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Copwatch (2017)
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Ramsey has just been arrested for filming the police. Back up. Why are you standing in front of the camera? Sir, you've got to get... Get back on that sidewalk. Go back over there and film over there. They haven't told me why am I being arrested. This is my mom's name, Emily. This was actually my first tattoo. I remember I was told, I wouldn't be able to get tattoos unless it was my mom's name. So, I went behind my mom's back for Mother's Day and got her name tattooed, and since then, I've just been addicted to it. Eyes of a dead man. A part of my life where I felt like I didn't have no soul, I didn't have no heart and everything was cold around me. This is actually a victim to the police brutality and stuff. This signified how cops were killing us. Ex gang-member, Ramsey Orta, faces years in jail. It all started when he shot a video of his friend, Eric Garner, being stopped by undercover officers on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes. For what? Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today. This guy right here is forcibly trying to lock somebody up. That day changed my life. I wish it didn't have to happen this way. Don't touch me, please. Do not touch me. - Why are they doing that to him? - Damn, man. All right, he's down. Lift your hands, buddy. Put your hands behind your head. I can't breathe! I can't breathe! I can't breathe! I can't breathe! Officer had his knee on Eric's neck like this. And basically holding him down, trying to restrain him, while other officers was twisting his arm. I can't breathe. I can't breathe! Everybody back up. Back up. Watching it now, it's like... It hurts. I get goosebumps, 'cause I feel like I could've done a lot more than just stand there and videotape. He can't breathe. They don't even try to take the cuffs of him and give him CPR. They don't even try to put an oxygen mask over his face. I mean, they just left him there. Laying on his side, with his eyes rolled back and his mouth open. And I'm like, "I killed him." Back up. I was here watching the whole shit. You watched everything. You know everything. I couldn't believe it at first, and then... I went home and took a shower and it hit me like, "Damn, they just killed my friend." Two days after a New York City grand jury cleared a white police officer in the choke hold death of an unarmed black man, the protests are growing larger and spreading across the country... Ramsey's video triggered demonstrations across America. I can't breathe! Hundreds shut down major highways in multiple cities. For many, including the city's medical adviser, this was a homicide caught on camera. I can't breathe! Summer, 2016. Ramsey's video has still not led to any arrests. But it has inspired a network of people who use technology to watch the police. They're taking on the largest force in America, the NYPD. Brooklyn, New York City. Dennis Flores is a government employee by day. By night, he runs a team that intercepts police radio to film arrests as they happen. 342 tenth Street. Can you check if that's between third and fourth Avenue? Let's roll with it. We want to deter police abuse. So, if our cameras are out there, it's going to help prevent it 'cause they know there's extra eyes on them. These cameras are bad-cop repellent. While it's legal to film the police, Dennis has been arrested dozens of times. Sometimes aggressively. So, these cops came, grabbed me, handcuffed me, and then body-slammed me here, like about five or six cops. Slammed me to the floor. This one police officer grabbed his walkie-talkie and cracked my head open as all these other cops came and kicked me, punched me. And they dragged me out of here and charged me with assaulting the police. Now, Dennis never films alone. He and his team have filmed multiple cases of what New York's zero-tolerance policing means in practice. So, this is where Ray Tillery was standing when he flicked the cigarette onto the street. The police around him, swarmed him around this entrance. As we see in the video, right in here, in front of this dollar pizzeria shop, he gets arrested. What? What are these guys trying to do? - Are they trying to handcuff him? - Turn around. Over ten police officers, aggressively, take him down for flicking a cigarette in the street, something that thousands of New Yorkers do every day. He can't throw a cigarette butt down? Come on, man. For every ten people stopped by the NYPD, eight are Black or Hispanic. Literally, like, the police have a license to hurt, arrest, and kill people and get away with it. Nothing happens to them. Even those who intervene run the risk of arrest. Sebastian Lemos, he was right here and the police were arresting him. And as they approached, the mother, she started telling the cops what you're doing to her son was wrong. She's six months pregnant. She has a belly out to here. You see them struggling with her and he slams her to the floor. He puts his knees on her back. Another woman approaches, and the cop tosses her, flips her