September 12, 2014
Mariah Timms
News Writer
Wash DC News
A video taken Thursday shows a D.C. police officer attempting to brusquely convince a man to stop filming police activity on a public street. The man, who did not identify himself as a Washington Post videographer, was 20 to 30 feet away from the incident on a public sidewalk out of the way. The video shows two officers walking quickly towards the camera, and then one man, with Reynolds on his nametag, verbally interfering with the man filming. The video can be seen here. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier has released a statement related to the incident, supporting the right of the videographer to film at that time. Lanier published in 2012 a detailed policy on the right of citizens to record police acting in an official capacity. She insisted that she was “shocked when I saw [the video]. There is no excuse for an officer to be unaware of the policy.” The incident occurred outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
