The Scottie Scheffler Arrest (But It's a True Crime Documentary)
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bad? good? this is opinionated? but you shouldn't lose body cam footage
A good PD wouldnt lose their bodycam footage
I eat the cotton candy from my walls
Seems Louisville Police have problems in their department. Especially after the Breonna Taylor incident.
pretty bad. been here 20 years
We really need to start treating police testimony with "missing" body camera footage where such footage should exist like the results of an illegal search - inadmissible in court.
That would require a functional legislative branch.
I actively assume police to be hostile witnesses. I cannot serve of a jury because of this but I truly believe it to be close to reality. You MUST assume cops are lying until proven otherwise.
I absolutely agree!
Maybe even require all police (unless they're undercover) wear cameras. Cameras are not that expensive compared to officer wages.
Privacy issues and data storage costs mean that a lot of police departments instruct cops to only activate their cameras when they have an "interaction" with the public. That way they don't have to pay someone to delete all the footage of innocent bystanders, donuts, and nose-picking. It also means that cops can "forget" to activate their camera, or in this case "too busy chasing suspected serial cannibal" is probably the excuse.
Lying on a police report should be a felony for any officer.
Even if they never serve a day in jail/prison, the felony will prevent them from ever serving in law enforcement again.
Excellent idea!
Absolutely.
Agreed. It would, however, mean that millions of police officers would be fired in just a few weeks.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 There are only 700k law enforcement officers in the US total. I agree that this would cause a large percentage to be fired and we will probably need to increase their salaries to attract a higher caliber of applicant. I am all for it.
As of 2022 there are a little over 700k full-time law enforcement officers in general so millions of cops wouldn't be fired in just a few weeks or even years. Also, I doubt most would be fired since as soon as cops were made aware of it being serious most who would otherwise have been fired for it would quit before getting caught.
We could actually take that opportunity to downsize police departments, increase funds for non-police crime prevention/reduction, and even increase salaries for cops who do their job, which would attract higher quality workers.
Love how we have a profession that lies so much that we need to wear cameras on the job and even then they don't even do that and do get any consequences other than a stern talking to
They only have to wear cameras during PRE-PLANNED arrests and executing search warrants, and even then it varies by jurisdiction if that is actually a requirement.
with a gun. Don't forget they have a gun.
@@ladygrndr9424 Laws and procedures can be wrong. Just because they only need to be on during pre-planned arrests doesn't mean its "right" for them to be off elsewhere, especially for the not-so-planned arrests which I argue need just as much if not more scrutiny. This case is pretty good demonstration of this.
@@Fenriswaffle yeah that's what I meant, and yeah I feel like an officer you purposely turns off their body cams should be on the Brady list at least
@@ladygrndr9424it depends on the jurisdiction because different places have different requirements. Some places actually make it a requirement when responding to calls, especially certain types of calls.
Just keep in mind; Scottie escaped because he's a popular figure with a scary lawyer he could afford to pay for. Most people the cops lie about don't have that luxury.
any public defender could beat this case. the detective was clearly butt-hurt and got mad. not to say power and money don't matter. but this case isn't a good one because the police officer so clearly distorted the facts
I would disagree as it's possible to get a public defender that is either provided by the court or a personal one. Let's say the person who was arrested wasn't him but an average joe. Only thing that we won't have is the ESPN caster's firsthand report which matters little because the actual evidences viewed were the dash cam on the police vehicle and the pole cam, not someone's eyewitness statement to corroborate that the person misunderstood.
I'd argue that Scottie escaped because there's a bunch of cameras showing that the cop lied his ass off.
@Spyhermit All the cameras worked.....except for the police officer's body cam, which was "not activated" for some unknown reason.
I get laughed at. But if you have the means you should have a dash cam and an in car cam. Everybody lies.
As a resident of Louisville I have to say I am *SO THANKFUL* that the LMPD's true nature was put on full display for the world to see. Now everyone knows what us Louisvillians do, the LMPD is the most inept, corrupt and unprofessional police department in the nation. I am your average middle-aged upper-middle class white guy and _even I_ have seen their horrendous conduct first hand, multiple times. Ask me about them. And remember this, Scottie might have had his charges dropped but I guarantee you there are thousands of other people without the privileges he has with fame and fortune that went through something similar but the charges *weren't* dropped, and their lives were ruined. All for the LMPDs lies. Think about them.
I feel for you. The world got a full display of the thugs who work here for Minneapolis a few years ago.
i feel ya, and i wish i could say that its any better anywhere else in kentucky but i've lived in three other cities here and the only thing that changes is the amount of outrage the police get for being awful.
It says something that I've heard or read dozens of people say that *their* cities police department is the most corrupt and incompetent department in the nation. It's like people are so flabbergasted about the things they witness police do, they can't possibly imagine it happening elsewhere in the country, and yet it does.