over, and she hits the ground and fractures her kneecap. These are crimes being committed by police officers. That's why cop watching is effective. Because here we are, keeping a track of all the corrupt cops. We're making it public to make sure that people know what's going on and this doesn't just get swept under the rug. Police officer shot in the shoulder. Now they've got an investigation of the three individuals. Two of them have been apprehended. The officer has got shot in the shoulder. And one individual's still at large. Anthony Miranda has spent his life in the NYPD. They're doing an infrared and heat to try to locate people, probably in the backyards. A senior detective, he's investigated homicides, organized crime and police corruption. They shot one cop, they wouldn't hesitate to shoot another. It's highly unusual for a police officer to speak out against his own. But after 20 years of service, Miranda can no longer keep quiet about the behavior of the police. The enforcement against African-Americans and Hispanics is ten times more than it is against any other community out there. When cops become abusive is when the they start believing the mentality that it's us against them. And that starts from day one in the police academy. Any police indoctrination, it trains officers to disassociate with the communities they grew up in, not to identify with the people, sometimes not even to identify with their own family members. They have no screening process whatsoever for racism. They don't do it. Imagine if the police department can hire somebody who has a tattoo on his arm of a hanging... Of a black person hanging, they still qualify to be a New York City police officer. - Have you seen that? - Yes. White people don't get arrested as much. The criminal justice system doesn't prosecute them as much. It doesn't charge them the same way that they charge African-Americans and Hispanics. There's a total imbalance to the process that nobody wants to pay attention to. Miranda is aware that by making allegations of systemic racism, he's pitting himself against the NYPD. People say, "Well, these guys are in uniform and they're talking about discrimination. These guys are in uniform and they're talking about the abuses that are going on in our community." These were things that were unheard of, you would never do that. You're taking your life in your own hands. The Police Department is the biggest gang in New York. You mess with the Police Department, and the retaliation is direct and absolute. The NYPD has 36,000 officers, and a budget of five billion dollars. It can control every corner of New York. In multi-ethnic areas like the Bronx, the department operates a fleet of mobile observation towers. These are deployed 24/7 in poor areas. The whole place is lit up. It's like it is a war zone. It's an occupying force. Crime rates have fallen to record lows. But Jose LaSalle, who runs the local Copwatch team, believes this is because the entire community is under siege. I'm just filming the lights all around. Kind of give people an idea of how police has actually took over these projects in the Bronx. I mean, there's no problem having police, you know, around. My problem is when they just don't follow the proper procedures and protocols, and take this to a point where they just become more of a harassment. Suddenly, Jose intercepts a police request for backup on a possible domestic violence incident and disappears down the road. Jose films as two officers lead a vocal but handcuffed man to their vehicle. But I didn't do nothing. Did I hit you? Did I hit you? He's walking on his own to the car. By the time he reaches the police station, multiple officers are carrying him in. Jose's team seek legal advice. They're concerned about the way events are unfolding. We ran over, got over here in time to catch him being pulled out of the van like a fricking sack of potatoes, completely inert. What the police officer said that, "He hit his wife, so we can do whatever the fuck we want with him." And then ten minutes later, an ambulance is called and they brought in a stretcher, so we're waiting to see what the story is. I'm hoping that he's alive. We have some video here of him being pulled into the precinct. We don't know what happened to this man. But the cop watchers have their suspicions. So, somewhere along inside that van, this black male got either knocked out, beat up by police to the point where he was unconscious. They're saying that they have the right to be the judge, jury and executioner, you know what I'm saying, because he hit a woman. ' Cause, obviously, domestic violence is serious. And that's why there's a court system, I mean, why there's a process. You get locked up, you go to court, you see the judge. Their only job is to arrest people. Just as the team fears the worst, there's an unexpected development. They're bringing him out. They're taking him to the hospital. Excuse me, sir, are you okay? - Excuse me. - I want to know if that man's okay. - Hold on. - Are you okay, sir? Stay here. Sir, are you okay? Sir, are you okay? - Back up, sir. - Sir, are you okay? Why do I have to back up? 