Officer Arrests Biker for License Plate

[ajwakeboarder]

I would like y'alls opinion on this. Please don't turn this into a "cop bashing thread". The officer in this video pulled this biker over. He then decided to arrest the biker on a license plate obstruction charge. This video concerns me because I am a bike rider. I ride a motorcycle that many consider to be a sport bike. Technically it isn't (FZ6) but it looks like one. Hopefully I'm getting a GoPro for my birthday, and if so, I will be wearing it when I ride. I have never ridden with a group. However, I have been riding and found myself surrounded by a group of other riders. I'm slightly concerned that I might become a target for law enforcement if this happens because I might have a camera on my helmet. Any thoughts?

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[EEllis]

Give them the camera, or the card anyway. Honestly tho I wonder about that arrest and think they need a warrant it seems to me they should be able to get one and get the camera if needed so, as long as you are asked, why not let them have the video? I am a motorcyclist myself and hate that type of behavior represented by groups such as those so that may color my opinion. More bikes had no plate or had them bent to be unreadable than not, so while the cop may be out of line I feel no sympathy to the idiot taking the vid at all.

[ajwakeboarder]

Honestly, if I was riding on my own and a group of idiots were riding past me doing stupid stuff, i'd almost give the police a copy of the video without being asked. They give all bikers a bad name. If I was asked I would do it without a problem. However, I didn't hear the officer ask for a copy of the video. He just arrested they guy and took it. This is one of my greatest fears.

[EEllis]

Why? I mean he has reason to believe that you captured criminal activity they can easily get a warrant to get the footage I would bet the only question is having you sit by the side of the road while they wait for a warrant. If they think you are in cahoots with the other bikers it makes sense that you might so something to the footage so it seems to me that, and mind you I have no idea about case law on such a thing, but it seems like they could make you sit and wait for a while at least while they get a warrant. You want to worry then worry about a smarter cop who wants to jam you up. If the cop had just acted like a regular stop and blamed it on the plate then he could arrest you and the camera would be in property and they can take their time getting a warrant.

[Dave2]

Why? I mean he has reason to believe that you captured criminal activity [...]

No, he doesn't.

[Jaguar]

According to the sheriff's department, what this deputy did was wrong and warranted 30 days suspension without pay (plus 8 more days for leaving his DWI prisoner at the jail without booking him in).
http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Sheriff- ... 43346.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Personally, I think he should have been fired, but I tend to hold police officers to a higher standard and this is more punishment than typically seen for these types of infractions.

And apparently Mr. Moore has a lawsuit filed against Deputy Westbrook for $1 million. How he plans to collect that much from a deputy is anyone's guess, but it sends a message.
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04 ... lion.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At the same time, Deputy Westbrook filed a lawsuit wanting his suspension overturned with back pay and attorney fees.

It occurs to me, the winners in all of this are the lawyers.

[AEA]

It occurs to me, the winners in all of this are the lawyers.

It always ends up like this......

[EEllis]

Why? I mean he has reason to believe that you captured criminal activity [...]

No, he doesn't.

How can you say that? The guy told the cop he was recording, he was riding in the middle of a large group of bikers who were commuting offences left and right. It would be impossible for the guy not to have evidence of criminal activity on video.

[Dave2]

Why? I mean he has reason to believe that you captured criminal activity [...]

No, he doesn't.

How can you say that? The guy told the cop he was recording, he was riding in the middle of a large group of bikers who were commuting offences left and right. It would be impossible for the guy not to have evidence of criminal activity on video.

If the officer had seen any offenses committed, then he wouldn't need the video to pull over the offender; if the officer had not witnessed any offenses, then he wouldn't have reason to believe that the video had evidence of one.

[The Annoyed Man]

EEllis's reflexive defense and anyone else's reflexive accusations aside........

One time I was riding solo westbound on Mulholland Highway, headed for my folks' place at Point Dume. It was a nice day, and I was just cruising along the country road....not racing....not doing anything illegal.....just enjoying a nice ride on a sunny day. When I got to Las Virgines Road (AKA Malibu Canyon Road), there was a stoplight there, where I stopped at the red light. After I stopped, a group of riders unknown to me pulled up on either side of me, and we all waited for the light to turn green.

Now, I rode this highway ALL the time, and I knew it was heavily patrolled, and I rode accordingly to stay out of trouble. I also knew that there was trouble a short ways ahead. If you proceed west on Mulholland from that intersection, after a short straightaway the road starts to climb up a long sweeping righthand curve. At the top of that curve is a very tight lefthand hairpin switchback which opens onto a short uphill straightaway perhaps 100-200 yards long. On the left, going up that straightway, is one long turn-out overlooking the road below where people can pull off the road and make out or whatever, and that turnout is habitually populated by a half-dozen or more CHP cars with binoculars and radar guns (Mulholland Highway is one of the few roads in California where the CHP has legislative permission to use radar....they are normally barred from using it). The cops stand up there, out of their cars, and they get radar readings on bikers blasting up that long righthand sweeper, and then they pop them as they come around the hairpin.

