this was my last video in casee you missed it going take it out the truck it's our property pictures of it I'm sorry it's our property do you need pictures of it take it out the truck it's our property do you want to argue about this stop resisting stop what I'm resisting what stop resisting resisting what and you probably did miss it because it was age restricted by YouTube within just a couple of hours and for what I believe is a ridiculous reason that did mostly kill the video but it had already amassed like 200,000 views in just a couple of hours still that was enough to once again get one of my videos documenting police misconduct on the local news where it occurred this afternoon the city of Meridian investigating a use of force incident involving a Meridian Police Officer now here's some of the video posted to YouTube of the arrest of 22-year-old Samson Allen well the police department responded and they gave a statement to the local news and apparently this cop has already left this department but it's not over and I'll tell you why all right let's go through the basic facts and the footage itself that you didn't get to see the first time and I believe that it was both demonetized and age restricted because I showed the clip of the actual dirt bike wreck and the age restriction notification said that the video was promoting harmful conduct and of course the video clearly the video was not promoting people to go attempt we wheelies on dirt bikes and Rec their dirt bikes in any event they did what they did but maybe it's for the best because I learned some additional information and I also can answer some questions that I saw that people have that maybe weren't clear in the initial video so let's go through the facts then I'll tell you what's happening now this footage is from Meridian Idaho this is an Ada County Idaho and this is the same county as the video I fairly recently did about the 70-year-old guy who got arrested by the cops for just daring to look into one of their vehicles at the police station when Mick hea appeared just for a matter of seconds through the window of one of the police cars that Ada County taxpayers pay for in a public parking lot in broad daylight he was accosted attacked and manhandled by police officers and then handcuffed arrested humiliated and jailed though they charged him with resisting officers the Idaho judge presiding over his case dismissed it including that there was no way the prosecution could prove that hiela had committed any crime the Court ruled that the officers had no lawful basis to stop detain or seize heela much less manhandle arrest or jail him he filed a lawsuit now not only do they have to pay but they have to make a public statement and retrain their officers keep that in mind as you watch this it all began with this guy's 16-year-old son getting in a wreck on his dirt bike he was pretty badly injured the EMS Personnel had to come in and get them and provide medical treatment and in the process of that happening somebody had rolled the dirt bike several houses down and just leaned it up against a tree in some random person's front yard now some of the people arguing on the side of the police officer here are saying that this is like a hit and run situation where there was an accident scene and the cops arrive and somebody's trying to remove a vehicle but this isn't that sort of a situation and here's why the wreck itself happened several hours earlier the kid was seriously injured the people on the scene cleared the way for the medical personnel now one of the people who lives on the street removed the bike to like her front yard she has nothing to do with the family that's where several hours later the brothers go to pick the bike up and if you look at the picture from the actual scene you'll see that not only are medical personnel there but the police are there any investigation that they wanted to do at the scene presumably they did at the scene the 16-year-old was taken to the hospital his three brothers were told where the dirt bike was and they went to pick it up the medical scene is gone they're just retrieving their brother's bike and it's not easy to get it in the back of the pickup truck so they sort of back up to the incline of the driveway and it takes the three of them to get this thing into the back of the truck it wasn't easy as they're loading it and trying to figure out how to strap it down a police officer shows up what do you mean it's not going to work take out the truck it's property of it I'm sorry it's our property do you need pictures of it got our proper do you want to argue about this what do you want what take the bike out the trck part you need pictures it you can up pictures here not uning and reloading just walk around dude got VI like that are we beinged you're about to be okay you can drive drive okay um back no no what do you want what what the hell is your problem dude stop what the hell is in matter what's the problem do put your hand behind your back now hand is back dude what the do matter with you stop stop what what stop resisting stop what I'm resisting what stop resisting resisting what is I'm not resisting get away and get back you said we W being detain that's hell matter both you get back don't touch me dude don't get away from me right now you have no legal reason to touch me right now get out of here right now for those of you who are wondering who the guy was in the neon shirt that is just a random Karen neighbor who I guess saw what was happening and wanted to inject himself into the situation now the kid filming here is like 12 years old and this guy is aggressively confronting this 12-year-old who just saw what's happening to his old older brother and he wants to film it which he is entitled to do but as you'll see here filming the police is seen as some sort of safety threat to the officer so the 12-year-old filming is not allowed to be anywhere near what's happening to film it but the male Karen is allowed to stand right next to the officer let him do his job he even provided a statement for the police report after the fact and I have that here heard loud noise outside saw a young man in a cowboy hat and two other young under 25 trying to load a dirt bike in the back of a 1990s green Chevy pickup an officer pulled up and explained that they can't take the bike one of the young men started yelling and refusing the officer's orders and then it seemed like he refused