@@baronofclubs Okay... the LMPD murdered an EMT by accident, and then tried to cover it up which started massive riots that destroyed our downtown. During the riots the police started, an LMPD officer shot a bunch of news reports with 40mm non-lethal rounds who were covering the riots even though their credentials were clear. After the murder our state AG, Daniel "Uncle Tom" Cameron to us locals, covered for the LMPD and refused to bring charges but when the FBI looked into it they found illegal warrants, the cops had lied and they ended up in federal prison but only because the FBI had to clean up the mess our AG made. The LMPD had a group of cops in uniform throwing slushies from the patrol cars at homeless people while on duty, their "Explorer Scout" program for kids was full of pedos who sexually abused the kids for years. Right now the FBI is currently investigating them in a number of cases in relation to the theft of drugs and money, cops sexually abusing women in traffic stops, and even more I can't remember. Cops with the LMPD got caught extorting women after they hacked into their computers and phones and stole naked pictures of them. The LMPD is getting sued for holding a car of black men hostage at gunpoint while they were trying to eat their breakfast. They also got caught hiding hundreds of thousands of documents related to other sexual abuse cases by LMPD officers in a huge coverup. Even VICE has done multiple documentaries specifically on the LMPD ; there are just endless incidents that are shocking and new ones pop up almost every week. Its absolutely non-stop and has been for years. Just Google "LMPD scandals" and you will see for yourself.
Maybe a better way to sum it up is that law enforcement in this entire country is a complete mess but from what I have seen and heard, if you tallied up all the issues with the LMPD, they would have a rap-sheet that would put the worst criminals or entire criminal organizations to shame. And that is exactly what they are.
Moral of the story, if you are rich and famous, you can expose LMPD fault and misdeed. Everybody else will be charged and prosecuted based solely on the officer's word. Glad to see the officer was reprimanded for not having his bodycam turn ON.
Cop loses his temper, then discovers the perp is a famous person.... But you know he would have caught charges if those reporters weren't interested.
It was dismissed because of no cooperating evidence. and The prosicuter who said that had much evidence then the public.
It's hard to know how much the fame played a part.
@AL-lh2ht a prosecutor saying something doesn't make it true. He's an elected official and that is the reasoning he chose to present at a press conference.
@@AL-lh2ht That should be how it works in all cases...but in WAY TOO MANY the word of a single cop, even when it goes against the laws of physics, is enough to tople the average joe.
Likewise when they're found to have lied...the other "good cops" cover by doing things like not finding body cam footage.
The fact you could be convicted of a felony over 10 seconds that happened on a dark and rainy morning during a confusing situation with a bunch of bright flashing lights, vehicles and people all around over “they said, they said” testimony and someone’s own choice to attach themselves to a moving car if that’s what really happened is wild.
No body cam footage? That's immediately suspicious.
Not really. He was on traffic duty, not making an arrest. The jurisdictions regulate the requirements, but in most cases police are only required to have body cams attached and active in circumstances where they anticipate testifying after the fact, and especially in situations where use of force is anticipated. Traffic cops are most often not even issued body cams because they have their vehicle's dash cam to use as evidence, as they tried to in this case.
In the Department of Justice's guidelines for body-worn cameras, 23.6: "OIG agents shall wear and activate OIG-issued BWCs for the purposes of recording their actions during the tactical portion of enforcement operations where the use of force may reasonably be anticipated, such as an execution of a search warrant, or a pre-planned attempt to serve an arrest warrant or other pre-planned arrest. "
@@ladygrndr9424 Codified laws protecting suspicious activity doesn't make those activities less suspicious. In this country, all police are armed and have the power to detain and arrest, so transparency is essential.
Prolly cause it's not true that a detective working a fatal accident wouldn't have his body camera on 🙃
@@Ben-eo8pddon’t need a gun to direct traffic either but he sure remembered that thing didn’t he? 😂
Who would have thought that a god complex, a gun, and qualified immunity were a bad combination?
I know who! Their names are Samuel Alito, Clarance Thomas, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Niel Gorsuch, Amy Barrett, and John Roberts. They pretend like they’re fair and just arbiters of the law but they’re just as morally bankrupt as those in Capitol Hill
the atheist lol
@cmdraftbrn I don't know, I have a feeling the religious frown upon having a god complex too.
Seeing as Hubirus is a fatal flaw, blasphomy is a major sin, and so on...
@@the_last_ballad So is wearing mixed fabrics. Also, tattoos are a major sin. Everybody just picks and chooses what they follow.
@@themanhimself3 working on the sabbath. adultery, polytheist, idolatry, and on and on and on
It should be a fireable offense to lie on a incident report for a cop.
It should be an arrestable offense. Functionally, it has the same impact as perjery in a court of law and should be punished accordingly.
This is one of those things that if it was actually enforced in America would be functionally the same as abolishing the police because we wouldn't have any left.
Malfeasance is, and he will have desertification and fired
It is a fireable offense. It’s up to the department’s IAD, upper command, and sometimes a civilian review board, to reprimand him accordingly. It is NOT perjury because he did not make such claims under oath, in a courtroom. Also, worth mentioning is that reality can be quite subjective for a person actually experiencing an incident. In this case, I still feel the statements and video differ by far too much, but you should always anticipate a bit of an exaggeration. One bad cop does not make a corrupt department, or profession. Some of the comments in this video are dangerous. I wouldn’t crap on ALL lawyers based on a few bad ones that make newsworthy mistakes.
@@Summer_Soldier_83 You just said out loud that only sometimes somebody other than the cops investigate the cops.
Also, one bad cop does not make a corrupt department, the system we have makes all departments corrupt inherently because of the incentives in place and lack of accountability.
Comments like yours are incredibly dangerous because they breed complacency with a system that currently has 2 million of our fellow citizens waking up every morning inside of concrete boxes. A horrific human rights abuse of massive proportions is perpetuated every day by these officers.
In forensic science, we are taught repeatedly that eye witness testimony is the most unreliable testimony there is.
Meaning it is very important to get corroborating evidence or other physical evidence.
Eye wittness testimony os unreliable in the details of the event, but not regarding the event.