'Cause we need ample space over here. - You have ample space. - Back up. Why are you standing in front of the camera? - Sir. - I've given you space. There's no cars coming, sir. I want to know that man's okay. You're going to get hit by a car. He's not complaining. He has to go to Lincoln. That's it. Okay? The police seem to have changed their story. They're no longer mentioning domestic violence. Now they're saying that the guy in there is emotionally disturbed, which is another way to cover why they had to be so aggressive with him. The police refuse to give out the man's name, so the cop watchers were unable to find out what happened to him. What is this? Cop watcher, Kim Ortense, thinks it's only a matter of time before her sons are stopped by the police. You know that if a police officer stops you, - you need to be very, very careful, right? - Yeah. You need to not... You put your hands to your side, right? And you just ask them, "Am I free to go?" - Or... - Am I being detained? Detained, all right. Say it, so, "Am I free to go?" Am I free to go or I'm being... I'm being detained? Excuse me, sir, what are you doing here? - Can I talk to you for a second? - Yeah. - That's not what you're going to say! - No. No! And if they say you're being detained? I just need to wait there for a minute. You need to wait there and then, when you get a chance to call Mommy, you call Mommy. - Okay. - Okay? Okay. My nine-year-old's on the autism spectrum. Aiden is very respectful. Aiden is very peaceful. But he won't understand, you know, their aggressive, jump-out-the-car tactics, with guns in faces. He will not understand that. His mind is not equipped to understand that in that way. And police aren't equipped to deal with people in that way, so I'm terrified, especially for Aiden, because of that and... So I fight and, hopefully, I fight enough that they don't have to march, that they don't have to go through all of this. Hopefully, something changes, but, you know, the climate is just... It's just heartbreaking. Let me try. Despite working full-time, and raising her sons as a single parent... Kim cop watches every single week to make sure people know their rights. Do you consent to that search, sir? And to gather evidence when the police step out of line. We can get you this video. You do not have to consent to a search. Say, "I do not consent to this search." - I don't consent to this search. - I've got this on film. He does not consent to a search. So guess what's going to happen when you get to court. This video? Bye-bye. So, I know I come across as very aggressive and very militant, and I am, and I'm unapologetic about it, because, like, day-to-day, I see police harass people and, you know, it's every day. Like, I can't go one day without seeing someone's rights violated by police officers. And when you try to call them out on it, it's like, "Who are you to talk to me about what I'm doing?" Like, "Obey me." So, yeah, I'm angry, yeah. I'm aggressive, yes. I'm militant. Because I've been dealing with this shit for a long time now. Stay back. I'm taking one step back. I'm at a reasonable distance. You keep your hands away from me. I'm not the one. Yeah. I'm not the one. Yo, what's the issue? Record that. - You need to get out of... - I work for Copwatch. - Get out of the street. - Go on the sidewalk. Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed the death of Eric Garner, has been filming the police ever since. I told you to stay on the sidewalk. But when he is arrested filming a traffic stop, his wife, Bella, takes over. We are on Beruche and Halston. Ramsey has just been arrested for standing off of the sidewalk while filming the police arrest someone else. Jesus fucking Christ. With Ramsey behind bars, his wife Bella alerts other cop watchers. Fuck this world, man. Yeah. The charges are obstruction of a government agent, and disorderly conduct. Right, I'm like, that's fucking bullshit. I mean, it's been a crazy week. You know? To hear that he got arrested for filming cops. Once again. You know? My understanding, he was charged with jaywalking. I don't know... You want your other shoelace? Doing my job. After five hours in custody, and convinced he's done nothing wrong, Ramsey is released. Before I approach any situation, I'm like, "Yo, my name is Ramsey Orta. I work with Copwatch. I got video footage of everything that went on. Don't try to falsify reports." Man, I think you're crazy still filming the police. For Ramsey, the battle with the NYPD is personal. He doesn't want the death of his friend, Eric Garner, to count for nothing. I'm not going to say they won by taking my friend. But they won, in a sense, to show that they don't give a fuck. But now it's my turn. My main goal is to put pressure on cops. Once they see camera in somebody's hand or a phone in somebody's hand, they're quick to think twice, like, "Oh, shit, I can't do what I wanted to do." For Ramsey, the stakes couldn't be higher. He has a criminal past. And since his video exposing the NYPD went viral, he has been arrested in multiple undercover sting operations. Altogether, I