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Video: Cop Promises Cameraman He'll Be Raped in Jail
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 18, 2010
Modified Aug 18, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 18, 2010
Modified Aug 18, 2010
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Late Friday night/early Saturday morning, the NYPD raided Surreal Estate, an underground party club in Bushwick. Witnesses say that when police arrived, the hosts refused to let them in, demanding to see a warrant. The police then forcibly entered by kicking down doors and breaking through windows. Once inside, some attendees say police unleashed pepper spray. We're told ten arrests were made and nine were charged with Obstruction of Governmental Administration (among other charges), but the real fun happened outside, when camera gadfly Vladimir Teichberg pestered an anachronistically dressed plainclothes cop, who promised Teichberg he'd be raped in jail if he didn't disperse.
The undercover officer—who looks like Marlon Brando wearing a Tie-Dye in Apocalypse Now—identifies himself as a detective at the 1:36 mark. After he tells Teichberg to move along, and Teichberg refuses, the detective—fine, let's call him Detective Tie-Dye—threatens him with arrest. Videotaping police action is legal in New York, provided the person doing the documenting isn't interfering with police action. At the scene, that comes down to a judgment call on the part of the officer, and in this case Detective Tie-Dye was not pleased about being recorded for posterity. He promises to send Teichberg through the system, and assures him he'll be in custody for three days before seeing a judge.
Teichberg stands his ground, even after Detective Tie-Dye calls for the "paddy-wagon." About three minutes in, Tie-Dye takes out his phone and starts videotaping the civilians, telling one woman with a camera pointed at him, "You're ugly." (3:26) The best part comes when Teichberg tells the detective, "By the way, as a police officer you are now violating the law because you're not allowed to film unless a crime is being committed." Detective Tie-Dye replies, "Call a cop." And Teichberg says, "You are a cop and I'm calling you." Even better: Teichberg laughingly telling the detective, "You don't understand the power of the Internet, man."
Wylie Stecklow, a civil rights attorney representing Teichberg and the Glass Bead Collective, tells us that while it's unclear if laws are being broken, "policies are being broken. I believe the officer can be investigated for misconduct. There needs to be a CCRB investigation, because this officer was clearly being discourteous. Telling a videographer he would be abused in prison and be arrested when he's not breaking any laws... This seems to me to be—while not necessarily illegal—certainly not within the bounds of the Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect that the NYPD has promised his citizens. That the same office tells another female over and over that she is ugly, that is incredibly is discourteous." (We've reached out to the NYPD for comment; we're waiting to hear back.)
Teichberg tells us this isn't his first confrontation with police while filming them. He tells us that in 2003 he was filming police making an arrest, and when he refused to stop filming, he was taken into custody and his camera was never returned. "That experience taught me that we have to refuse to be intimidated by the police," Teichberg says. "Most people would simply walk away when ordered by a cop, but myself and Glass Bead Collective know our rights and it's important everyone does." At press time, Teichberg has not yet been arrested nor raped.
Tagged
cop
glass bead collective
nypd
rape
surreal estate
video
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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