Hawthorne home to an out-of-control police state

by CalWatchdog Staff | November 26, 2012 6:35 am

Nov. 26, 2012

By Chris Reed

A while back, I came upon the amazing stories[1] of Daniel J. Saulmon, a Southern California man who has used video and audio recorders to document vast evidence of police misconduct. Here we go again[2], with what appears to be the worst abuse of power yet, this time in the L.A. suburb of Hawthorne:

A California man was jailed for four days for attempting to record police officers on a public street.

Daniel J. Saulmon was charged with resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer[3] but the video shows he was standing well out the way of a traffic stop and was only arrested when he failed to produce identification to an approaching officer.

And there is no law in California that requires citizens to produce identification. And even if there was, it would require the officer to have a reasonable suspicion that he was committing a crime.

Will Hawthorne cop Gabriel Lira be thrown off the force?

Nah. This is California[4]. He probably just boosted his chances for a promotion.

Endnotes:
  1. amazing stories: http://www.youtube.com/user/danieljsaulmon/videos?view=0
  2. Here we go again: http://www.photographyisnotacrime.com/2012/11/24/california-man-jailed-four-days-for-recording-cops/
  3. resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer: http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/appndxa/penalco/penco148.htm
  4. This is California: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/11/20/union-power-protects-miscreants-not-just-pay-and-benefits/

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2012/11/26/hawthorne-home-to-an-out-of-control-police-state/