Mission District Cops Jump Man In Front of 16th & Valencia Cafe

by watching

Fri, Apr 10, 2009 10:25PM

A group of police tackled a man near 16th and Valencia in the early afternoon today. Wouldn't have thought much of it except the cop in the last picture came inside the cafe and threatened to arrest one of the other people taking photos out the window.... something strange was up...

original image (500x2349)

§was there

by me

Sat, Apr 11, 2009 2:59PM

I was there when this happened and am guessing it was a drug arrest. Someone in cafe said they saw the guy put a small big in his mouth before they threw him to the ground. It couldn't have been a very large amount but swallowing even a small amount of cocaine or heroin in a bag can still be deadly.

Is it illegal to take pictures of undercover cops? If so how could one ever document abuse by them. If not is it illegal for them to take cameras from or threaten people taking pictures of them? They threw the guy on the ground and he was screaming and it was right in front of the front window of Muddy Waters so if they really cared about being recognized they would have least not had the guy on the ground there.

It could be that the cop who came inside to threaten one of 4 people taking pictures was worried about getting in trouble because he forgot his badge. If you look carefully at pics all the other undercover cops have badges on strings around their necks except for that guy who isn't openly identifying himself as a cop during the arrest.

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§undercovers

by no more cops

Sat, Apr 11, 2009 1:29PM

so anyone knows more about this?
i've seen this dumbasses f undercovers
first time i see them out of 16th and mission
the person who took the pictures should get more info why this person got arrested

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§Photography is not a crime

by Dan

Mon, Apr 13, 2009 11:37AM

http://www.kantor.com/useful/Legal-Rights-of-Photographers.pdf

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§PDF helps but doesnt deal much with undercover cops

by me

Tue, Apr 14, 2009 7:54AM

There are plenty of pictures online of protests where people say "I think this guy is an undercover cop" but almost none I can find showing the officers showing badges during arrests. Protest cops may also legally be plain clothes cops who are acting as if undercover outside of a legal mandate which is different from someone who has been hiding their identity for months setting up a deal to nab someone (where they are required to show badges at point of arrest but at no other time). If I were to for example post better pictures of the faces of the cops in the photo above outside in places where people deal around the city, it would be impossible for potentially 4 undercover narcotics officers to do their jobs. Would the pictures then be legal but publishing them in specific places be considered getting in the way of police.

There are a few reported cases of arrests in such cases. See:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/16/cell-phone-picture-undercover-officer-sparks-arres/news-breaking/
but that is a case where they charged the photographer with "Obstructing the execution of a search warrant"
although it looks like charges were eventually dropped:
http://volokh.com/posts/1208539244.shtml

I guess the legality only matters to a point in that if I posted the pictures all over the city, I would mysteriously get shot and the police would investigate and say it wasn't related; SFPD are good at that.

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