False accusations of voyeurism, from a cop caught shinning my drone with laser !

[isopro]

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First of all, i'm a well known photographer in town, and did lot of day/night aerial footage before, that became loved and viral in the area.
I was taking some night photos of the circle in town while showing off the aircraft to two friends, when suddenly i see a green flash on my right side creating a lens flare, and blinding my camera, so i quickly thinked this is "shinning an aircraft" and can cause an accident, it is highly illegal here in canada and passible of a 100 000$ fine, and prison if it cause a crash.
So i quickly started recording a video in order to be able to trace where the laser came from, and gather evidence, and as soon as I located the laser shooting location, stopped the recording, and moved back to land and pack-up, while thinking if i should go straight to the police and maybe ruin some teen life, or go knock at their door and warn them of how dangerous this behaviours was.
So my 2 friends and I, decided that we shall go look for the person shooting the laser. When we arrived at the location there was two thug looking guys there, and one of them was holding a device that looked like a green laser pointer, so i asked him if he was the one shooting it at my aircraft, he then said "why ?".
So i started explaining him how illegal and dangerous this was, and this is when he pulled out a provincial police badge and started telling me that i was doing voyeurism in his window, and that he was arresting me(the closer I got to his house was about 150m). Then he continued saying that if I would of be alone and he would of saw me, he would of shot me for invading his privacy, and that he believed this was legal (shooting an aircraft is illegal obviously, and he was obviously trying to set me up for catching him on the act).
Thinking the situation was going bad, i gave my friend the sd card with the recording, telling him to not give it to the cops under any circonstances or they could delete the video evidences i had(this saved my ***).
They arrested me seised my aircraft and charged me with mischief, voyeurism and resisting arrest...
I spent 24 hours in jail, until i explained them that i had video evidence of the laser shooting that i was ready to spread to the media(i did radio interview about my drone flying and video editing skills, thanks to this forum), i got lucky there was one good detective in there who really looked into the file. And the charges of voyeurism and mischief got dropped, they released me under bail, and i still got charge of resisting arrest, because i got scared for my life and did try to run to get support from real non-guilty cops...
I would love peoples opinion on what just happened to me...

 

[28wins]

This is terrible!

I don't know if all these Police incidents were always so prevalent and we are just finding out much more often about them now thanks to the Internet and how fast information spreads or if there has been a dangerous exponential increase these past two decades.

If you could do it all over: what would you change?

Criminal lawyers always have the same advice: do not speak with anyone, especially not the Police!

Did you really resist arrest or did he just tack it onto the other charges?

 

[isopro]

This is terrible!

I don't if all these Police incidents were always so prevalent and we are just finding out much more often about them now thanks to the Internet and how fast information spreads or if there has been a dangerous exponential increase these past two decades.

If you could do it all over: what would you change?

Criminal lawyers always have the same advice: do not speak with anyone, especially not the Police!

Did you really resist arrest or did he just tack it onto the other charges?

I was thinking he was going to kick my ***, and maybe kill me, once alone with him and his friend, I did try to run away(to try to get some non-crooked police on the scene), bad decision, he kicked my ***, now my knee is all blue, my face all scratched...

 

[28wins]

There is no way to win a general public popularity contest on this one so I don't know if I'd go to the press (is that what you inferred when you mentioned the radio interview?).

The judge will espouse the testimony the officer and his witness will serve up.
He identified himself as an officer of the law but you feared for your life.

1) I would go the Hospital to produce evidence of your physical injuries if you haven't yet.

2) Look for lawyers to take this case on.
If you take this on, remembering what happened will cause you to relive the same emotions you went through at the time. It's a form of mental torture and the reason why punitive damages can be so high in some cases.
Evidence you collected is smart. It also shows you flying towards it.

or

3) decide to accept which will liberate you to do nothing and move on with your life.
Times heals the wounds and the mind too.

Very sad you had to live through this.

 

[28wins]

To frame the discussion:

According to:
Canadian Criminal Law/Offences/Mischief - Wikibooks, open books for an open world

Mischief concerns the interference with another person's property. Most typically this involves property damage such as vandalism. Section 430 describes several forms of the offence of mischief.

The offences can be grouped into mischief involving the damaging of property, mischief involving the interference with the use of property, mischief involving the interference with electronic data, and mischief causing danger to life.



430. (1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully

(a) destroys or damages property;
(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;
(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property; or
(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.

 

[isopro]

Well, this is the first place I posted about this, to make members aware that this type of cops do exist, they might be rare, but there are cops out there who hate us drone hobbyists, and will actually try to attack us if they can, even using illegal means...And their cops friends will back them up...So be aware people. And i will build testimonies of my two friends under serment, gather my evidences, make my own affidavit, and make sure i protect my self...I still don't know what to do, and how to andle this, hopefully a good lawyer will help me...But one thing is sure, i will gather my evidences, and do what i can...

 

[28wins]

Any pursuit of a monetary settlement for a civil suit against your Police Department and town will take years of anguish and anxiety and it won't be much I would think, maybe $10-15K.

In a separate case you can file charges against him for shining the laser. He'll be punished if found guilty (you have evidence a laser was pointed at you but not that he was him, unless he put it in his report, which you can obtain a copy of).

There is another thread about a forum member on here who flew his drone and caused one his neighbor to go to the Police because he felt the actions and the drone presence caused invasion of privacy and alarmed him.

