“Free speech only goes so far!” an NYPD cop was caught on video saying.
“Your First Amendment ends right here!” he added, in the video uploaded to YouTube.
The video was recorded by Danny Panzella, who is the founder of New York-based police watchdog group Peaceful Streets Project NYC.
The video records a NYPD officer telling the police accountability activist that he would be charged with “disorderly conduct” if he continued recording him.
Panzella was with his three-year old son in front of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Center shopping mall. That’s when he saw a taxi driver being harassed by mall security.
After a few minutes, three police officers showed up and told Panzella to “walk away,” but Panzella refused, saying that his recording was part of his First Amendment rights.
He asserted that he was allowed to “stand right here and videotape.”
“If your son wasn’t here, I’d lock you up in a heartbeat,” the cop can be heard responding. “Your First Amendment ends right here!”
After a crowd gathered – encouraging Panzella to do whatever the cops said, he was issued two summons for “obscene language” and “unreasonable sound.”
The citation was allegedly for Panzella saying “shit” at about 3:20 into the video.
Watch the video below…
“Generally, when I go to court to fight these things, they just dismiss them as soon as soon as I say the words ‘First Amendment’ because a fight over free speech is going to be long and complicated,” he said in response to the charges. (1 image)
