In the UK, the cop would have known that all footage would have gone to a police station where the material would have been carefully examined [...] and if there was anything embarrassing to the cop, it would shortly have become “lost” or “faulty”, never to be seen again.

So I would say that the police would be guilty of the same “Crime”.
The city decided to go forward with this legal maneuver.

Graber probably cooked the whole thing up for his 15 seconds of YouTube fame. I wonder how many cases of exterme motorcycle a$$holiness they found on his computers. They should nail him on every traffic violation they find on his hard drive. Essentially each one the cops find is a confession. But they probably can’t because it would violate his civil rights.

Uhler did draw his weapon, but Graber KNEW he was being pursued by cops not some road-raged NRA member. With the patrol car’s lights on close behind him he would have had to be blind not to know. Graber did try to back up, and it looked to me like he was considering bolting between the two cars. Not an unlikely case given his recent behavior.
Uhler did not show a badge, but to do so at the time, would have required him to lose full control of his weapon. His identifying himself as a cop was maybe late, but Graber knew the cops were there.

Too bad this shite-for brains will probably walk with only a traffic ticket.

A gun.”

Really? Exclusively? Funny, since I like to skeet shoot and enjoy target shooting and plinking. So, what exactly am I killing when I do those activities, since guns are exclusively a deadly weapon?

If I don’t get an expectation of privacy working on a laptop at an open-air cafe, someone charging around on a public road DEFINITELY doesn’t.

But they are police not people.

Except, you know, the felony speeding they can (and are) charging him with. Along with reckless driving, etc etc.

No, charging him with wiretapping is purely a revenge tactic for the local PD in response to him putting the video up on youtube.

I don’t think the cops really did anything wrong on the stop, the undercover/off-duty didn’t even have his finger on or in the trigger guard and never pointed it at the rider. But, they clearly don’t like the attention that they are getting from the video being posted. IF he had never posted the video of the stop, we would have never heard of this story because it would have been one of a million traffic stops and been no big deal.

-the motorcyclist was backing himself away from the dude with the gun
-it took the officer 7 seconds to identify himself
-the gun was never pointed at the motorcyclist
-the officer re-holstered his gun 15 seconds after he pulled it out
-there was a marked police car stopped behind the motorcyclist

i can only imagine how frightening it must of been for Anthony Graber, which was, i assume, the whole point of pulling the gun.
Graber deserves an appropriate punishment for speeding, but wiretap charges are intended to frighten us all into being obedient little sheep who never confront authority.

Does it have to be limited to LA? If we could include West Virginia …

I agree with that assessment.

So it seems to me this is a guy video taping a gun wielding guy that claims to be a cop.

…Is it any wonder that people get raped/robbed/killed after being pulled over by phoney cops.

If this officer was off-duty, then he no longer has the power to perform arrests or the right to draw his firearm in public. In short, he is NOT ON DUTY and becomes a normal citizen.

The police department know Joseph Uhler screwed up, and they are closing ranks to protect him rather than see justice served.

This guy was going 60-70mph through most of the video. Maintaining lanes, not passing on the berm, etc. Clearly not attempting to run in the least.

‘bookstore biff’

Now *that* would lead to a truly professional law enforcement community. Surely the “good apples” in law enforcement would never object to such a law – after all, the innocent have nothing to fear, right?

It manifests in so many ways, the primary being the “professional courtesy” they extend one another in terms of traffic stops – cops DO NOT WRITE traffic summons’ to other cops.

So if you’re a cop, you can drive like an asshole and unless you do something to damage or kill, you are pretty much unaccountable. Wanna turn on the flashing lights to sprint through an intersection – no problem – for example, to make it back to the office for a shift change – no problem.

Now let’s say you’re a tow truck driver on the way to a crash – and turn on your lights and roll through a red light – no such luck, you can be stopped and ticketed.

I realize there are all sorts of people and all sorts of situations, but I also believe that the wrong people sometimes get jobs in law enforcement, and in certain situations, they glow with the pure wrongness of their career choice.

A gun.”

I just got back from the range, where I fired a couple of guns a few hundred times, and killed not a single thing (except my wallet, ammo ain’t cheap these days).

Now maybe I’m just a really bad shot, or maybe guns are not exclusively used as deadly weapons.