The same thing happened here, except this person turned out to be a cop.
He probably was not familiar with drones (as in he prob. doesn't own one, never flew one), doesn't know you can fly without recording and the camera has no zoom.



If other members are reading this:
Flying near your home and near people/ structures constitutes a risk.
Be aware extreme cases can lead to these confrontations and a bad ending.

 

[Reed L]

The proof is in the video, I would talk to a good lawyer and find out what the options are. Because you approached him because he was breaking the law by flashing your UAV, you have the upper hand. You may be able to file assault charges against him at a minimum and then he has been caught lying about the voyeurism charge, so he had no real reason to arrest you. This means that he made the first mistake that started the entire incident. Call a lawyer and if he recommends it and the cop is a known hot head, then take it to the top, make some money from the beating and call the media. But first, call a good lawyer and let him work with the police. I would think that since the officer has been caught up in a serious lie, that he will be suspended until the matter is finished.

 

[Shep]

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First of all, i'm a well known photographer in town, and did lot of day/night aerial footage before, that became loved and viral in the area. Facebook
I was taking some night photos of the circle in town while showing off the aircraft to two friends, when suddenly i see a green flash on my right side creating a lens flare, and blinding my camera, so i quickly thinked this is "shinning an aircraft" and can cause an accident, it is highly illegal here in canada and passible of a 100 000$ fine, and prison if it cause a crash.
So i quickly started recording a video in order to be able to trace where the laser came from, and gather evidence, and as soon as I located the laser shooting location, stopped the recording, and moved back to land and pack-up, while thinking if i should go straight to the police and maybe ruin some teen life, or go knock at their door and warn them of how dangerous this behaviours was.
So my 2 friends and I, decided that we shall go look for the person shooting the laser. When we arrived at the location there was two thug looking guys there, and one of them was holding a device that looked like a green laser pointer, so i asked him if he was the one shooting it at my aircraft, he then said "why ?".
So i started explaining him how illegal and dangerous this was, and this is when he pulled out a provincial police badge and started telling me that i was doing voyeurism in his window, and that he was arresting me(the closer I got to his house was about 150m). Then he continued saying that if I would of be alone and he would of saw me, he would of shot me for invading his privacy, and that he believed this was legal (shooting an aircraft is illegal obviously, and he was obviously trying to set me up for catching him on the act).
Thinking the situation was going bad, i gave my friend the sd card with the recording, telling him to not give it to the cops under any circonstances or they could delete the video evidences i had(this saved my ***).
They arrested me seised my aircraft and charged me with mischief, voyeurism and resisting arrest...
I spent 24 hours in jail, until i explained them that i had video evidence of the laser shooting that i was ready to spread to the media(i did radio interview about my drone flying and video editing skills, thanks to this forum), i got lucky there was one good detective in there who really looked into the file. And the charges of voyeurism and mischief got dropped, they released me under bail, and i still got charge of resisting arrest, because i got scared for my life and did try to run to get support from real non-guilty cops...
This post is the first affidavit i do since my release....
I would love peoples opinion on what just happened to me...

If you don't stand up to the bullying, who will?



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JWarren]

Whoa!

 

[peterepeat69]

A story of ********


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Wibble]

It is hard to comment on individual cases but speaking from the UK and what I see reported from the USA and Canada is that the Police are pretty much a law unto themselves. People forget they are there to serve the public. It seems if you don't instantly do exactly what a police officer tells you then they have every right to treat you as they wish. This is NOT the case!

Obviously you get good and bad with all Police forces but having Police departments controlled by local towns has to be a recipe for disaster. I know Dukes of Hazzard is fiction but there are plenty of places in the USA where the local police do behave like that. My girlfriend is from very rural Kansas and she backs me up on that.

Canada is different again I know.

 

[With The Birds]

Something isnt right here.

 

[Erised]

?????? HMMMM just remembered what my mama told me.

 

[BigAl07]

If everything is as you've stated you should have contacted an attorney and not share another word about this on the Internet. Anything you say(write) can be used against you and you don't want to do anything that could hurt your case. I'd call an attorney yesterday and not post any more until you have a final verdict.

 

[isopro]

******** !!! Police do not shine lasers and wait for you to go to them! You have already broken 3 Canadian laws in your video. You are flying at night, you are over houses and you are over people! GO TO JAIL DO NOT PASS GO. Here's some advice, get a writing coach this fiction is bad!

Yes they do, cops are not special, some make bad decisions to, and show me where in the canadian aviation act, it say, it is not allowed to fly at night ? fly over houses and over people, during a recreational model aircraft flight....You can't because it is perfectly legal...Transport Canada guidelines, are not laws into effect...

 

[N017RW]

Stories like this are possible but dubious.
I find it dubious.

Care to share any documentation?

Even a heavily redacted document is better than nothing.

 

[isopro]

Stories like this are possible but dubious.
I find it dubious.

Care to share any documentation?

Even a heavily redacted document is better than nothing.

will do later...

 

[N017RW]

Great.

 

[BigAl07]

It might help to note that a laser can DESTROY the sensor on your camera. It appears this did not happen because you were able to record video after the incident but I can show you first hand how a laser can destroy the camera sensor. Of course you'll have to donate your camera for the test but it will destroy it if it's direct and powerful enough. I've got a green laser that will wipe it out in .00001 sec.