A Washington D.C. pedicab driver was
arrested after he pretended to video record police arresting one of his fellow
pedicab drivers last month.
Meanwhile, a third pedicab driver who
was video recording the pseudographer’s arrest was not arrested.
However, that videographer is refusing
to make the video public.
But he did provide screen shots of the
arrest to a Washington D.C. news site, showing two Park Police officers
kneeling over pedicab driver Oskar Mosco, who is laying facedown on the grass
with his hands cuffed behind him.
Mosco, who was interviewed by TBD about the incident, said he only
pretended to record because he was clueless how to actually operate it.
Mosco initially wasn't even involved in
the scuffle with Park Police. He received a call about trouble with one of his
colleagues. He arrived and pretended to videotape the proceedings with a new
video camera, which he couldn't, in truth, even operate yet. Later on Facebook
he recounted this exchange, not captured in his colleague's video clip:
"Put your camera away."
"I don't have to put my camera
away."
"Put your hands behind your
back."
Pedicab driver Daniel Blackman, who
video recorded the arrest, did not explain why he doesn’t want to publicize the
video.
But he did allow TBD to view it, which
described it below:
"You all right, man?" a Park
Police officer asks Mosco. After moments of semi-conscious writhing, the
operator has begun to sit up. "It was very clear. You disobeyed every
order I gave you and then you resisted arrest."
Mosco attempts to ask what orders he
disobeyed.
"We are no longer discussing
this," the Park Police officer tells him. "You are under
arrest."
The two officers pull Mosco to his feet
and escort him to a police car, in which a second pedicab operator sits, as
Mosco shouts that he was arrested for videotaping the police. "You should
not get arrested for videotaping a police officer!" Mosco yelled to
onlookers in front of the Natural History Museum. "This is a free country,
not a police state!"
He received some laughs as well as
looks of sympathy. One person remarked it was a shame. Another questioned the
forced used against the operator. Blackwell, the pedicab operator videotaping
this arrest (who asked not to reveal the clip but showed it to me), said that
Mosco "hasn't done anything wrong" as he watches the arrest happen.
"We're all here just trying to make a living. We are a green mode of
transportation."
Meanwhile in another pedicab incident
in Colorado, a cop is under
investigation after he was
caught on camera shoving a man he believed was standing too close.
Fort Collins police had responded to an
incident where three male friends hopped on a two-man pedicab after drinking at
a bar, forcing it to flip over and break a reflector light.
One of the officers appears to be
having a civil conversation with one of the men, Matt Hefferon, when he
suddenly shoves him, yelling “step back.”
That prompted a second officer to
handcuff Hefferon while telling him to “stop resisting,” which seems to be the
norm with all officers whether the suspect is resisting or not.
In fairness, Hefferon did take a few
steps away from the arresting officer, which was probably just a natural
reaction when realizing he was getting arrested for no reason.
The cops at least didn’t tell the
videographer, Joshua Michael Cullip, to stop recording, but one of them demands
his identification, which they apparently had already seen.
Hefferon, Cullip and Jarvis Gullet, the
third man who hopped on the pedicab, were cited for either interference,
obstruction and/or criminal mischief.
Fort Collins Police Chief John Hutto
said the video “raises questions” about the shoving incident but
Hefferon should be thankful it wasn’t worst.
While Police Chief John Hutto said he
can’t yet talk publicly about the March 25 incident caught on video, he said he
is comfortable with what he called a “pretty remarkably low” level of force
being used by his officers. Hutto has launched an internal investigation of the
video showing officer Dan Calahan shoving Matt Hefferan, who then was cited for
criminal mischief and obstructing in connection with the incident.
“I think our officers are very
restrained and use force appropriately,” Hutto said.
Hutto said the video “raises questions”
about the interaction between Calahan and Hefferan. But he said the vast majority
of interactions between police and the public are peaceful. He said those
interactions rarely get attention.