How police violate freedom of the press

In this case out of Denver, CO, a man offers to be a witness for a driver stopped by the police. He offers to testify that the driver did in fact, stop at a stop sign. Frankly, I don't know if the driver did or not, but I am more interested in the reaction by the police. The police are annoyed, even hostile, to the fact that the man dared to state that he would be a witness.

I guess in their police training, they didn't get around to the part about defendants being able to have witnesses in their defense. But considering police have illegally erased videos of citizens and journalists, that might show instances of unnecessary force, I wonder if police academies spend any time whatsoever on constitutional rights. It seems many cops sleep right through these classes.

In this video, a military veteran is tased at an airport. He is first beaten with a baton. It's hard to understand any reason for this beating by a Metro Las Vegas cop at this airport. Of course, the police department justified the cop's action, as usual. In fact, it is very unusual for police departments not to defend even the worst actions of their officers. If your department won't defend you as a cop, you really went over the line.

In this incident, an elderly man with dementia is brutally beaten (for walking too fast) to a cop. The cop beforehand turned off his own recorder (though some video survived). The cop only gets a reprimand for turning off the recorder. That's it. Yes, being a cop can be a hard job but it shouldn't be that hard where you beat up anyone who might possibly be a threat. If that was the criteria, I could get a punch in against any man who I believe might possibly use violence against me. That's just a Wild West standard.

Finally, an Albuquerque cop named Stephanie Lopez illegally took the camera of a journalist who filmed her using excessive force, while working as private security at a club. She erased the video that night and than returned it. Thankfully, video of the incident was recovered. The cop is being sued. Why she has not been fired already, I don't know. Police taking cameras and erasing video is not new. It happens actually quite a bit. Police often have contempt and disdain for the First Amendment. They are there to do a job, not trample on the Constitution.