Nevada Cops Arrest Man for Criticizing their Parking before Seizing Cameras from Witnesses

By Carlos Miller
PINAC
Jul. 09, 2013

Law enforcement officers pounced on a man with a camera who was openly criticizing their parking habits outside a Nevada casino before pouncing on another man video recording the first altercation, seizing both cameras as “evidence” before turning to a couple of other witnesses and seizing their cameras as well.

Today, three months later, none of the cameras have been returned, but the man who was arrested has obtained footage from two of the four seized cameras as discovery as he prepares for his trial.

The man, who goes by MrMike Smith on Facebook, said the incident took place April 7 in Stateline, Nevada and involved Douglas County sheriff deputies and South Lake Tahoe police.

He is facing two counts of obstruction and expects to go to trial next month.

You can see his video at the top and will probably agree that he came across very obnoxious, not to mention he would not hold his phone in the horizontal position to record in landscape mode.

But that still didn’t give the cops the right to arrest him and take his camera.

And it gave them even less right to seize cameras from the witnesses, including the one in the video below.

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Carlos Miller runs the website Photography is Not a Crime.