(Just offering some clarity and further info)
@@damenwhelan3236what's the difference between "details of events" and "regarding the event?"
Thanks!
@@Jackolantirn As an idiot layman, I assume it's about specific details. Someone is probably remembering it correctly if they say they saw a fight happen, but they may mistake or misremember who started the fight.
yeah, I have memory issues. if two people are fighting I can reliably say "oh these two were fighting and one punched the other in the face" but if you have to ask me what the details leading up to the fight were it's likely I won't remember @@tornadoawe
As an idiot who is not a layman, here's how I understand it: the key concept is that our brains aren't like a hard drive. When you "save" a memory, it's not an exact copy, it's more like bullet points of your understanding of what happened. Not your perception of what happened, your understanding. That includes perception, but other things too. So right away, things get skewed. If you and I see two people in a shoving match, and you see one person's face, but I can see both, that could definitely affect our understanding of who started the altercation. Or if one of the people is my best friend whom I have always experienced as really laid back and have never seen him fighting, I'd probably see the altercation really differently compared to someone who didn't know him and would likely assume that my friend is the sort of guy who gets into shoving matches. And everything that we learn about an incident afterwards will color our understanding of what happened as well. Memory is unreliable because we aren't aware of all the information that we our using to formulate our assessment. Nobody is.
pretty much infinite body cam footage on youtube shows that a.) cops expect 100% immediate compliance to whatever they say and b.) there is almost no limit to the crazy stuff they say threatens "officer saftey"
Just remember that TH-cam prioritises “shocking” content over mundane content
Just to be clear, this is a slight criticism on using TH-cam as the website to compare what footage shows A and B against what footage doesn’t show A or B
Either way any footage showing A or B is unacceptable
@typemasters2871
I've seen couple videos of cops acting in a very professional manner even if a normal civilian would lose their mind in the same situation. It actually makes me more angry. It means you CAN act in the right way. You HAVE the training. Many cops just don't care because they know they won't suffer any consequences. McDonald's workers have to worry about not escalating a tense situation than police officers
I learned the hard way that cops lie. It's extremely frustrating.
They get away with more than we'll ever know. The whole code of brothers that police have.
Everyone lies. Police aren't immune😅
The problem isn’t that police lie, it’s the fact that everyone else lies about how untruthful they are 😅 Growing up, all I heard from my parents, teachers and other grownups was “Trust the police, they protect us from bad guys.” Another problem is that police sometimes treat everyone like “bad guys” 😂
@@Jason-fm4mycops are held to a higher standard than "everyone"
@@m.streicher8286the issue is that they do not live up to that standard.
Additional point: The cop came in on the blind side per the video, it would have been hard for him to see the cop until he was on top of the car.
If you're going to abuse your police powers, don't do it in front of a car full of reporters.
Or to someone who can afford a good attorney!
21:17 Gillis "was previously suspended for performing 'donuts' with an 'intoxicated civilian' in his police vehicle"
To quote the honorable Judge Chamberlain Haller......."WHAT?"
So these are the police that keep complaining about having a lack of funding......
thats pretty rad tho
I mean, I've done donuts with an intoxicated civillian, but I was niether a police officer nor in a police vehicle. I was, in fact, in said civilian's vehicle.
Do you…do you think he was eating donuts in his car, while doing donuts with his car?
@@Sispants I doubt it. Doing donuts is a lot more intensive than just driving.
@@Sispants Check if he has the achievement, I guess.
This is why all departments should be required to have body cameras at all times.
Practically, that's not possible because the battery wouldn't last a whole shift. But I think a policy of any claims/charges/evidence related to something that would had been caught by body cam if it was turned on per dapartment policy goes against the officer. So no charges and any arrest is considered illegitimate unless it was e.g. per warrant. Would put paid to most of the lying, exaggeration or over charge.
And to not be able to turn it off whenever they feel like it.
All times is challenging to handle logistically, but it should be turned on for any official interaction like a detainment and having it off should be a MAJOR factor against the police for any criminal proceedings against the suspect or any civil/criminal charges against the police. If they don't have a very good reason to have it off, it should be assumed that they were intentionally trying to hide their actions and they should be treated a such by default.
Yeah, they get in less trouble for not having the camera on than they would if their camera caught what they were doing. So, of COURSE they're going to have them off.
@@khicks72 This is why a cop not having a body cam on during an active issue should be a fireable or highly finable offense. Cops have proven that their testimony is worth less than dogshit in court and that nothing they say happens should matter. Either the body cam footage shows what happens, or it didn't happen.
Cop gets a hangnail: "I almost died."
Cop sees a photo of fentanyl *overdoses*
You guys joke but I'm real sad about the black people who got choked to death in both of these factual incidents.
@@johnladuke6475 If you;'re referring to Floyd he wasn't choked to death
I’m a lawyer that used to practice in Louisville. The police here are stupid jerks
A reflection of the people they have to deal with?
@@nannigoat3 Other police officers? Yeah, they have to deal with a lot of those.
💯
@nannigoat3 More like a reflection of whom they protect. We all know police only exsist to protect the intrests (property) of capital owners from the filthy criminal working class.
Falsifying Police reports, on or off the job, should be exempt from qualified immunity
Bodycam off should imo mean that whatever the officer in question says should by default be treated as false.
Bodycam wasnt off, it was completely missing. KY is one of the last places where cops dont have them and they try to keep it that way. Corruption, anyone?
