I'll need the CAD number off this so I can get the 911 call and everything. Oh, you can foil it. No, I just need the number for it. No, you can foil it. Oh, wow. You're nice. I just got the CAD number off your computer. You got to close your screen. Oh, did you take a picture of that? That is actually illegal, dude. I'm standing on public sidewalk. You cannot take a picture of my computer. Says who? You're better. Are you deleting it right now? I didn't delete anything. You said you just admitted to a crime. You took a picture of something that you're not allowed to in 2019. 5-year-old AJ Friend was murdered by his own parents in Illinois. Just last week, the DCFS worker that was assigned to his case was convicted of child endangerment and sentenced to 6 months in jail and 24 months of probation. There are passionate opinions on both sides of this case, but we're not going to focus on those today. Today, we're going to show you the story of what happened to one reporter when he was sent by his agency out to the DCFS office to ask questions about the incident and how he was treated by government DCFS workers as well as the local police. [Music] On May 30th of 2024, my news agency asked me to go to the DCFS office in Woodstock, Illinois to get some B-roll footage and to ask questions of any officials that had walked out of there. The basic question being, have there been any changes since AJ's death? Have you guys made any changes since AJ's death? Any changes since AJ's death? Have you guys made any changes since AJ's death? Does anybody here care? Now, if you hadn't heard, this particular DCFS office has been in a lot of trouble. In fact, two of the officials that work in this office have been charged due to the death of that child, AJ, that I just mentioned. And it gets a lot worse because since that death and since those officials got in a lot of trouble, this office has actually gone the extreme opposite direction and basically accusing everyone of child abuse who gets introduced to that office whether they are guilty or not. We know this because we have received several complaints about this very issue. See the police arriving. I was outside of this office for less than 2 minutes when they called the police and this happened. I tried to ask them what was going on since AJ's death, but they don't want to Sir, I'm sorry. What was that? I tried to ask them what changes they have made since AJ's death. Are you familiar with AJ's death? The kid that died from from them? I am. Yeah. So, I just tried to ask them what's going on with that. If any changes have been made. Oh, okay. And I've been on a sidewalk, a public sidewalk the whole time. Yeah. Not saying you're doing anything wrong. No, they are. They'll let them know, educate them. How's it going? All right. If it ain't things I saw yesterday. I know. Are you tired of me yet? No, not yet. Uh, I mean, was he inside? No, we we locked the door. We We still have four kids in here and he's he's standing so we can see down the hallway and they can't go to the bathroom or anything else right here. Yeah. I would just put a tarp over it. We had a second cop car. [Music] Yeah. I mean, again, he's not doing anything illegal yet. Um, I would just recommend I mean I know that there's kids and sensitive information in here, but he has every right to film from outside. That's why I'm saying public. I would say put a tarp up and he'll he'll leave you alone. They just want and honestly it's probably not even for you guys. It's probably for us probably to get a reaction out of us. So, how's it going? Hey, how are you? Good. How you doing? Just starting the day, so can't complain yet. Good. Happy to hear that. your buddy's over here. I think they're like talking right there. Or do you want me to Hello, ma'am. It's a newer one, right? Do you guys have a a camera? You can go up to him and take a picture if you want, too. He's on public sidewalk. Well, how about how about how about I do this? How about I take it with my my work phone this way? Do you have a work phone? I don't have my work. I just use my Okay. No, it's fine. Just my work phone, sir. Thank you. I'll need the CAD number off this so I can get the 911 call and everything. Oh, you can play it. No, I just need the number for it. Yeah, you can buy it. Oh, wow. You're nice. Now, real quick, for those who don't know, the call number, CAD number, incident number, whatever you want to call it, is very readily available to this officer right now. He could call it in real quick on his radio and get it. He could look over to his computer. He could say, "Hey, wait a minute until we're done and I'll get it for you." Right? But he chooses not to. Now, that's kind of like you buy a bicycle at Walmart and you get it home and you realize the instructions to put it together are not in the box. So, you go back to Walmart