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CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

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221–230 of 284 posts

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#221

Seems like the guy calls himself a "copchaser" and is used to actuallly chase police officers, annoyingly record their action and make sure to insult them while teaching them a lesson about how to do their job. And he calls all that "standing his ground". I am sure police officers can be jerks or even completely criminals, but this guy really seems to be crossing the line of common sense. Source: the YT channel himse…

And why shouldn't they? Police departments and city officials across the US routinely lie, obsfucate and remove any sense of accountability for police officers who commit crimes or make mistakes. Look at the case of the murder of Laquan McDonald in Chicago. The lying and stonewalling is a common occurrence. It's not just a few bad apples, it's a bad system that promotes escalation and grants power without accountabil…

> Being annoying or insulting to governmet employees isn't a crime.

Harassment is a crime, at least in the US.

This applies to everyone, regardless of their employer.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with a machine gun Ugh. I wish reporters would stop embellishing stories like that with words they don't understand. An AR-15 is not in any sense a "machine gun".

Indeed, that's an assault rifle, predecessor to the M16. Only available as semi-automatic for civilian, if not modified. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15_variant I don't know how you American call that, but I'd consider that as war equipment.

"Assault Rifle" is a defined term as well which is basically the same as "machine gun". Both require the weapon to be "select fire" which means it can be set to fire more than one round per trigger pull.

An AR-15 is neither an Assault Rifle nor a Machine Gun.

In actuality, an AR-15 is the same as any other semi-automatic rifle in function. It just looks scarier so it's treated different than others. For example, many states list the AR-15 as an "assault weapon" (made up term with no concrete definition) but don't list the Mini-14. They both fire the same round, accept the same magazines, and have the same rate of fire but the Mini-14 typically has a wooden stock which makes it "less scary" to people.

I hate that I have to be a stickler for defined terms, but on the topic of guns there is so much misinformation out there that us gun people try to correct it whenever we can.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is generally because of the audience here – I know there's a solid international contingency, but the US one is likely biased by privilege and hasn't experienced police corruption/harassment first hand like lots of less privileged people have, so they assume bad cops are an outlier and not part of an institution which props them up. I was definitely one of those people until recently, and it unfortunatel…

Have you watched the linked videos? I have gone on at length about the issues with our militarized police agencies in other threads. We have turned cops into soldiers, and soldiers need an enemy, which fosters an 'us vs them' attitude. It is a major issue (one of several) that certainly needs to be addressed. These 'CopChaser' folks are only looking to antagonize. Rather than improving the situation, they are feeding…

Yep, I agree, going out of one's way to antagonize the police is not helping with making police more transparent or accountable.

I was really just responding to the parent realizing the generally pro-LE attitude, which I do think extends beyond this thread, for the reasons I stated, in part.

I didn't mean it as a way of excusing the OP of the videos.

At the same time, if the OP didn't do anything illegal, they shouldn't have been arrested, even if it's "annoying." If this kind of thing interferes with the police, there should be some legal precedent set before you get thrown in jail for it (maybe there is, if so, hooray!)

edit: the shade of your text is getting lighter, to be clear – I upvoted your comment, it was completely reasonable.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#224
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not minor at all, and it's exactly what I was hinting at. If the person is stopped, doesn't die, and can be subject to trial in a court of law, that is a _better_ outcome.

Would you clarify what you understand as alternatives to "aiming to kill" and how they would be effectively different from "aiming to kill"? Edit: clarified question.

They aren't different at all from "aiming to stop", but the difference from "aiming to kill" is enormous. For example, aiming at the leg can be just as effective as aiming at the heart.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it probably looked like a gun from a distance. The police were in the neighborhood confronting somebody with a machine gun - not smart to take an action that looks like pointing a gun in a type of situation where one side has decided they need machine guns . It's not to excuse the behavior of the police..., but if you're pointing something at the police from across the street, it's hard to see the profile…

> with a machine gun Ugh. I wish reporters would stop embellishing stories like that with words they don't understand. An AR-15 is not in any sense a "machine gun".

Do you have a reference for knowing the firearm was an AR-15? The original CBS Sacramento article[0] (which the above Ars Technica story references), a neighbor was reported as "firing up to 100 machine gun rounds at a home across the street". From this alone, it's pretty ambiguous as to the firearm involved. Granted, often journalists all-to-often misreport "automatic" vs "semi-automatic" and "machine gun" and "assault rifle", so that may be what happened here as well.

[0]: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/09/11/bystander-with-cel...