I really feel like the default legal stance for "bodycam/dashcam didn't record/was intentionally obscured" should be that the defense wins any argument that involves testimony from the cop with the faulty recorder. Maybe a judge can exercise personal judgement over edge cases (someone [not a cop] is blocking the camera, device is damaged in a struggle, evidence of an actual defect and not just tape over the camera, etc), but the police have demonstrated that they can't be trusted without oversight (and even with oversight, sometimes).
It used to be, in New York, that you could look up a particular officer's disciplinary record to see if they'd done something like give false testimony, tamper with evidence, or coerce a defendant into giving a confession. A change to state law made those records private, and as a result it's become a lot harder to prove that an officer's testimony might be untrustworthy.
I wonder if the defense attorney can still get that? If not I'd be the judge to either overturn that law or start giving instructions to the jury that without access to the officer's records no judgement about his or her reliability should be made and it can also be inferred that they are just as possibly bent and they should then give no credence to any testimony from the officer.
I'm confused. So NOBODY's body cam was working? This wasn't a solo guy on the side of the road. There were 10 other cops standing around....so the whole department decided they didn't need their body cams that day?
They didn't quite SAY that, but implied it. Could be the PD isn't releasing it.
@@ExestentialCrisis Which is probably why they got the DA to drop the charges in a hurry. If they forced a guy having one of his best seasons to suddenly give up the rest of the season they would never pay off his potential lost winnings if everyone's cams said that yeah their village idiot falsely arrested someone.
The incident was like five seconds long and no one really noticed or pay attention to it until it was done.
also, other cops probably did turn there cam on after the incidet, just not released to the public.
@@AL-lh2ht I work on a few of those "body cam" channels so that's why it stood out to me. Bodycams are on by default, not the other way around. This sort of incident where there are multiple cops around are exactly the kind of thing that if we were making a TH-cam video we would be jumping from cam to cam. And I would be hassling through all the body cam footage in the area to slice it up. Because the most random angle will catch something unique.
Maybe bodycam footage should be uploaded directly and automatically into a cloud maintained by a different agency.
For a channel that often states their goal is to help the audience think like a lawyer, this video has to be the prime example of that so far. Such an excellent way to express how a lawyer might pick apart an eyewitness testimony
" Knowledge that it's a police officer is not an element of the crime. " So what I'm hearing is that I can go to Kentucky and direct traffic and everybody has to follow my instructions because I MIGHT be a cop!
You know that there are people besides cops who are allowed and empowered to direct traffic, right?
@@Leith_Crowther Yes. I also know the logical hole I pointed out in my joke about the procedural determination of guilt in Kentucky law doesn't have any real bearing upon the actions taken by the general public or law enforcement because our courts are a hellscape of egos making personal choices determined by their biases and our compliance with the law has little or no bearing upon whether the system chooses to select us for arbitrary and capricious punishment. :)
@@Leith_Crowther Flaggers aren't technically "directing" traffic.
@@galaxyanimal Yes, they lack authority to "direct" traffic. What they are giving is "suggestions", which anyone has authority to do. The language is important for legal matters.
@@KidarWolf Drivers are still legally required to stop for the stop sign, flaggers just only allow traffic to stop & go, they can't tell them WHERE to go or anything like that, while police can.
This probably sounds like a random non sequitur statement, but this video is great for English Language Learners, roughly ages 15 and older. I'm an ESL teacher. In my classes for intermediate students I focus on advanced everyday vocabulary. I have a set of lessons about memory and perception and I will be adding this video, or parts of it to the lesson.
Prosecutor Spencer ("the Scowl Owl?") speaks clearly with a tempo that is just slightly slower than how fast an average American speaks. As Spencer reviews this incident with Scottie Scheffler and Louisville police, he reuses some words such as "clarify," "conclusion-conclude," "obscure," "attempt," just to name a few. Plus, the manner in which Spencer describes this event is captivating. This Legal Eagle video is great.
What is Prosecutor Spencer "the Scowl Owl's" last name?
I'm assuming Spencer is his last name. I don't know about using this video for ESL. I think this is even well beyond upper intermediate and you'd have to go to C level students
Let me know if it works for you
Acorn falling from a tree and hitting the top of a cop car = a barrage of bullets directed at a man handcuffed and sitting in the back of said police vehicle, while the cop writhes on the ground screaming, "I'm hit!"
Seriously, are they cops or are they professional football (and I mean FOOTball) players?
The same department then executed a black Airman in his apartment for holding a legal firearm. They "fired" that deputy.
While the cop car was parked on train tracks.
None of which hit their target, by the way. A stationary, handcuffed target a few metres away.
Could you imagine if it had been a walnut? The cop would've been calling for the National Guard
We live streamers that stream in public all day everyday with little to no issues. How can so many body camera not work so frequently?
Rhetorical question, obviously it is because the streamer wants the camera to work and the police don't.
The answer I was give was "server space." I would like nothing more than writing a synopsis and referring prosecutors to the video recording.
@@12345....... Except body cams aren't live streaming, they are just recording like a go-pro, they don't need server space to operate.
@@Benu54321 I understand that, but why couldn't I store the video file the same way I saved audio recorded interviews. Much easier to watch tape than reference notes while typing the report. Server space was the answer I received. I call it lazy because prosecutors don't want to watch a two hour video, buy rather plea everything out before trial, or decline prosecution. I was paid either way, but writing several thousand words a day, while responding to calls takes away from efficacy
@@12345....... Um this isn't 1993 anymore. Memory is dirt cheap.
@@PeteOtton right!? I was given that answer, granted it was 15 years ago
Let Scowl Owl know that in golf, a birdie is good, but not as good as an eagle.
