By Carlos Miller
On the night of my arrest, I had been standing inside a construction zone in Miami that was open for pedestrian traffic but closed for automobile traffic.
I took a few photos of police officers conducting a traffic investigation about 20 yards away when one of the officers asked if she could help me.
I identified myself as a journalist and told her I was taking photos for an article.
The Miami police officer told me I needed to keep moving as this was a “private matter.”
I told her this was a “public street.”
And thus began the incident that would land me in jail for 16 hours on nine criminal charges ranging from disorderly conduct to obstruction of traffic.
But the only offense I committed that night is not even listed in the Florida statutes.
That offense is contempt of cop.
Although contempt of cop is not found in any U.S. law books, it is informally used among many officers when a civilian questions an officer’s authority or asserts their Constitutional rights.
And it has landed thousands of people in jail who have not broken any laws.
Most recently it was used to arrest two TV reporters in El Paso in an incident caught on video.
And that’s according to a former El Paso Assistant Police Chief.
George DeAngelis, who now teaches criminal justice after having spent 28 years as a police officer, said it was evident that Sgt. Raul Ramirez had allowed his emotions to take over when he hopped over the fence, according to the Newspaper Tree, an El Paso online newspaper.
“People go to jail in contempt-of-cop situations more than any reason nationally,” DeAngelis said. “You could see it in the video. The situation became more personal between the officer and the reporter than the overriding issues of public safety.
“You can see it, and you and hear it in the language of the officer when he said, ‘I gave you an order.’ That’s what contempt means: ‘How dare you not obey my order.’ It’s personal. You’re challenging the officer’s authority. It has nothing to do at that point with the overall safety of the scene. That’s why you see him reacting emotionally rather than rationally.”
“You have to remember, he’s a supervisor,” DeAngelis said of Ramirez. “He should be directing that scene. But you can see he’s climbing the fence. His body language is very aggressive. He feels his authority is being challenged. He has one thing on his mind: ‘I’m going to show you who’s in charge here.’ All sense of reasonableness has evaporated.”
A 2002 Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial said the phenomenon occurs when citizens understand and assert their rights.
Mr. Wright’s crime was indicating that he knew the law and his rights. But many officers don’t seem to like citizens who know and assert their rights. In this case, Mr. Wright reports that his two interrogators responded, “You’re giving us lip? OK, you’re under arrest.”
The real offense here, clearly, was “Contempt of Cop.”
And here is an excerpt from a 1998 Washington Post article about the phenomenon.
Klotz, who frequently testifies against police departments as an expert witness in brutality cases, said officers may regard a citizen’s questions or refusal to fully cooperate as an offense known informally among police as “contempt of cop” – a sign of disrespect that could escalate into trouble.
The El Paso reporters were released within an hour after a commander determined there was not enough probable cause to make the arrest stick. But that was only because the entire incident was caught on video.
In my case, I was slapped with five counts of refusing a lawful order, which just goes to show you how emotional these cops had become. Those five charges were later reduced to a single charge as the State Attorney’s Office prepared my case for trial.
And the jury ended up acquitting me of that charge as well as the disorderly conduct charge, even though they convicted me of resisting arrest without violence, which I am appealing.
One of the most notorious contempt of cop cases to make headlines was last year’s arrest of an Albuquerque TV news videographer. Because that incident was caught on video, charges were dropped against the videographer and the cop was terminated.
That incident also prompted Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz to issue a new policy stating that officers were not to arrest people for “refusing to obey” unless that person was already being arrested for another crime or physically keeping the officer from carrying out his duties.
Defense attorneys derisively call the refusing to obey charge “contempt of cop” and claim that APD routinely violates residents’ First Amendment rights when they use it.
Civilians are not the only ones to fall victim to contempt of cop.
Earlier this month, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris ordered a raid on the house of one of his officers after that officer had questioned certain crime lab blunders and was suspected of leaking information to a Phoenix blogger whose house was also raided.
And last year, a Louisiana police chief – who is also a convicted felon – had a former police officer arrested after he sent an email to a local newspaper asking why they had not reported on the chief’s alleged misconducts.
Even DeAngelis, who was once the second highest ranked officers in the El Paso Police Department, appears to have fallen victim himself.
