A Baltimore motorcyclist was charged with illegal wiretapping after police spotted a traffic stop recording on YouTube that he had made with a helmet-mounted camera.
According to The Baltimore Sun, John Graber was pulled over for speeding and reckless driving on March 5 by an officer in an unmarked car. He captured what transpired and uploaded a 23-second clip to YouTube. Soon after, police presented the 24-year-old with a warrant and proceeded to search his parents’ house.
Graber’s video equipment was seized and he was charged with violating Maryland’s wiretapping law – because his video was accompanied by audio that was captured without the police officer’s consent. Maryland police deny the arrest was to settle the score for Graber posting a potentially embarrassing video of what has been described as an “overly-aggressive traffic stop.”
Police spokesman Gregory Shipley stated as much when he said “this is not some capricious retribution”. According to Shipley, police were just doing their jobs. He added:
(The audio recording) is a violation of the law. Period. That’s what our job is. We’re not going to apologize for doing our job.
As much of an annoying smart-ass as Graber seems to be, surely police have bigger fish to fry?
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they may have bigger fish to fry, but they don’t come easier than this
they may have bigger fish to fry, but they don’t come easier than this