He'll just become the Albatross Attorney!
A lawyer that doesn't know anything about golf.... I don't believe him!!!
Ohoho...nice!
Don’t trust police rule #1. And they know that you can beat the time but you can’t beat the ride so even if your charges get dismissed or dropped or you beat it in trial it it makes a huge impact on your life that can take years to recover from if not your whole life.
The American police have made the strongest case possible for not submitting peaceably to their attempts at detaining you. Their constant lies about policing being the most dangerous job are becoming a self fulfilling prophecy as more and more people realize there is no safety in the courts either and submitting to an unlawful detention can destroy your entire life.
Jurors and judges shouldn't automatically trust the police either. They do.
There should be consequences for police who blatantly lie under oath. It almost never gets prosecuted, it just gets treated as spaghetti that didn’t stick to the wall.
Also, police officers’ history of lying under oath should be admissible in future cases.
Major reason these things won’t happen is that the entire system would break down if all lying cops become radioactive in court.
@@keithwilliams88technically this happens. Look up the “Brady List” it’s an official list of police officers who have been deemed untrustworthy. The sad part is it’s really hard to get on the list, so it’s kinda useless.
That's like saying they shouldn't trust expert witnesses, either. Or witnesses, period. Or evidence.
@@thomasbecker9676Except no, because cops regularly lie and frequently have blatant agendas that inform all the answers they give.
Also, yeah, you don't trust witnesses on their own, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. This is why witness testimony is used to supplement other evidence, not as the crux of cases
@thomasbecker9676
It "like" that.. in that if they said that it be the same. But they didn't so ot isn't...
Cops who are documented lying aren't the same as a witness or expert witness or evidence.
Evidence doesn't lie.
Witnesses may be mistaken.
Experts can be discredited with another expert.
That line right near the end about the Louisville Police and professional conduct... chef's kiss. 😘👌
I’m just stuck on him being charged with mischievously soiling police pants beyond repair.
That apparently cost $80?!?! That department is clearly overfunded.
@@asystole_ that's a huge understatement. $231,000,000 proposed for next year's budget for 1000 officers
@@asystole_ not a cop, but I am in a program where we wear similar pants. They are very strong pants, don't stain easily, and have great pockets. They cost us about 75 dollars. 80 dollars for a pair of uniform pants isn't that outrageous, but it is very dissapointing that they were ruined do easily.
It's strange how frequently those police body cameras "just happen to be" turned off whenever there's a strong disagreement between police and other eyewitnesses about what happened during an arrest.
I can appreciate the privacy concerns of having police officers record everything that happens while they're on duty.
But there's got to be a better way to ensure that the body cameras are running, without depending on officers to remember to turn them on when they're going to be needed.
it is technically easy/doable. the question is if it is wanted
What privacy should public servants working in public spaces expect?
You gotta take a leak? Sure, turn the camera off. Otherwise, let it roll.
@@Vohlfied You have no idea both camera battery, storage, or cloud based storage, would be able to handle that.
Nobody ever complains about the violation of privacy when a minimum wage employee working a till is filimed for their entire shift.
@@AL-lh2ht then they should get something better than what they found on ali-express? you can store fairly decent quality 720p video at 2500kbps, or 250KB per second (1mb per 4 seconds) to store a 8 hour shift, you would need about 8gb of storage. Battery wise, a gopro runs for 146 minutes on a 1720mah battery. 8 hours would be 5700 mah, or about 2 cell phone batteries.
neither battery life or local storage are plausible reasons not to just let it run. Long term storage might be, but only if you intend to keep every recording for ages. If you cull the ones where nothing meaningful happened, it's also easily doable.
Disciplined for doing donuts in a parking lot with a drunk civilian. What in the actual hell? And starting a pursuit for nothing? Man is a menace.
Side note: The graphics package was superb made the step-by-step breakdown that much easier to follow.
It’s funny to me that I keep hearing the narrative that not all cops are assholes, and then every other day there’s a story about a cop being an insecure asshole. It’s basically their entire brand.
Media coverage bias. You only hear the stories of cops being assholes because the stories of them doing their jobs the way they should are less newsworthy.
I've known several, and as friends they're not assholes, but they adhere to the thin-blue-line narrative, you know, being the last bastion against anarchy. But then, their entire professional lives are devoted to dealing with people making bad decisions, if not outright and cruel mayhem, so I can see where that comes from.
Legitimately not all cops are assholes. My two interactions with police were mostly positive. However, lots of cops are assholes. There's minimal barrier to entry and the kind of power and prestige that comes with the position attracts some of the worst of humanity in addition to good, honest people. You don't hear about good cops often because "Cop Does his Job Correctly" isn't newsworthy, but "Cop Arrests #1 Golfer for Tripping on Pavement" is.
Don’t be friends with bad cops.
@@JasperJanssen"Don't be friends with cops."
There I fixed it for you. No need for the qualifier.
Police officer trips and suffers , using the medical term, a boo-boo and decides to accuse an ass of dragging him for 10ft. How quaint.
It kind of seems like lying to charge someone with a felony should be, at the very least, an immediate dismissal and a bar to ever serving in law enforcement again. This is no scenario, none, in which someone interprets what can be seen there as "dragged to the ground."
I was in court about a decade ago for criminal mischief. It was alledged that I caused ~$700 worth of property damage. In that state,
Don’t talk to a cop without a lawyer. EVER.