have five bail bonds. Empire is covering the gun charge, 'cause that was the first case that I caught behind the video, and allegation was I was selling drugs to an undercover. His family is helping pay his bail, and each week he has to check in at this bail bond office. The names that I'm putting back on the list, let's just say two cases, if my grandmother's on three, can she sign for that other two? Okay. Ramsey's lawyers, Ken Perry and Will Aronin, believe these latest arrests are bogus, designed to discredit Ramsey. He doesn't have a clean record. But that has nothing to do with these cases. It does feel that they had it in for someone. And I do think that had he not filmed this video, we would not be in this situation defending him on six or seven different cases. It was more like, "Okay, this guy is getting fucked completely." Lawyers Aronin and Perry specialize in cases of alleged police abuse. So, tell me what happened. Uh, well, first off... Increasingly they are using Copwatch material in their court battles with the NYPD. Keep on going. Today, they are meeting Christen Conyers. It's amazing how lucky it is that this was all on video. As you can see on tape, I didn't commit any crime. This is me right here. He is facing charges of resisting arrest after cycling into a demo. But footage shot by cop watchers could be key to his defense. Of course, I looked to see what was going on, 'cause this is where I live, I have every right to be here. That's when he grabbed me. I had to stand up. If I didn't stand up, I would have fell off the bike. While this was going on, officers are kicking my legs. They're trying to push you down. They're pushing me down on the floor. Let's... From the start for a second. One, two, three, four, five, six. You can see me under here. And there you are there. Y ou have seven guys as we counted, maybe more on top of you now. It's a dogpile. What are you saying at that point? At that point, I'm trying to tell them... I'm gasping for air, telling them, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe!" I'm against the ground with three or four different officers on my back. How am I supposed to breathe? Eric Garner didn't get a chance to tell his story. I wound up spending the night in the hospital. Just madness, man. Christen will be in court in a few days and it's taking its toll on his family. My son doesn't even look at the police the same now. He shouldn't live in a place in which he fears the people that are supposed to serve and protect him. You're going to go to court? Yeah, me and mommy are gonna go to court. Just in case anything happens, mommy is going to come with me. I don't think anything is going to happen, but in the event that it does, it would be better for mommy to know, because the courts are not going to call and tell Mommy that they are remanding me or anything like that. The gulf between cop watchers and the NYPD has never been greater. - We're here tonight... - We're here tonight. - ...'Cause black lives matter. - 'Cause black lives matter. Each week, they meet to remember a person of color who's died at the hands of the police. Every Monday, for over a year, we've been highlighting different cases of police brutality, and unfortunately, we're not running out of names. They're going to shut down the streets, they're gonna do some civil disobedience to draw attention to the issue. Are they going to get arrested? Most likely some of them will. What do we want? - Justice. - And when do we want it? Now! What do we want? - Justice! - And when do we want it? Now! - And if we don't get it? - Shut it down. - And if we don't get it? - Shut it down. There is some brave people willing to put their lives at the hands of the police, you know? All I can do is watch their backs as long as... Just filming as much as I'm able to do. - And if we don't get it? - Shut it down! - And if we don't get it? - Shut it down! These two sides now view each other with complete hostility. Sorry to disrupt your shopping! Sorry to disrupt your shopping! - But while you're shopping... - But while you're shopping. - Black people are dying. - Black people are dying. - By the hands of the police. - By the hands of the police. - Put your fist in the air. - Put your fist in the air. - Our lives matter. - Black lives matter. - Our lives matter. - Black lives matter. Rather than target the main demonstration, the police single out one of the cop watchers they know well. Go back over there and film over there. This is the seventy-fifth time Dennis has been arrested. You've got to get back in your little space. What's happened, Dennis? There are arresting me. I have no clue. I have no idea why they are arresting me. They haven't told me why am I being arrested. Please step back on the sidewalk. You're on the street. The more we report of your abuse, the more people win, the more we win. Three, six, seven cops on somebody who was walking on the crosswalk? It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to fight for our freedom. - It is our duty to win. - It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have nothing to lose