OK...now that red light goes green, and those guys who had pulled up alongside me at the red light go blasting up that righthand curve and get way out ahead of me. I'm cruising along, about 3-5mph under the speed limit, because I KNOW those CHPs are up there. I could see them when I was back at the signal. What happens is those guys that blasted out ahead of me suddenly realize too late that they've been had, and they slow waaaaaaaaaay down, trying to decide if they should go ahead, or turn and run or something. So little ol' me, going a tad under the speed limit, eventually catches up to them and we all come around that lefthand hairpin right about the same time, with me right in the middle of them. Two cops were standing out in the middle of the road blocking it with a squad car behind them at an angle.

We ALL got flagged over. I was completely and totally innocent of any wrongdoing. I tried to plead my case to the Chippie. He wasn't having any of it, and wrote me for going 65 in a 45 zone, which in addition to being 20mph over the speed limit (a significant traffic offense) was actually about 25 mph faster than I was actually going. This was utter crap. I got the ticket simply because I was on a red sportbike and I was in the vicinity of other people (strangers to me) who were also on sportbikes. No other reason. Those guys were guilty. I was not. The po-po even had a couple of flatbed towtrucks loaded with bikes they were confiscating. Anybody who gave them too much crap, they just confiscated the bike. Sort it all out later. I judged discretion to be the better part of valor and I shut up and took the ticket, and went on about my business.

I went to court and tried to argue my way out of it, and the officer appeared, and he lied his tail off on the witness stand. I looked right at the judge and explained what had actually happened. He reduced my fine to the $15 deposit I had to pay to get a court date, but left the points on my record. I would have gladly paid the entire fine to keep the points off. The bottom line was this: the CHP had been specifically tasked with doing everything they could to discourage motorcycle traffic on Mulholland Highway, at the urging of some very irate and loud local residents whose driveways exited onto the highway. They were (understandably) worried and scared to back in and out of their driveways because there WERE a lot of guys who thought Mulholland was their private racetrack and were looking for the three digit speeds at every opportunity. The CHP, it being a commie state, was willing to bend the law and violate their oaths in order to execute the task given them.

Oh.....and the judge lived on Mulholland Hwy. He got what he wanted. I stopped riding on Mulholland. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

My response isn't to bash cops, although these guys were DEFINITELY lying sacks of manure, and they were definitely violating their oaths and breaking the law themselves by doing so. What it was all really about was the general disregard for public safety that the sportbike riders on Mulholland exhibited. THAT IS GROUND ZERO, where the problem all started. I remember once when a guy on a 1000cc Katana smacked into a local bicycle rider just a 1/4 mile or so east of the Rock Store and literally blew the bicyclist into chunks of meat, hanging from the branches of an overhead oak tree. Everybody thinks they have to drag a knee on Mulholland, or their genital stature is insufficient. It's crazy how irresponsible some of these people are, and the folks who live there have a legitimate gripe. These same people are also living on multi-million $$ properties, and they have considerable political avoir-du-pois, and they're not afraid to use it........and frankly, they don't care about biker rights; they just want to get in and out of their driveways alive and in one piece......and that is not an unreasonable expectation.

I know better than to say that all sportbike riders are that inconsiderate. Many are not. Some are my friends for life. Heck, I was a sportbike rider. But, there is no denying that some sportbike riders give all sportbike riders a bad name among people who don't like or care about bikes.

I don't know what you can do about it. It's just part of the territory. Know that if you ride a sportbike, particularly in a large group, particularly in a large group where most of the bikes have loud aftermarket exhaust systems, you're going to get hassled. It may not be right and it may not be fair, but it is a fact of life. If you don't like it, you've got two choices: 1) don't ride, or 2) the next time you see another rider acting like the laws don't apply to him, give him a verbal smack down for it. Tell him he's ruining it for everybody........and don't ride with or hang around people who are irresponsible. Don't even let them pull up alongside you at a stop light. If they go straight, you turn left or right.

[Sport Coach]

I've ridden motorcycles all over the country. The way I see this (not from a legal standpoint but a hassle/escalation standpoint), 1)the cop had reason to pull over one or more bikes due to erratic driving; 2)the biker pretty well knew his rights but; 3)the biker escalated a simple stop and release by being belligerent; 4)a for-whatever-reason frustrated cop didn't handle himself well and got himself into hot water by distinctly overreacting. Conclusion: idiot group of bikers, belligerent biker, frustrated cop - bad mix bound to end badly for one or all. It has an easy correlation to CHL stops.

[Hola Gato]

A camera mounted on the bike is pretty inconspicuous and safer than mounting something on protective gear.

[puma guy]

The suspension speaks for itself as to officers actions. I won't even bother to post what my thoughts were as I watched the video.

[jmra]

This is pretty simple to me - the cop screwed up. He pulled the guy over for the sole purpose of getting the footage and admitted as much on the footage.
If he had the common sense of an 8th grader he would have announced a legit reason for stopping the guy as soon as he got out of the car (assuming there was one, which I doubt).
This was simply a power hungry idiot abusing his authority - an "ends justifies the means" kind of guy that does not belong in law enforcement. Thankfully he is the exception instead of the rule.
Hopefully one day soon this guy is a cop wannabe instead of an actual cop.

[SewTexas]

all I could think of when watching that video...."I would be terrified if that happened while I was riding with my husband!" that swarming behavior is dangerous!