Hell I don't even talk to my cousin who is a cop without my lawyer present lol /s
True. Make the report much shorter
Well, you'll get arrested then, because when a cop pulls you over and refuse to speak to them or give them your license and registration, they can arrest you. So enjoy the waste of time ride to the police station for no good reason.
imagine if this had happened to someone witch fewer resources than a famous athlete. totally frustrating.
Really sucks because as you already know, it DOES. All day, every day, all over the country.
This was the jurisdiction of the Breonna Taylor shooting. IIRC, the police arrested her partner looking to charge him and it was only the fact that he was on the phone to emergency services at the time (and was on tape) that stopped them blaming him for starting the shooting.
One thing I've noticed when I'm being directed by a cop (or a civilian flagger, for that matter) is that seem to expect you to understand what they mean no matter how vague their hand waved directions may be. And when you don't understand via ESP or something, they get mad.
That's something I've appreciated about a lot of the people I've met directing traffic at events I've gone to in the UK. A lot of them have stopped the car, and handed us a leaflet/program about the event and/or venue (often includes a map, very helpful!) and then given verbal directions. This slows down traffic a little, but I think giving them leaflets to hand out like that actually means it encourages the flagger to give clear and understandable directions to traffic.
I do vaguely recall there being a pictorial educational material I saw as a child regarding standardized traffic direction gestures for UK police - if such gestures were standardized in general in all countries, it would help remove some ambiguity (even better if an international standard was agreed upon and set, making it easy to follow hand/flag signals no matter which country you went to).
1. Police account suspiciously not corroborated by evidence, eye witness accounts, etc.
2. Body cams suspiciously not turned on
3. Officer has a history of disciplinary action
Good thing this didn't go to trial. The more suspicious or guilty the cop, the more a jury and judge hang on his every word, evidence be damned. I'm glad the prosecution said no.
How are there a dozen cops and cop cars and only 2 crappy videos of the event? Why in the heck would the Detective "attatch" or "attempt to attatch" himself to a moving car? Seems incredibly stupid to me.
How does one even succeed at attaching themselves to a car?
Incredibly stupid describes Kentucky very well.
Only two THEY ARE WILLING TO RELEASE - which is not the same thing.
Because their budgets went to anything that doesn't hold them accountable.
You must not watch much TH-cam body cam footage.
It's so crazy how unreliable our own minds can be and how unhelpful language can be in expressing our minds.
And how confident we can be to the contrary.
@@Fade2GrayOG Yep. No matter how honest we intend to be, our minds can play some real tricks on us. Recently, I came across a misconfiguration at work, and was trying to track down who did it only to find out to my own surprise it was actually me! I have zero memory of it, but the logs don't lie. Brains are weird.
@@maskydoo7871 uh excuse me sir the correct mantra is BELIEVE ALL WOMEN
My guess is there was a misunderstanding because you know cops always give clear instructions. When the guy proceeded to pull into the golf course the cop took it as a diss to him went to chase after him, tripped, busted his ass and was embarrassed and pissed and took it out on the driver of the car. So what we wind up with is a guy facing criminal charges because the police officer couldn't give clear instructions and isn't coordinated enough to run in the rain!
He should pursue this and hold the entire department very accountable. He doesn't need money
The most wild thing from this story is the credulousness of that ESPN host saying this isn’t representative of most cops. Yes it is. That’s why we have so many of these incidents, like Will Smith said the only difference is we now have so many more of them on camera.
I feel like ESPN told him to say that so they wouldn't get sued for slander by the cops.
Biggest issue I have with all of this is how Sheffler was released within 2 hours yet any normal person would have been in holding for 6-8 hours
A Lesson/Observation/story that I had in the 70s, and has stuck with me to this day: A person had been driving down a residential street, and struck a tree. When talking to a Police Officer they explained that they'd been traveling straight down the road, and the tree came out and hit them. The person wasn't drunk, I don't believe they were under the influence of anything, and they weren't lying. They were honestly just trying to tell the officer what they remembered. They knew, and expressed, it was obviously inaccurate. And since that time I've always questioned, and doubted "memories".
As always thank you so very much for the video.
At least, that's how I remember it
Funny, my dad has a similar story of a tree stepping out in front of him, which we joke about a lot as a family - because obviously once someone said it back to him, he realized how silly what he'd said sounded.
You know, if I'd made as many mistakes as that cop did on his record, I would have probably been fired or something. Weird how he's still a cop, though. 🙃
This is absolutely fascinating look into how people process events and express memories. As a writer always looking to get better at portraying human behavior and a TTRPG Game Master looking to run mystery games, this is invaluable for how people can get things wrong (or just not entirely right) even though they were right there, seeing the whole thing.
Hats off to your editor and the prosecutor, it helps SO much that we have a visual and get oriented before showing footage of what happens. Too many times it's not really explained, so thank you very much!!
I have a suggestion: have at least two cops on scene, if there is no body cam footage of the time, then the cops should be assumed lying. Even if the body cam is obscured, it's fine, but if there is no footage, assume foul play. If only
They had dash cam footage. Why did they need body cams when they were not anticipating an arrest? That is a huge public privacy violation.
@ladygrndr9424 I've seen you on a ton of comments with bad information. They are in public, they don't have the right to privacy there. Otherwise, by your logic all traffic cam tickets are illegal, all pole cameras are illegal, etc.
Furthermore, even if they aren't technically required to use their body cams at all times, they should be. Honestly, they should be required to have it on during their entire shift, except in rare instances such as bathroom breaks.