but our chains. Dennis is driven to the nearest police station for processing. But just two hours later, he's released on bail. Look what they gave me. They locked me up, kept me in there for an hour, and they gave me a ticket for disorderly conduct, 'cause they claim that I was crossing the street when there was a red light. Luckily for me, I videotaped the entire thing. As I crossed the street, I made sure I documented the traffic signal. I don't even jaywalk when I cop watch. I recorded myself being stopped in the middle of the street when it was still my turn to cross and I was arrested for doing nothing. Kim is in court today. Six months ago, she was also arrested when filming the police. He wasn't doing anything! - Are you nervous about today? - No, I'm not nervous. I have video evidence that it was a completely bogus arrest. I'm not nervous at all. If anything, it's just inconvenient that I have to keep taking time out to keep doing this and I'm not going to fall for this bogus charge just because that's what they want. But when Kim's case is called, the arresting officer doesn't turn up and her trial is postponed. She believes it's part of a deliberate strategy to wear cop watchers down. The irony, I think, is that had I not shown up, I would have had a warrant for my arrest, but he can come as he pleases or not come at all. I mean, let's be perfectly honest. You know, this is a white supremacist country. The laws, the courts, the police, everything runs on white supremacy, so you have the cards stacked against you. If you're a person of color, you have the cards stacked against you. If you're a poor person, you have the cards stacked against you. If you're a woman of color. What about people who say you're exaggerating? I would ask those people to come and sit down and I would ask those people to witness what we witness all the time. I would also be insulted because someone that would say that I'm exaggerating is probably someone that lives in the suburbs and has no idea the issues that I'm talking about, because it doesn't affect or pertain to them. Is there a reason behind all these arrests and seemingly heavy-handed police tactics? One serving NYPD officer with 17 years experience is prepared to speak out. This was actually my graduation, one of my graduation jackets. Julio Diaz is president of New York's Latino Officers Association. - When was your graduation? - 1999. He's now bringing a class action lawsuit against the NYPD claiming the existence of secret and illegal arrest quotas. The police department will retaliate against you if they think you're saying something they don't like. Quotas is something that they don't want people to know about. If you put a system now that tells police officers to go out there, and go stop people, and here's a number, and if you don't come back with that number, you're going to be disciplined, you're going to cause some problems with the police department, with some police officers because they might not know the balance now. They might go, "Okay, I've got to get this at all costs." The minority communities, Latino and African American communities, are being targeted as enforcement strategy by the NYPD. Who are you going to target more? The poor people, the people who are not going to sue you, the people who're not going to fight back, the people that you know are not going to call a politician to come after you? These are the people that are getting targeted. These allegations, that the NYPD aggressively pursue arrest targets were recently put to Police Commissioner Bratton. Bullshit! Bullshit is my response to that. Quite clearly. If any of my cops out there still think we're pushing for the summons, etcetera, I'm sorry, we're pushing to reduce crime. Despite this official denial, Detective Miranda is adamant quotas not only exist, but were a key factor in the arrest of Eric Garner. They went out here to put his ass in jail for something that he didn't do. To constitute the sale, they had to have seen the exchange of money and the cigarettes. Their own reports after the incident, they never said that they saw an actual exchange between Eric Garner and anybody else. So if that was the premise in why you stopped him, then your stop was illegal. Your approach to him was illegal and you should never have approached him to begin with. I am minding my business, officer. I'm minding my business. Please, just leave me alone. He said, "These guys are targeting me, they're planting evidence on me." Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. According to Miranda, not only were the detectives aiming to hit their quota, they were also punishing Eric for daring to complain about harassment. Prior to this, he's already made allegations against a team at Staten Island, the same officers, that they had planted evidence on him, and are falsely arresting him and accusing him of a crime. Don't touch me! I can't breathe! To establish that they retaliated against him was easy for any federal investigator, anybody with authority and oversight. The City Council, all these people who held the hearings, nobody asked the right questions 'cause they didn't want the right answers. We should all be up in arms. Two years on and people in the community are still angry. They cannot understand why the police have not been held accountable. - You telling the true story? - You tell them what's true. Are you sure? If it can happen to him, it can happen to my sons, you know, my sisters, my brothers, and it's been happening. To find out later when it came out and it said he was not going to be prosecuted, the police officer, I lost it. The whole damn system is guilty as hell. For many New Yorkers, the fact the officers involved in the choke hold death of Eric Garner face no charges... ...while Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed it all, faces years in jail, shows the imbalance in the system. The whole damn system is guilty as hell. Ramsey is out on bail, but he cannot afford to be caught out again. With his trial looming, Ramsey's lawyers call a crisis meeting. I expect the DA to ask to increase the bail. We will do everything we can to make sure you walk out of that court room with us on Wednesday. But, now that there's more in from yesterday, every single one is gonna make our lives, make your life more difficult. - So we're not getting another one, right? - No. Be mentally prepared, we're gonna fight like hell to keep it from happening. Be mentally prepared. Play the game because right now they hold the cards. The man who inspired the movement, faces the prospect of no longer being able to cop watch. Ramsey knows this. We've had this conversation with him very seriously many, many times. This case has to be resolved at some point. Do I expect that all the police officers will be saying nothing, but all the truth? No. I assume the police officers are going to be lying on the stand to get done what they want, to get done what they think is in their interest. If everything went wrong, 118 years maximum. He's theoretically facing 118 years. For some, Ramsey is a career-criminal hiding behind allegations of NYPD brutality. To others, he's a hero. I exposed, literally, the modern-day lynching. That's what happened. They choked him to death. I don't regret it, but I don't want to be dealing with this shit. I'm about to go give up some time of my life for taking a video. It's going to be a rough ride, but hopefully I've got my head on my shoulders by the time I get in there. What's the worst it can be now? What's the worst? Death. Pretty much. You'll probably be doing me a favor because I ain't gotta go through this bullshit that I'm going through now. I had a great career. I did, I had a great career. For Detective Miranda, the criminal justice system is out of control. He's seen the prison population of America increase by two million people and maintains each arrest, trial and conviction helps hit a financial target. People make money from this whole process. This is a money-making system. The summons generate income, the arrests generate an entire system. When you arrest somebody, everybody is making money. The courts make money, the jails make money, the court officers make money, the correction officers make money. It's a money-generating system that nobody wants to correct the imbalance, because if you make it fair, then there won't be as much income in the system. That's just the reality of it. There's not enough... The city won't make the same amount of money. I think Copwatch should be everybody. I think everybody who owns a camera now, everyone who owns a cellphone should be a part of Copwatch. Every time you see something going on, you should take the picture. Despite the cop watcher's video, Christen Conyers is back in court today. If convicted, he faces a one-year sentence. Go in there and do what you got to do today, man. Behave and do a good job today. All right? No complaints, all right? - All right? - Okay. Give me some. See you later. Who's going to pick me up from school today? Huh? Who's going to pick me up from school today? Either me or mommy should be able to pick you up. All right? If anything, at the most, Grandpa. But it'll probably be me and mommy, all right? All right. I love you. See you later. Go ahead, man. This seems a community more divided than united by the police. This is the view from my son's bedroom. Police sitting right here. They're here every day, day and night, 24/7. Think about it. They're right here. It's almost like an invasion of your privacy. It's supposed to be New York City public housing, you know? But when you come home, they sit right outside your window. You're not free. Who's anyone to say that you're free walking around in New York City or anywhere in America right now? I mean, especially being a black man. Do you think... Do you see that it's round? Because you have no glasses. I can't see from here. How do you see all of this from down here? Because he got them good ol' glasses. And I can see without it. Just imagine if those videos wasn't there, you would have been still in jail. People need to wake up. We gonna be all right. I just don't want to keep loosing you. |
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