This actually reminds me of the time when myself and some friends were almost arrested for "stealing a bike." Apparently some guy had a bike stolen from him by a group of kids. Now obviously any group of late teens just looks suspicious, so we get pulled over, names get taken etc, while we're forced to stand in the cold. We clearly didn't have a bike, there were fewer of us than the man reported, and we weren't of a certain demographic which the man, of said demographic, reported took the bike. About thirty minutes into being questioned the man who's bike was stolen pulled up beside the FOUR police cars that had stopped us and told the police that he had chased down the kids who took the bike and got it back. Ten or so minutes later we were on our way, and the eight or so police officers were as well.

The moral of this story is that it takes eight police officers to question a "suspicious looking group" of average teens to find a bike that the owner was able to get back. Interesting.

There's a time when common sense has to override the need to prove something.

Strange, I'm sure some of the people who power worship the police were the same ones rejecting the arbitrary power of monarchy a few months back.

The police do not have carte blanc to do whatever they please. There is a very specific set of guidelines for what they can and cannot do.
People have to be prepared to hold them to those guidelines, and that can mean being arrested. Sometimes, it is not moronic to reject an order, it can be strategically useful in the long run.

So? She has a right to do what she did, everything after that doesn't matter at all.

I'm honestly surprised that the cops didn't try to confiscate (read as "destroy") the camera.

We don't know the full story, but we are aware that she knows the person being arrested. She's not doing it "just because she can", she's filming it to make sure her friend/whatever isn't being mistreated. The video doesn't seem to SHOW that the police are doing anything wrong in that arrest, but as has been said - we have no idea about the full story of the situation.

Anyone actually know why she was recording the police? (apart from because she can, thats not a valid reason to record anyone)

I know she's not doing it just because. I was more referring to not obeying the officer's order to move farther away. He wasn't asking her to stop recording (he did when she was on the sidewalk, which was wrong on his part) but when she moved on the grass, all he asked her to do was move farther away.

Apparently, the guy they had handcuffed was let go.

No, it's not mentioned at any point. Usually when people film the police it's to make sure they don't do anything beyond their powers.


And to Spanky:

The officer had no need to order her to move further back, until he approached her, she was well clear of the proceedings. And he wasn't asking her to move further back, he was asking her to go inside, which would obstruct her view of the proceedings significantly. She was in no danger, and she was posing not threat, the police had no cause to order her back, and certainly had no cause to arrest her for not doing-as-told.

On top of all that, when she finally agreed to move back (which she didn't need to do anyway), he still arrested her.

They're cops. Cops should always be recorded given the chance. Even little minor things, cops should be recorded.