Man Tasered and Shot with "beanbags" for Taping Illegal Search

From The Oregonian (as posted on OregonLive.com).....
Frank Waterhouse is suing for unlawful seizure with excessive force, alleging that police fired a Taser and bean bag rounds at him on May 27, 2006 because he was videotaping their search of a friend's property in the 5800 block of Northeast Portland Highway.

Police officers followed a police dog onto the property during a search for a fleeing suspect. After the dog keyed on a car, officers broke out a window. Upset residents, insisting no one had run onto their property, started to videotape the police search.

When one woman was told to stop recording, she gave the videocamera to Waterhouse. He walked to the edge of the property, climbed up a dirt embankment and continued to record. At one point, he yelled to his friend, "Yes, I got it all on film. They had no right to come on this property."

He says in the suit that police immediately came after him, and yelled at him "put it down." Officers moved towards him, and he said, "Don't come after me." Waterhouse said seconds later he was shot with a bean bag gun and a Taser and fell to the ground.

Officers wrote in their reports that Waterhouse ran off, they chased and then bean-bagged and Tasered him. One officer wrote, "He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon."

Are you fucking kidding me? I want to know when it became a crime to videotape the police under any circumstances, much less when they are in the process of violating someones civil rights. If we as citizens cannot hold the police and their behavior to scrutiny then we have lost EVERY SINGLE SHRED of freedom that the founder intended to leave to posterity. It means millions died in defense of a dead dream and that many more are dying to defend a way of life that no longer exists. It's a good thing I don't live in Oregon cause there'd be one seriously pissed off citizen tailing the Portland police with my video camera to EVERY bust...Stand up for your rights, for your neighbors rights and NEVER EVER GIVE UP YOUR FREEDOMS

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