Nothing to do with gay marriage, which was approved by the New York State Legislature in an inexplicable act of sanity and is  now the law in the State of New York.  Twelve inches is the length to which the police in Rochester went to prove conclusively that they cannot be trusted with the authority vested in them.

Emily Goode stood on her front lawn and videotaped an car stop in front of her home.   The video has since become well know, reflecting police over reaction, impropriety and just plain absurdity as an officer explained that he felt threatened by her being “behind him” on her property filming the incident.  The upshot was the driver stopped was let go, while Goode was arrested for obstruction of justice.

What is most disturbing is that the officer is clearly manufacturing a reason to stop her from videotaping and arresting her. They clearly can see that she is not armed and she responds clearly to their statements, including saying that she will step back a foot as demanded by the officers. From the fact of it, it appears an abusive arrest and another case of punishing citizens for filming police — which is not a crime.

After the woman correctly states that she has a right to videotape the arrest. The officer then thinks about it and says “I don’t feel safe with you standing behind me, so I’m going to ask you to go into your house.” The police officer is identified on some sites as Officer Mario Masic.

There seems little point in arguing the merit of laws which, at least arguably, preclude citizens from filming police in the public performance of their “duty” when the reality hits home that this has nothing to do with law, but with police not wanting anyone documenting them.  It gets in the way of their telling a good story.  And so a teary Emily ended up the one taken away in cuffs from her own front lawn.

A public meeting was  held of IndyMedia to discuss the Goode arrest, and the Rochester cops, not satisfied with P.O. Masic’s arrest, decided to show up and as the entertainment. 

The video below is from a Rochester, New York, neighborhood meeting in support of Emily Good, the woman arrested for videotaping a traffic stop from her front yard. So Rochester police sent four squad cars to ticket the cars of meeting attendees who parked more than 12 inches from the curb. Yes, they even brought a ruler.

That’s some staggering vindictiveness, officers.

Staggering?  It seems more along the lines of pathological pettiness to me, the sort of stuff that sufficiently annoys people while alerting others that these are men who can only dream of twelve inches.  No one will hurt, but plenty will have the opportunity to see that our boys in blue are, indeed, just boys.  Boys with guns and power beyond their ability to exercise it with the necessary discretion.

 

One of the ongoing themes of police misconduct is that people will ignore it, excuse it, rationalize it, until it either affects them or becomes so painfully clear that it can no longer be pushed aside.  The original video, aside from Emily Goode’s unfortunately emotional reaction to the abuse of authority by Masic, provides a very clear image of how the cops just make up whatever suits their whims.  The only rule that matters is what they, in their fertile imagination, say.

But that the Rochester police chose to double down by twelve inches takes a fragrantly bad act by Masic and spreads it around, smearing a force, in way that no commentator’s words ever could.  The claim that they received citizen complaints about people parking more than 12 inches from the curb is laughable.

The best part of the video is when the officer pulls out his 12 inch ruler.  Order is restored to Rochester, and a good laugh was had by all.  You see, the entertainment that day was clowns.