DeAngelis, who was the No. 2 officer in the El Paso Police Department and left the force in 2002 in the furor that erupted after he lodged a complaint against then-Chief Carlos Leon, said the department had such a system in place.
So how can we expect cops to respect our First Amendment rights when they are retaliated against for expressing their own First Amendment rights?
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
The First Amendment does not grant you the right to break the law whenever you feel like it. The First Amendment does not grant you the right to ignore a police officer. The First Amendment does not grant you the right to overrule the police officer because you don’t like what he or she is saying.
The El Paso reporter was clearly breaking the law; he stopped in an emergency lane and was standing in an emergency lane. He continued to break the law, then continued to ignore the police officer. His arrest was valid and lawful.
If you insist on acting like an entitled brat, if you insist on wrapping yourself in ignorance of the Constitution, you will be arrested for failing to obey a police officer’s lawful order. You will then learn the hard and expensive way that stupidity is no defense.
The First Amendment exists to protect speech, not ignorant brats who can’t behave themselves, not ignorant brats who have emotional problems with authority and want to act like spoiled children and get their way.
You cheapen the argument of every person with a legitimate Free Speech claim when you act like a brat and then throw a temper tantrum because a police officer refuses to wipe your nose and kiss your ass.
18 USC 242 prohibits the use of governmental authority to deprive someone of their statutory, civil or constitutional rights. If an officer issues an order the officer lacks authority to issue, that violates the law, and opens the officer up to outright arrest for a federal crime, why is it illegal to disobey the order?
If an officer ordered someone to commit a felony, would it be a crime to refuse to obey?
The First Amendment does not grant you the right to break the law whenever you feel like it.
Valid.
The First Amendment does not grant you the right to ignore a police officer. The First Amendment does not grant you the right to overrule the police officer because you don’t like what he or she is saying.
The first amendment does not cover that area of the law. but it is not illegal to disobey an unlawful order from a police officer.
He wasn’t arrested for standing in an emergency lane, several others had already parked in the same area, and the reporter was just doing his job, interviewing witnesses. Why weren’t the rest of the people without cameras arrested?
Last time I checked, the ignorant brat with an emotional problem was the officer who unlawfully ordered a reporter to turn off a camera, and then jumped over the fence to arrest them.
It’s interesting to note that many people have questioned why the officer was so terribly upset at the presence of a news camera.
Many people have questioned why the officer was defended by name even before any news reports named him.
Many people have questioned why the officer singled out the people capable of creating a permanent record of the incident when other civilians were allowed to gather and mill about well before the news cameras even arrived.
Many people have questioned why people in military uniforms were involved in the truck tipping over.
Many people have questioned.
respect my authoritah!!
“Deal with it”
It appears you are an officer, so welcome to the site and the discussion.
Question, do you believe that any command given by an officer is a “Lawful Order”?
I understand that the reporter and the video photographer were both cut lose within minutes of arriving at the police station without charges ever being filed so it does not appear that El Paso police agree with you that the the reporter was breaking the law. This would then mean that the orders of the Sgt to “get in your truck and move” and “get in your truck and leave” had no lawful backing to them. If there is no law backing them how can such orders be considered “Lawful Orders”?
Not only did the Commander not believe there was enough probable cause for the arrest, the police chief did not as well.
And neither did the former assistant chief from the same department.
And how often do you see cops not supporting other cops? That rarely happens.
This whole country is one giant Stanford Prison Experiment.
http://www.prisonexp.org/
So… When an officer on duty tells me to “get in the kitchen and make me a sammich!” there is a possibility this is not a ‘lawful order’?
I mean, he is wearing a badge and everything a LEO says must be obeyed, correct?
The Law’n'Order brat said: “The El Paso reporter was clearly breaking the law…”
Clearly he was NOT breaking the law, as both reporters were NOT charged.
But yes, lots of us are preparing to DEAL WITH YOU in this sovietesque Stanford Prison Experiment of a nation.
http://SipseyStreetIrregulars.blogspot.com
What a month!!!
Oakland almost hires private guards to supplement police:
http://tinyurl.com/cqglgo
Do private guards have any more respect for the Constitution than trained police do?
