You’re legally allowed to record the cops. You can’t interfere with what they’re doing while recording them, but you’re allowed to record them. That doesn’t mean they like it, but the law is the law. Unfortunately for one California man, the cops don’t always follow the law. The Daily Beast reports that while attempting to record a traffic stop, Kwesi Guss ended up face down on the ground and in handcuffs.
The incident took place on May 5 in Richmond, California near San Francisco. A driver involved in a high-speed chase pulled over in front of a store, presumably to surrender to the authorities. Guss, who had reportedly recorded the cops in the past, decided to record the incident. Surveillance video from the store that was obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle shows one officer pulling onto the sidewalk in front of a man later identified as Guss.
After exiting the car, the cop somehow ran into Guss and reportedly told him to “get out of the fucking way.” Guss reportedly responded with, “Shut your bitch ass up.” The cop then begins shoving Guss, who is Black, until another bystander intervenes, attempting to put herself between Guss and the cop. A second officer then runs over, not to break up the scuffle but to grab his arm and push him to the ground so the other first officer can handcuff him.
“I felt the asphalt just cutting in my face,” Guss said, while also claiming that the officers’ claims he was resisting arrest aren’t true and that he “wasn’t moving.”
Could he have spoken more nicely after the cop yelled at him? Sure. Also, the cop could have not yelled at him in the first place, not started attacking him and not arrested him. Then again, these are cops we’re talking about, so those options probably never occurred to them.