@@ladygrndr9424 that's not how public privacy violations work. You are objectively wrong.
Agreed. The court system ought to normalise the idea that if there is an interaction with an individual and there is no body cam footage of the interaction, the testimony of the police department should be treated as suspect. There is no excuse nowadays for the police to not have video cameras on when they interact with members of the public if for no other reason than to protect officers from false allegations of misconduct. (edit: a word)
"Staffing issues" make such policing impossible most days. We are minimum staffing most nights. 5 units for about 70 square miles and about 100,000 residents. On overlap days it is possible
Military has the UCMJ. Time for police to have their own uniformed code to hold them to the higher standard they should be held.
Yeah right. Just like the President of the country is held to a higher standard, right?
there are codes of conduct for police officers. however they'll be ignored to "protect their own"
@stargazer7644 Yes, both should be.
@@stargazer7644 Well given that congress refused twice to do the proper and correct thing, I'm not sure where you are going with this rant.
@@PeteOtton Congress has nothing to do with it. Impeachment is a political punishment, not a criminal one. Where I'm going is the fact that ANY average citizen accused of a fraction of what the orange one is accused of would have been rotting in jail for years by now. As President he should be held MORE responsible for his transgressions, not less responsible and allowed to dodge his way around the legal system.
Body cam footage should be mandatory and the refusal to turn over body cam footage should be treated as the perjury that it is!
Kentucky cops are so corrupt, they have fought the bodycams all together. They really dont like video evidence how their “finest” acts.
And obstruction of justice.
I don't think you know what perjury means.
@@stargazer7644 Perjury: "The offense of willfully telling an untruth in a court after having taken an oath or affirmation."
@@stargazer7644 Every one of those forms that I've ever seen has something to the tune of: "I swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the above is a true and complete account ..." and then it gets signed.
I really didn't think I'd finish this video let alone like it but whatever you guys did you did it well. I think you struck gold on this format would like to see more.
Kentucky still fighting bodycams? Yeah, nothing fishy going on there..
1) This is a great case study in misinformation! (Amazing explanations!!! 10/10 content). 2) "Lost" the body cam footage. It's always lost when there is likely to be evidence of police wrongdoing.
Nonexistent footage.
Charge the officer for filing false charges and false arrest. Thrown in kidnapping too since they unlawfully moved him.
Add charges for destroying evidence (no body camera footage).
And Falsifying a police report. And since the crimes happened in succession coming from the proceeding crime, sentence him so that the sentences run consecutively not concurrently.
All of those are great ideas. Unfortunately, there are 2 major roadblocks. The charges would have to be brought by a DA who sees him as a brother-in-arms. And then qualified immunity would mean that he can't be held liable for anything.
I once misunderstood a hand signal from an officer directing traffic and started to turn slowly. His response was swift, loud, and apparently _furious_ - I thought I was getting arrested even though I stopped immediately. Scary situation.
If you think this is some bad police behavior, I think you’d love to make a video on Hughes v Few, the incredibly rare instance the 5th Circuit refused to grant police qualified immunity. It’s wild! And the court’s opinion is BRUTAL!
Oh damn, definitely looking into that
I really appreciate your steady paced, concise speaking. It makes it very easy to understand and absorb.
"it was raining, it was early in the morning and it was dark." was anyone wearing sunglasses?
That would depend on the distance to Chicago.
Nah
It's Sam Vimes favourite time of day/weather though.
@@isapu1948 Yeah but Sam could pinpoint where he was in the city just by the feel of the street through his shoes.
@@PeteOtton
His cardboard bottom shoes that he misses for that reason
I shudder to think if the state of his poor feet 😅
@@isapu1948 I forget which story, but he gave a pair of Sybil's father's boots to a new constable in exchange for one of those cardboard bottomed shoes.
Why didn't the police officer have a body camera? And if he did, why wasn't it on? That should be grounds enough to dismiss the case even if there weren't video evidence from other sources showing the officer to be a liar.
They weren't anticipating an arrest, and so had no legal obligation to wear/activate one, and in fact in the interest of public privacy protection had an obligation to NOT activate a body camera.
if they didn't have one, there's a fair chance it has to do with departmental budgets. data handling, purchasing hundreds or thousands of the bodycams, and the additional potential maintenance costs can be really severe. kinda why defunding pds is a really _really_ bad idea, because it just means worse equipment and training which lowers overall readiness.
@@bluegolisano7768 That's such a disingenuous take. The LMPD just got a MASSIVE budget increase, which defunded several public services in the process, and they're still begging for more money. And yet they keep lying on police reports and pulling stunts like this.
@ladygrndr9424 there is no expectation of privacy in this situation. And even if there was an expectation of privacy the body cam should still be on in case a criminal event happens. Although the charges were ultimately dropped, this situation ended up being a potentially criminal situation. If nothing of note happens during your shift then delete the footage, but the body cam should be on at all times.
@@ladygrndr9424 What department do you work for?
All I'm saying is this detective was on traffic duty... Louisville PD 100% knew he is a screw up.
Excellent video! One of your best. Thanks so much for Scowl Owl's analysis and explanation of witness statements - truly fascinating.
4:28 "There is no cop in America that's like 'Yep, that represents all cops' because it's situations that happens with cops like this that make all other cops look like assholes."
There may be no cop in America who says that, but there's also no cop who denounces another cop, even under the most damning circumstances. Even if only a small minority of cops were corrupt (big if), the "good cops" enable them.