Video is released of a cop brutalizing a deaf man in Fort Worth:
http://tinyurl.com/cz3×3f
The reporter and cameraman are arrested in El Paso:
http://tinyurl.com/dyzeod
An autistic 16-year-old is clubbed by cops for running away from them into his parent’s restaurant:
http://tinyurl.com/ddqcjw
http://tinyurl.com/ccjz6g
I’m actually hesitant to take my camera out and shoot. Maybe if it had a gun built into it and an emergency shutter button, I wouldn’t mind.
Watch this scary video, whose production is funded by DHS, but is being produced in various locales:
http://tinyurl.com/da6rtu
http://www.preparemetrokc.org/
The video trains citizens to watch out for and report anyone who seems “out of the ordinary”, and implies that it applies to photographers.
Press Club event will address Darren Hunt incident
Carlos Miller, I wish I could be your correspondent at this event, but I’ll be traveling.
About the questions about the military being there, El Paso is home to Ft Bliss. The soldiers were passersby who saw the wreck and stopped to help. Not that this fact will stop the silly conspiracy theories from spreading.
Simon
Only way that’s a lawful order is if you have a signed marriage license between the LEO and yourself. And even then I am not sure just how far that whole “Cherish and Obey” thing would go for you.
One of these fine days, Officer Badgethug is going to get himself shot.
Just a matter of time before someone decides it’s time to fight back.
If you don’t respect the uniform and what it stands for, Deal With It, and asserting that any order from a uniform is lawful simply because the person issuing that order is wearing one, you don’t get to complain when someone decides to treat that uniforn with the same contempt with which you hold it.
There’s a difference between a criminal and a citizen, something which you and many of your colleagues seem to have forgotten.
Carlos, despite our differences on politics this blog is great public service. I was going to drop you a note to notify you about this vid but you obviously had already seen it.
Keep up the good work.
“If you insist on acting like an entitled brat, …”
One of these days, the worm is going to turn, and people are just going to haul-off and start shooting you sonsofbitches on sight.
Pay heed, son.
Comtempt of cop or abuse of authority ,
it make no difference at the end the Cops loose when you get peoples like in Oakland and Philadelphia that go crazy with heavy gun .
Sadly most Cop don’t understand when they push people like that and it is broadcasted all over some nut case will habve a field day and that is really dad.
Photographers and reporters aren’t the only ones who are victims of “contempt of cop”. Here’s a story about a couple of bicyclists who fell victim to it too. http://bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-3-583-19000-1-P,00.html
Kylie,
Thanks for posting that story. It reads just like what happens to photographers. I used to ride a bike a lot. Never had that problem with a cop while on a bike, thank gawd.
I was once a cop (more years than I like) and worked with an officer like this sgt. One night he tried it on the wrong man. This man stuck a 357 in his gut and blew his spine and half his guts all over the wall behind him. Mr. Beck is dead on.
And Peter. This is one of the first things you are supposed to learn in the academy, you do not push people around, it will come back on you. But some just do not get it and let there ego over ride there brains.
Hi Roger,
Thanks for joining in. This is the first posting I’ve noticed from you. Hope you enjoy your stay.
I have to agree with your statement about not getting it and letting the ego over ride. That is a dangerous situation for all.
Well,l I do post every now and then. I find the comments here to be enlightening.
Note to Roger: You said, “I do post every now and then. I find the comments here to be enlightening.”
At the very least, the comments are entertaining. If you’ve visited competing sites, you’re already aware that some of those sites are tedious.
For those of you who support the cop, I suggest you pack up and get the hell out of America and move to a country like Iran where you belong!
You obviously hate freedom! You are no better than Al Qaida!
http://www.newspapertree.com/news/3778-cop-who-arrested-kvia-s-news-team-on-i-10-demoted
Good News: Ramirez has been demoted.
Bad News: It wasn’t for arresting the tv crew, but for something that happened in November.
I guess it might be 6 months before we find out if he gets disciplined for this incident.
JOe // May 13, 2009 at 12:14 PM
JOe I suggest you leave and the quicker the better. You are pitiful.
Joe , kind of agree with you , I find it funny that posting from Texas Republic a Mexican State now being taken over by the Mexican without ever having to shoot a bullet , the only invasion 100% successfull of our days and we are even paying them to do so………………