and you walk up to the customer service desk and you see the manual sitting back there and you you say to the lady, "Hey, I just bought the bike and can I get the manual right there for it?" And she looks at you with a smug, passive aggressive face and says, "You can get it online." You say, "Oh, ma'am, but um yeah, it's it's right there. I just I just bought the bike. Can I just please just have the the manual? It's it's right it's right there. And she looks at you with that smug look again and says, "You can get it online." That's almost exactly what this police officer is doing. See if it says it in his car. That's probably right there. And it's better not to. These these guys are just fishing for a lawsuit. That's all they're doing. They have nothing better to do. They think they I mean they know the law. So, right. And if you guys feel unsafe when you guys leave for work or leave or whatever, you can always call us. Not emergency for an escort to your car, anything like that. Okay. Well, I'll just let the people know because I mean we've got night shift people coming in to watch these kids. So, we'll let people know. Yeah, you can circulate it, whatever. I mean, it's it's it's public public he's on public property, so you're fine. Sidewalk, he'll move on. And next Thursday or Friday is sentencing for our employ. Okay. Yeah, he'll move on. Don't worry about it. Uh, like I said, they usually just fish and see who who bites, reaction, right? So, I mean, we we're closed there. There won't be anybody here on the six. All right. If you have any questions, call 911. Okay. Or any concerns yesterday. Have a good, boss. Thank you. Have a good one. All right. Yeah, no problem. Name and badge number. Uh, it's Maison 91. You need to be more professional, sir. I was professional as I could be. No, I just got the cat number off your computer. You got to close your screen. Oh, did you take a picture of that? That is actually illegal, dude. I'm standing on public sidewalk. You cannot take a picture of my computer. Says who? You're better. Are you deleting it right now? I didn't delete anything. You said you just committed to a crime. You took a picture of something that you're not allowed. Let's get pictures out here. Dude, you don't know what you're talking about. You are not allowed to take a picture. Let's get pictures out here. You have no idea. Deputy chief. Oh, yeah. That's what you want. He knows me very well. You need to be very careful and take a picture. He's my friend. He's told me I could be here. He's told me I could be here. You could be here, but you can't. You need to be more professional. You don't know the law. Do you know what the plane view doctrine is? Yes, I do. I'm standing on a public sidewalk. It doesn't apply anything. It does not apply to our computers. I see. Dude, this guy doesn't even know the law. Really? I'm standing on a sidewalk and I can't tell what I can see? You're crazy, bro. There's nothing wrong with that. It's open available. They can see it. Not if it's on a leads page. They can't. That's not a leads page, right? Well, I don't know that cuz I don't know what I left on, but it's left open. All right. Well, I was going to say you're anything out in the public is free. I know. Thank you. I This guy is a great officer right here. All right. We have arrived at the Woodstock Police Department to file a complaint against the officer. [Music] Hello, sir. How are you? How are you, sir? I'm good. I had an issue with Mason. Mason. I don't know if you Okay. What what was the issue? So, I'm a journalist, got a content tour story. DCFS is they're criminals, right? They responsible for the death of a kid. There's two of them going to jail right now. I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's a big story. Okay. A story that involves like people like journalists have a right to cover that story for sure. Right. So, if I'm standing on a sidewalk, just getting B-roll of the front of the place and then asking employees who come out if they've made any Yeah. Yeah, you're 100% right. Right. And then I see Ma and I I tell him, "Hey, sir, I'm just doing this. I'm on a sidewalk. I'm not bothering anybody. I'm going to bother you." Okay. Point is, I asked him, I said, "I'm going to need the 911 call for this for my for my job. What's the what's the call number?" He said, "You need to foil that." Well, to foil that, I I need the number. Can you just provide? He's like, "No, just foil it." So, he walks away. That's not a big deal. I walk over. I see his computers there wide open to the public. I'm in public on a sidewalk. I understand a lot. I understand plain view doctrine. I understand the first amendment from the press. I apparently I know a lot more than your officer does. Oh, here's here's here's your boy to a crime. That's a picture of something that you're not. The point is 