On the evening of his arrest, at around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, Father Manship walked into My Country Store, a convenience store in East Haven run by Ecuadorians. Inside, the police were removing over 60 expired license plates that had been hung as decorations in the store. The license plates were government property, the officers had said, and they were confiscating them.Holy crap...round these Nazis up and prosecute the lot of them.
Manship entered the shop, took out a digital camera, and began videotaping the East Haven police officers who were removing license plates from a wall in the rear of the store.
The officers immediately ordered Manship to stop videotaping, seized his camera and put him under arrest, according to Manship. Within minutes of his arrival, everyone in the store fell silent as Father Manship was led out in handcuffs. He was charged with interfering with a police officer and creating a public disturbance.
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After the police arrested the priest, they noticed that the store was equipped with security cameras. Elio Cruz, a leader in New Haven’s Virgen Del Cisne Ecuadorian community, was in the store that night. “When [the police officers] realized there was videotaping from My Country Store, they went crazy,” Cruz recalled later. “They said it was illegal and they tried to grab the computer.”
Sunday, March 08, 2009
What's wrong with the East Haven, CT police?
My brother Chuck put up this disturbing item from the New Haven Independent. It seem the East Haven, Connecticut police department have a bit too much time on their hands.
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5 comments:
Sounds like tough, little men who will fit in well in the Brave New World of our current leadership's agenda.
I certainly hope someone with a license to practice law in the state desides to take this case and help these 'officers' remember who they work for.
Agreed. I'm hoping they come down on these cops (or entire PD) hard.
It's my understanding that
videotaping public police activity is not illegal although they can ask you to stay a certain distance away from their activities.
Grabbing the store's surveillance camera is inexplicable.
The videotape in question will be released Thursday, 3/12. It will be interesting to see what's on it.
One word in defense of the town, because it comes under fire often and surely will again: New Haven is not really a great place to live (violence, crime, filthy air and super-high taxes), so the folks in West Haven and East Haven, both of which get serious bleedover of garbage from New Haven, are to an extent justified in being worried about their respective towns becoming like New Haven.
Al: Yes, I'm from Connecticut originally, and I'm familiar with New Haven. My usual instinct is to side with the cops, but this sounds a bit over the top.
I look forward to the video.
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