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#226

Filming police isn't against the law in the US, so that wasn't the charge as the clickbait title states. If the guy wanted to be forthright he could have listed the complaint(s) that are on his summons instead of making up a different scenario. This guy's obviously looking for trouble; filiming police for no good reason; getting himself arrested for no good reason; then going online and being deceptive about it to ge…

He did. He says it was disorderly conduct, and that it will likely be changed anyway. The whole point is that the disorderly conduct charge was "trumped up" because he was filming them. I don't really see the title as click bait at all. I'm not saying we're hearing the whole story here, either, but I think it's a little extreme to call this click bait. And if it bothers you so much, why didn't you explain the charges…

> it's a little extreme to call this click bait

Headline: CEO of ThinkPenguin is arrested for filming police

Reality: CEO of ThinkPenguin is arrested for disorderly conduct

It's like saying Al Capone was arrested for having too much money. I mean, I guess. In a manner of speaking.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking time to raise level of certainty will, with high probability, give the other guy time to shoot you. This is one untypical case that makes the news, so you're thinking about optimizing decision making for this case; all the cases where police actually get shot don't.

If soldiers can do it in combat zones, LEO can do it in our city streets.

[deleted]

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why shouldn't they? Police departments and city officials across the US routinely lie, obsfucate and remove any sense of accountability for police officers who commit crimes or make mistakes. Look at the case of the murder of Laquan McDonald in Chicago. The lying and stonewalling is a common occurrence. It's not just a few bad apples, it's a bad system that promotes escalation and grants power without accountabil…

>>Being annoying or insulting to governmet employees isn't a crime. Sure, but distracting and harassing law enforcement officers while they are trying to do their job can be grounds for obstruction of justice. It's one thing to record them from a distance, another thing to constantly hurl insults and condescending remarks. Don't get me wrong, the police in America have serious problems. But this guy seems to be appro…

There seems to be some confusion. Nobody is antagonistic as its the officers who are confronting the correspondents (Chris, JP, etc). Chris crossed the street and was on a sidewalk between an east and west bound lane of traffic. New Hampshire does not require the use of crosswalks and he was not in a motor vehicle so the other requests to back up or otherwise get out of the street were legally invalid and intended to confuse. There is also no requirement for individuals to carry ID in New Hampshire. He was a pedestrian, and there were no cars nearby. You can be ordered to provide your name under certain circumstances. This is not what was requested and the officer only indicated he had given an order after the arrest thereby nullifying any claim Chris was violating a police order.

Chris who is the CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc does not yell insults or similar at police. The videos where you are seeing insults and similar are from JP. JP reacts in a militaristic style which can come off badly from a public relations stand point at times with the masses and even cause confusion as to his political affiliations (that is he is not republican, conservative, etc, he is pro-freedom). For example he is not homophobic, but does yell such insults when illegally confronted by police for recording, in part due to his age, background, and upbringing, but he's not actually a bigoted individual, and has friends who are gay- including ones which he works with as part of New England Cop Chasers.

Chris tends to remain silent during interactions with police up to the point where an officer comes to him and begins an interaction. Unless there is no incident that is and its merely a friendly interaction with police (going up to a police car to find out what the officer is up to).

Chris also does not interact with police as a general rule particularly when they are being the aggressor, but remaining silent can be difficult, particularly when you have to inform officers of things like ones rights in order maintain those rights. For example if you do not invoke your right to remain silent they can take that as consent to being questioned. Chris prefers to remain silent or otherwise invoke his right to remain silent. Chris will stand his ground however and ignore illegal orders or requests- which are generally actually just requests implied to be orders. An officer will say things like "I'm going to have to ask to search you". That's not an order. It's a request for your consent to be searched. If you do not object they can take it as you consenting to a search. You can refuse, but they will get angry and start yelling. They do this to intimidate you.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#229
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And why shouldn't they? Because one person (cop or not, doesn't matter) breaking the law over here doesn't in any way justify unreasonable harassment of another person (cop or not) over there? Let me put it another way, how is this behavior intended to improve policing in America, and do you think it has a chance of doing so?

It improves policing because now police know that they will always be watched. And any excessive force or mistake that they engage in will be trending on YouTube in under an hour. So you better be damn careful.

> And any excessive force or mistake that they engage in will be trending on YouTube in under an hour. So you better be damn careful.

And what's the best outcome, huh? They get out on temporary administrative leave? Ha. Go ahead and record the police. They don't care. We on HN don't care. And you won't care after a week.

Re: CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc arrested for filming police

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that was a lie - it was rounds fired from a rifle, not a 'machine gun', and that's STILL a pretty flimsy excuse.

Tell me you've been in a gunfight before and I'll accept you as a subject matter expert in quantifying what is "flimsy" or is not a "flimsy" excuse is when it comes to shooting or not shooting.

Same goes for you I guess! Showing up in milspec combat armor because of someone popping off a .22 or something and then killing a dude with a camera seems pretty unprofessional of a paramilitary org like modern US police. I don't know what actually went down, but there are a lot of ways to respond to that kind of call without killing some random citizen, and that's what makes it flimsy - there was no gunfight. There was a guy with a camera.
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