10 10 million people on average view my channel every month. Okay. They're going to see this. Okay. It's going to look really bad because he had to walk away in shame because he realized he was being an [ __ ] and uneducated. Okay. I need to follow up, I guess. Then you you want the want the form then? Yeah. So, I I I could use the form. Can I fill it out and bring it back at another point in time or? Yeah. Let me let me see if I have one printed up. Let me let me see if I have a form and I can just give it to you. Okay. I appreciate it. Mhm. I I I will uh talk to Officer Mesa as soon as I'm done talking to you. Um and then here is here's the form. I might not I'm going to look at it. I might not go talk to him. Well, I'm going to have a talk with him right away. He should know better. He should, right? He should. That's not a big deal. I'm going to be for He also got in my face and started taking pictures of me. I'm going to be for requesting that. He can't delete those pictures now. Okay. very unprofessional. Do you do you have video of him taking pictures of you? Oh, yeah. It's all it's it's going to be on YouTube. So, my goal is not to go there and get into a conflict with police despite what the workers here say. And as a journalist, I do need to try to maintain a good relationship with this police department. So, after walking into this department, having a chat with the sergeant and feeling good about the fact that the sergeant was on my side, I decided not to file a complaint. I know many of you would disagree with this. I know many would say this officer would not be so lenient on you, but the truth is I'm better than him. And I have a feeling he will learn his lesson a different way. This is the Woodstock Police Department in Illinois. Please give them a call and respectfully redress your grievances if you have any. It seems to me that officer Ma's problem is that he has a predetermined assumption that anybody who's pointing a camera at government is doing so to try to get some type uh some type of negative reaction out of him personally so that they can post it on social media and shame him. And because he thinks that this is what's being done, his decision is to react negatively so that we can post it on social media and shame him. It seems to me that officer Mesa made an assumption about what was going on and then made a very bad decision based on that bad assumption. It makes me wonder how officer Mesa reacts and interacts with people throughout his daily job. How often does officer Mesa walk up to a call with a predetermined assumption of who's who and what's what without ever actually investigating? How often does Officer Mesa assume someone's guilt or create a narrative in his own head about what somebody's doing or why they're doing it? How often does Officer Mesa abandon all logic and reason and instead act and react out of emotions like he did here? I'm sure his fellow officers and supervisors know the answers to these questions. But just from the body cam that I saw, I can tell that officer Mesa has an extreme contempt for anyone who would make any attempt to document what their government is doing. It seems to me that officer Mesa has been taught and told that yes, people can record you and people can document what you're doing, but uh deep inside he he has a genuine hatred for the fact that this is allowed. And he shows that in his body cam and the way that he speaks. In listening to what officer Mesa said behind this citizen's back on his body camera, it's perfectly clear that he walks in right off the bat with the wrong attitude towards individual liberty and rights. He recognizes and and acknowledges that this guy knows the law, that he's well within his rights, but in his voice, in his demeanor, you can tell that he has an extreme contempt for individuals that would actually exercise those rights. If they swore some type of oath to uphold your rights, then wouldn't they be genuinely happy that you're exercising your rights rather than having such contempt for the idea that you should have the right to do what you're doing in the first place? You see, it's not just about the physical actions uh or lack of actions. To me, it's about how these government employees genuinely feel about the idea of you and I having rights. Go. And in this particular video, Officer Mesa shows pretty clearly to me that he hates the fact that you have rights. Which tells me that officer Mesa, if he's ever told that he's allowed to take away your rights, is going to be the first to step up in line. and violently attack you and take your rights away because in his heart already he hates that you have rights. And even more so, he's disgusted and he hates that you would dare to exercise them because the only reason someone would ever exercise their rights is to try to get a rise out of Officer Mesa.