With the growth of video, it’s become undeniable that police excess, both large and small, is a sadly regular occurrence.  But that doesn’t mean that citizen’s are behaving well either, and indeed, as this video, via Turley , demonstrates, sometimes the person taking the video behaves so poorly that it’s nearly impossible to feel much sympathy.

Now, a video has been released of a Jonesboro, Arkansas man who arrested after filming police conduct a search of a neighbor’s vehicle and body. The video was taken last year.

The man is heard yelling “Nazis” and accusing the police of violating the 4th Amendment.

Police officers then confront the man for calling them Nazis and demand his identification. They then threaten him with a variety of possible charges from disturbing the peace to disorderly conduct to obstruction. Since when is it a crime to swear at officers?

Of course, it’s not a crime to call police officers names, or curse at them, particularly when the loudmouth is doing so from his own front yard.  And yet, it seems abundantly clear that the name-caller was looking for a fight, whether deliberately trying to incite the situation or merely jumping the gun.

The problem with such videos is that they test our resolve by using the worst idiot, the one who makes us cringe by the inappropriateness, the needlessness, the offensiveness of his conduct to make the point that even jackasses are entitled to their right to be left alone.

Turley compares this video with that  taken by Emily Goode from her front lawn of a nighttime car stop in front of her house, though the behavior of the two could not be more different.  While the police have no greater cause here to believe that any crime has or will be committed, it appears that the officer in this video wasn’t reacting to the fact that he was being taped, but rather that the man, Matt Harden , called him “nazi” and “SS.” 

Hard as it may be for some to appreciate, people are allowed to be jackasses.  Harder still, people are allowed to say mean, bad, offensive things to cops.  No, it doesn’t make them sympathetic actors, but rights don’t depend on public approval of the conduct.  Even jackasses are entitled to constitutional rights, and often provide the best test of adherence of the police to constitutional limitations.

After the police entered Harden’s garage, grabbed his camera and found a gun within the garage, he was arrested.  Things became even more interesting :

This case got worse before it got better and Harden’s lawyer, Donn Mixon, filled me in on the details.

After cops entered Harden’s garage without a warrant; after they demanded ID for a non-crime (criticizing a police officer); after they arguably committed a battery of Harden by grabbing his camera; after they arrested him — then they searched his garage and found a handgun. Harden was charged with being a felon in possession of a weapon. Two problems: 1) He has no felony record (despite Jonesboro police efforts to smear him by saying he’d once been mentioned as a potential suspect in a burglary) 2) he has a permit to carry a weapon.

Harden was held 24 hours before police discovered they’d filed an erroneous charge. But the disorderly conduct charge still pended. Finally, the city attorney’s office said they’d drop the charge, in return for a waiver that Harden not sue over his handling. Harden’s no choirboy. But the law couldn’t be clearer. Shouting at a police officer isn’t a trumped-up crime like disorderly conduct or obstructing government operations, not even if you call a cop a Nazi.

For a guy inclined to call police officers “nazis” for doing their job, he responded with somewhat surprising passivity to the unwarranted charges and detention by agreeing to waive any rights he had in exchange for dropping the criminal charges.  Of course, if there was no basis for his arrest, and he has committed no crime, then dismissal of the charges against Harden provided no consideration for his agreement not to sue.  Kinda cowardly on Harden’s part, in contrast to his big mouth before he was arrested.

One of the hardest things for a cop to do, though they are taught this during their training, and are often called upon to exercise sound discretion, is to not lose their cool when someone says something mean or nasty to them.  It doesn’t make the person calling names any less a moron, but it’s just not a crime. 

Of course, that’s one of the points of many of these videos, that police frequently find it impossible to let things go, to ignore name-calling, to recognize that contempt of cop is not a crime.  Even the biggest jerk among us is allowed to be a jerk without fear of arrest or, as is too often the case, a good beating.

Clearly, the police were wrong to approach and arrest Harden.  Equally clearly, Harden is jackass, and in America, people are allowed to be jackasses.  And that’s how rights are tested.