.

Qualified immunity isn’t a matter that will be addressed by police reform. It’s part of the holding accountable of elected officials.

If cops didn’t break the law. These people who record them would not need to record the cops

In “this day and age…” Why do cops NOT know the law?

That cop who try to obstruct them from recording definitely has more issues under the radar and he’s a ticking bomb.

this is America cops should lose their pensions three strikes and they’re out!!😎

That would be three justice systems.
One for police, one for the wealthy, one for the rest of us.

And PlEASE leave a comment for copwatcher Abade aka Liberty Freak, his law suit may become case law that protects your right to record the police! So make sure to give him some kindness and support as he will be turning himself into law enforcement and will be incarcerated for a few months. So this is your chance to share your thoughts with him before he goes inside. Thank you! -taya

What an incredible episode!!!​​ I especially love it when you break things down and illustrate clearly​ how our system has “run amuck” and been abused to undermine & sabotage itself.

“Qualified Impunity” is such a clever, creative and accurate play on words. I would love to see that term widely adopted because I would hope that this shift might become a catalyst for reform by bringing a better understanding of just how broken our system is; and how close we may be to losing our democracy itself! It is being attacked and undermined in so many ways right now from so many sides…

If ignorance of the law is no excuse for civilians ignorance of our rights should be no excuse for the law!

Since this video was from Colorado it would make sense to mention that, at the time of this report, a new police accountability law was about to go into effect. Since then several cops, notably Loveland PD, have been held accountable with this law. As for my opinion I would like to say, no one has done more to end qualified immunity than corrupt cops all over the US.

If cleaning up neighborhoods changes the culture by changing the way people feel, then cities have an interest in leaving them neglected to justify dumping more money into police presence. It’s business as usual.

There are three types of versions of laws, the one for the poor aka the “criminal class” and then the one for government officials/LEOs, and finally the one for the elites/the rich who line the pockets of said govt officials & LEOs

I think we now know why the police are no longer required to learn the law before claiming to “enforce the law”.
Not knowing the law lets the police officers claim “I didn’t know the law” and the courts say it was an “honest mistake” and let them off with a warning to do better.

Oh and…….”qualified immunity” sounds like a “Jim Crow” law. It’s sickening that such a perversion of our Constitutional Rights is allowed!

Something to keep in mind. Until privatized, for profit, publicly traded prisons are done away with none of this tyranny will end.

I’ve always said that one of the main goals of 1st Amendment auditor’s is to remove the sovereign from the state 👍💯👍

Driver: I’m just defending myself here. You really have nothing to fear from me. I’m not out to get you. So can you kindly just cite or warn me and we can go on our way?

Wait, qualified immunity gets it’s power by proving that the law enforcement officer was ignorant of the law? Make it make sense somebody please.