Priceless...

Cop seeing you pull up to an accident and not saying anything... Free
Sitting in the spot for 5 minutes without the police saying anything... Free
Getting out of the car and getting camera out, now to only have the police man demand you move back behind his car... Free
Getting into a shouting match with said cop... Free
Finally not really caring and moving to where the cop told me to... -1 cool point
Heckling the cop and yelling at him, demanding he moves the lookie-loos... +1 cool point
Cop finally getting annoyed with me, and goes up to his supervisor who orders him to allow me to move back where I was... Free
Taunting the cop until he actually said 'Yes, back where you were in the beginning.'... Free
Having another cop call that cop an asshole... Priceless.

Sometimes the payoff can outweigh you pussying out and complying with an illegal order from the police. For the record, I was going to move back to where I was once that cop left anyway, but this was much funnier. And no, I didn't roll on it because I am not going to roll on me disobeying my own advice not to get mouthy with the police. The funniest part I think was when he first started yelling at me, I yelled back "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" and continued about getting my gear out.

Who says police oppression can't be fun?

Trivia: What's Wrong With This?

Incident: Two officers shot, one suspect dead, one very complicated story. All stations respond to the scene, two stations hold over crews and respond to the hospital.

Police Reaction: Sheriff holds a press conference at the hospital, whre most of the media is not, and does not tell anyone.

Result: Two stations that held over their nightside crews get sound with the sheriff, two other stations that have AM crews coming in early, but haven't arrived yet miss it.

Continuation: Police department says that they will not give any more interviews, PIO says it's not his job to rush out and tell the media the sheriff is giving sound at a different location, PIO goes home. Two stations forced to go on air with unconfirmed witness statements.

End Result: ewink REALLY FUCKING PISSED!

So am I the only one who thought it's slightly bull-shit for the police to have screwed us over like this? In fact, the PIO that was at the scene said to me "When we're at an active crime scene like this, I don't have the time to run out and tell you every little detail." When questioned why he did not tell us the sheriff was at the hospital.

Last time I checked, that was the only purpose of the PIO at a crime scene. To funnel us information.

Whatever.

Sgt. Wholley from Traffic who I do my live shot with on Wednesdays is lucky I don't consider him METRO, other wise he'd be in for an earful.

Breaking News Outta Cleveland!

WKYC photojournalist Craig Roberson was attacked by the Cleveland police department while doing a story where he was invited into a mall. The officer pictured on the left ((thanks WKYC for the hotlink!)) who looks a lot like the janitor from Scrubs, demanded to know who gave Craig permission to videotape the policemen.

He then forced the camera to the ground, injuring Craig's arm in the process. Here's the story.

As a little bit of education, let me explain the truth of the matter to the Cleveland Police. First off, when in public, no person has any reasonable expectation of privacy; therefore all are subject to being videotaped. Your badge does NOT exempt you from that rule. In fact, the only thing the badge seems to exempt you from is getting arrested, since anyone else who battered someone in a public place would have been arrested.

Cops have it sweet when it comes to this. The cops shoot and kill someone in self defense, they get two days off and any other time off is spent at home. They get the benefit of a doubt. A civilian shoots and kills someone in self defenses, they spend hours being grilled by homicide detectives and must do all in their power to convince them that it really was self defense. If I came up and twisted a cops arm because I didn't like the fact he was looking at me, 10 other cops would arrive to beat me to within an inch of my life. But a cop can do it to me, and if I even think of fighting back, I would again be beaten senseless.

Anyway, the point of the matter is just leave the media alone and they will leave YOU alone. In fact it looks like Craig's story was actually in CPD's favor! Way to ruin the story, you ignorant asshat.

ABC News7 Photog Assaulted By Police

Story here.

Cop thinks it's okay for him to shove ABC7 News Photog Randy Davis, but when Randy shoves back, the cops pounce him. It appears that CHP is the only one there with some brains, but of course they don't get involved in the inital assault, only when the Golden Gate District Officer is shoved back.

For the record, the way Randy reacted was understandable, but it's best not to do that. Cooler heads always prevail. And when I say prevail, I mean take home a big check courtesy of the local police department.

I look forward to seeing this 'police officer' charged with aggravated assault.

((Photo hotlinked from SFGate.com))