Cops OWNED by Citizen Journalist

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Is it legal to film police? This citizen journalist is about to give two police officers a lesson on the First Amendment. Know your rights, so when you go viral, it's for the right reasons.

Transcript:

CITIZEN JOURNALIST enters the scene – recording the Cop with his phone.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
What the hell is going on here?

COP
What do you think you’re doing?

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Were you shooting a TikTok video?

COP
That’s none of your concern. Stop filming me or you’ll be arrested..

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
I have a First Amendment right to film police, as long as I’m on public property – which this is – and I’m not obstructing or interfering with police activities.

COP
Well, I’m gonna have to reshoot that whole dance routine again. So, yeah, you are interfering.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Don’t you think you can make better use of your time than TikTok?

COP
Police are allowed to exercise our First Amendment rights too. To show citizens like yourself a side of policing they never see.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Nobody wants to see that.

COP
Tell that to my 82 followers.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Ha! How many of those followers are your family?

COP
Psh. Joke’s on you. I don’t have a family. All I have is the job.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Can I speak to your superior?

COP
He’s over there.

COP
Lieutenant! We got a problem!

This interrupts the Lieutenant's TikTok. He approaches, pissed-off.

LIEUTENANT
What’s going on?

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
I’m just explaining to your officer that I have a right to film you guys.

LIEUTENANT
Where’s this going? YouTube? TikTok?

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
That doesn’t matter.

LIEUTENANT
It matters to me. I have more of a following on YouTube – but we’re more likely to go viral on TikTok.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Look, I’m a citizen journalist, just doing my part to ensure police like yourself are held accountable for their actions.

LIEUTENANT
You “Citizen Journalists” – boy, you seem to always journalist the bad stuff police do.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Journalist isn’t a verb – but OK?

LIEUTENANT
So now it’s up to us to take it upon ourselves – to exercise our First Amendment rights – to show citizens like yourself a side of policing they never see.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
He already said that.

LIEUTENANT
There is a lot that goes into policing.

COP
The dance moves.

LIEUTENANT
The down-to-earth commentary in our squad cars.

COP
The sick b-ball skills.

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Where’d that basketball come from?

COP
I always bring one. Playing one-on-one with a local kid was the one time I ever went viral. You wanna go?

CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Nah. Look, I thought I was filming you guys on a crime scene, but –

LIEUTENANT
Oh shit, we forgot about the crime.

COP
Yeah, there’s a dead guy over there.

LIEUTENANT
Hey, could we do another take?