On June 4, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in New York state, police officers from the Buffalo Police Department pushed 75-year-old Martin Gugino during a confrontation in Buffalo's Niagara Square, causing him to fall to the ground which left him bleeding from the ear. Two Buffalo police officers were charged with felony assault in connection with the incident; they pleaded not guilty.
The Buffalo police union, the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, was angered by the suspensions of the two officers, and it retaliated on June 5 by withdrawing its legal fees support for any other Buffalo officers for incidents related to the protests. The police union's president claimed that the suspended officers "were simply following orders" and "simply doing their job" while also saying the victim "did slip". Despite the incident being on video for the world to see (he did not slip, he was assaulted). ALL 57 police officers from the Buffalo Police Department emergency response team resigned from the team, although they did not resign from the department.
This is the most memorable incident to me. They literally said, "It's all of us. We're all like this." I guess this is why people say ACAB.
100% this
As long as there are assholes around that will react with "NoT AlL CoPs!!!!11!", the sentence "All cops are bastards" will stay true
Surprisingly pleased with the way you analyzed the eyewitness accounts and how this story ended without escalation. I need more news stories about misunderstandings that don't end in riots! 😂
It wouldn't be the first time that traffic police either give no, incomplete or confusing instructions during a situation like this.
I agree, i've seen them use bad or incomplete hand / arm gestures or completely refuse to direct traffic. I bet I could do a better job directing traffic then they do.
Very well written in depth video, very interesting to break it down this way! Thank you for educating the public 🙏🫶🩷
Good example of why everyone should have dash cams
Darlington is a fantastic example of what we call the Curse of Knowledge. It’s nearly impossible to remember not knowing something. Our past experiences are often recalled and reinterpreted with the benefit of intervening knowledge that changes our memory or interpretation of the experience.
At this point the presumption should be that any given cop is lying until other evidence supports their statement.
All I can confidently say is that I would be terrified to have Scowl Owl prosecuting a case against me.
When I read about this it seemed a classic Eric Cartman 'Respect mah authoritahh' moment by the officer (s).
12:04 *“I shouldn’t assume anything”*
Bro assumed a lot with his account of how things played out
I really liked spencers breakdown lf this whole thing. Its a good way to learn about these kinds of situations
How can you possibly be expected to know that you are disobeying a lawful order from a traffic officer if you do not know they are a traffic officer? You cannot know what you do not know, so if you do not perceive that they are a traffic officer then you cannot possibly understand that you are disobeying an order from one. To hold people to the standard of 24/7 360 degree recording is insane
and who knows what happened, Scottie might've rolled down his window, said "Hey, I'm a player, look at the car I'm driving, it's an official PGA car" and started to continue on and then piggie gets mad and starts chasing
The fact that there's still no system where any arrest made without body camera footage is immediately thrown out is absolutely disgusting.
We live in a world where the first 30 seconds of a random video in my recommended is a lawyer telling me I can’t trust the police. Nice.
First half is explanation what "Lying like a witness" proverb means.
What really pisses me off is officer arrest news reporter for recording. Which violates first admendment
He was an ESPN sports reporter, and he wasn't recording anything.
I love Scowl Owl's line by line breakdown of an eye witness interview shortly after an incident. It was a great demonstration of how our minds attempt to fill in gaps and draw conclusions without us realizing it's happening. I remember a few years ago during a stressful night at work I got into a verbal altercation with one of my employees. The way I remember it the guy was right in my face screaming obscenities and banging his fist but looking at the camera we were separated by a good 3ft of desk space. I wasn't trying to lie on my report, that's just how I remembered it.
I hope this makes more people realize that cops can and will lie about everything and anything.
I work in traffic management in Louisville. It was a fun morning listening to all this go down over the radios.
“Attempted to attach himself to the car” means what? Jumped on the car? Gabbed the door handle or window jam? Padlocked himself to the bumper? Glued his pants to the rear quarter panel?
I appreciate using this as a lesson for the masses of how unreliable eye witness testimony can be.
The fact that his lawyers aren't pursuing a wrongful arrest makes me wonder if the lesser charges were dropped as a deal to not bring a wrongful arrest case?
As always amazing content and great to see the workings of the law.
I'd love a collab between the LegalEagle team and the Secret Barrister.
PGA news crossing with LegalEagle was not on my bingo card. 🙌😅
Love the detail on the "flaws" of eye witness account. For good content you dont just need any team you need the eagle team
Reckless driving can be applied to almost any traffic infraction. If you go onto a shoulder ever you could probably get a ticket for reckless driving.
“I’m not TRYING to beat up on him” I believe it, cause it looks pretty effortless. 😂😂
Gillis's smirk at the camera says it all, and his spotted record confirms it: He has no business wearing a badge. Kick him out of the force, Louisville, he's making you look really bad.
Dam these lawyers are so sharp! How they dissect the information and then present it clearly is outstanding.
No bodycam footage?!!?
C'mon people, that tells you all you need to know right there.
No wonder the prosecutor dropped the charges so fast. If that had been you or me, we'd be at the mercy of a corrupt law enforcement agency.
I’m reminded of the time a cop directing traffic got annoyed with me because he was both holding up a stop sign and also waving me through and I was so confused as to which I was actually supposed to be following
Lol, fair enough!
The scary part is, this only worked out for him because he's famous enough to make it big news, and has the money to hire a bullbog of a lawyer to defend him. The average civilian is going to get put through the ringer in this situation.
Who could have possibly imagined that a cop would be a massive, gigantic baby about being slightly inconvenienced in any way for seconds.