Cop Threatens Charges If Man 'Posts Video On YouTube,' Man Posts Video On YouTube

"If I See You Post This On YouTube, I'll Find A Way For The D.A.'s Office To Arrest You"
Chris | InformationLiberation
Dec. 25, 2014

A camera-shy New York State trooper threatened to "find a way" to arrest a man if he posted video of the officer conducting a routine traffic stop to YouTube.

Predictably, the video was uploaded to YouTube earlier this week.

The video starts with driver John Houghtaling sitting in his car waiting for the cop to approach.

When the officer arrives, he politely asks the cop, "how's it going?"

"Put the phone down," Trooper Rosenblatt barks.

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

After the trooper asks for his license and registration, Houghtaling complies as he is legally required to do so during a traffic stop, but he does not stop filming despite the officer's threats, as recording police is perfectly legal.

The officer then asks Houghtaling if he "was the same one who thought it was a good idea to come to my station and videotape us for some reason?"

Houghtaling asks if he's "legally obligated to respond" to his question.

“How about if I see you post this on YouTube, I’ll find a way for the D.A.s office to arrest you,” the hotheaded Rosenblatt responds.

The squabbling goes back and forth, with the officer showing zero professionalism and doing everything he can to create a conflict where there is none.

In the description to the video Houghtaling says the "real reason for [his] being pulled over was the fact that [he's] been known by their organization to film all of [his] interactions with police," which seems to be true as the officer asked if he "was the same one who thought it was a good idea to come to my station and videotape us."

Watch the video:

The video eventually cuts off with the trooper saying he'll "be back with him in a minute," he was probably just checking for outstanding warrants or working to write up a ticket for his loud exhaust, there's no details what happens after, [UPDATED BELOW, Houghtaling says the officer reached into his car and physically knocked his phone out of his hands before he could start recording again, then he handed him a ticket for his loud muffler] but the important part of the interaction is where the officer threatens to "find a way" to arrest this man simply because he doesn't like being filmed.

Such "finding a way" has unfortunately become the norm in the New America™.

I'm reminded of a quote from Atlas Shrugged:

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

The US government has turned every petty infraction into an arrestable offense, giving police and prosecutors total leeway to charge anyone with anything for any reason, and they face no repercussions for filing such false charges. Meanwhile, the victims they pile charges against must spend their entire life savings to defend themselves from the state in the state's own courts, with the entire system rigged against them.

Other cops have been caught doing the same as this officer, though most are not so brazen as to openly admit they'll seek retaliation while actively being filmed. In a particularly inflammatory (and entertaining) case from 2007, a man secretly recorded a cop threatening to manufacture a litany of charges for "getting smart with him" by asking what he did wrong. The officer, Sgt James Kuehnlein of the St. George police in Missouri, was filmed making the threats by the victim's own dash-cam which he installed for safety reasons.

“You wanna go to f*****g jail for some reason I come up with?" Kuehnlein threatened to a young Brett Darrow.

"You wanna try me boy?”

“Try and talk back to me again, I bet I could say you resisted arrest, or something!”

Watch a story on the hilarious and disturbing incident below:

Kuehnlein was later fired over the incident, but the neighboring Velda City police department liked what they saw and hired him right up. After he was accused, and found guilty of domestic abuse in 2011 for beating his girlfriend and pulling a chunk of her hair out, the Velda City police were forced to fire him as well.

For the average pleb, filing false charges is considered a felony for which serious jail time may result, for our rulers, filing false charges is a matter of routine.

With this latest video, considering it was just posted to YouTube and has yet to go viral, we will have to wait and see if the cop makes good on his threats.

Update: John Houghtaling weighed in on what happened after the video cut off.

"Hello, everyone. My name is John Houghtaling, obviously the person in the video. I want to thank everyone who has commented and shared this story. Here is what happened after he came back to the car: Trooper Rosenblatt approached my vehicle as I still had my phone in my hand. When i went to hit the record button, he used his hand/fingers to reach in my car knock my phone down. I was terrified that this man was going to take me out of the car and assault me. After he knocked my phone out of my hand, he dropped a muffler ticket into my car and left the scene. Three days later I received three more tickets in the mail. One for using my phone while driving, one for littering (which I agree was wrong), and one for having an air freshener on my mirror. "

If the cop reached into his car and knocked his phone out of his hands that's assault.

HT: Carlos Miller
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Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.