to comply with putting his hands on truck and started to what I could see resist and was taken down and handcuffed the young cowboy kid made verbal threats to me when I told him to go back up but did calm down and listen to me and go across across the street and stand on the sidewalk I swear I swear roll over on your stach now on your St if you'll let me roll I will dude what the hell holy sh dude give your hand I can't give my hand cuz you're holding my face just give him your hand dude I can't get back now I'm get away from your car get back down I'm away I'm away man I'm away back back both you guys go over here fil let him do his job he's not doing his job properly okay he's not doing his job properly whatsoever now I didn't mention this before but take a look at this scene you have officer Chambers pointing his taser at teenagers who were trying to film him but now they have to film him from a distance because he's pointing a taser at him then you have the neighbor male Karen standing there assisting in this he is allowed to stand there and as you see walk into the footage right now you see a female police officer so there is an additional officer on the scene and do we see officer Chambers lowering his taser that he's aiming at the teenagers he keeps it aimed at the teenagers even though there's this other officer right there not aiming her taser at anybody not freaking out not losing her temper he's still so angry that he's naming his taser at these kids get on the sidewalk back up dud want to all of you back upe I have no legal reason to go to jail get on the sidewalk get on the sidewalk back for what's the reason to get out of his I'm I'm not I'm away this is Officer Bradley chambers of the Meridian Idaho Police Department and this is his police report this is what he says happened I responded to an injury accident prior to my arrival on scene the involved dirt bike had been taken from the scene and moved to a front yard I made contact with three male subjects Samson Ganon and Jax who had loaded the dirt bike into a pickup truck this is what he says I told Samson who was standing in the back of the truck next to the bike I needed it out of the truck as it was part of my investigation Samson and Ganon refused to remove the bike and argued with me about why for the most part that appears to be correct but look these kids were not under arrest they even asked if they were being detained and were told they were not at least not yet after going through all the trouble of getting this thing loaded up they didn't want to unload it if they didn't have to so they offered every opportunity for him to examine and photograph the bike he goes around to the back of the truck and he appears to be doing that you any pictures of it you got A's do you want to argue about this what do you want take the bike out the part of my investig do you need pict you can Pi here I'm not unloading and reloading just walk around D like that we okay can drive drive after several requests and when they began to tamper with the bike I told them to step back from the truck so I could secure the scene for our investigation Samson did not comply and obstructed my investigation that's what he wrote but what really happened we see him behind the truck having every opportunity to perform his investigation but he's doing nothing he just stands there and he stands there while these two boys are are um trying to get this dirt bike situated they're trying to stop I believe an oil leak and and get it strapped down so that they can bring it home which is only like a mile away and then that's when you see officer Chambers goes from just zero to 11 because in his mind apparently he's decided that this the oldest kid Samson he's going to arrest him he's going to arrest him on an obstruction charge and you can see just like my last video see how quickly they do it it's not about um anyone obstructing an investigation it's about setting up a false arrest it's about arresting somebody because you want to retaliate against them or they've some they've done something to disrespect you here this officer is perceiving disrespect he doesn't like being filmed he doesn't like being told that they don't want to unload the dirt bike and he's going to arrest the oldest kid right here and he does it like within seconds okay I'll have St back I took control of his right hand and attempted to detain him despite repeated commands to stop resisting Samson physically resisted by tensing his body arching his back and pulling his arms from me he was taken to the ground and held down that sounds great right I mean Samson sounds like a really bad criminal in reality what happened Mr tough guy Baldhead cop here who already was a cop in California for decades and of course retires with all sorts of government benefits in California where does he move to Idaho and I think they love Californians and Idaho right so kids in Idaho get a taste of what it's like to deal with these bully cops in California so his report reads very official very proper very reasonable despite repeated commands to stop resisting Samson physically resisted by tensing his body arching his back and pulling his arms from me but when you watch the footage again these kids are not under arrest they haven't been suspected of committing any crime they're trying to get their injured Brothers dirt bike the cop was given the opportunity to take pictures he clearly doesn't appear to be interested in taking pictures what is he really interested in well he's not interested in the dirt bike at all in fact after all this thing happened do you think he got the dirt bike out of the truck and examined it investigated it took took pictures of it no you know what he did not a damn thing some other cop took pictures of the dirt bike right where it was in the back of the truck because why it would have been a pain in the ass a royal pain in the ass to get that dirt bike out of the truck when you can take pictures of it right where it sitting this whole thing was about absolutely nothing and on that same point another thing that I'll point out is that I have the entire Report with the supplemental reports you see all the pictures that this officer took of the scene of the mailbox post that was hit guess what he did not include pictures of in his report he didn't include any of the pictures he supposedly wanted to take of this dirt bike as I explained in the prior video another officer Ed end up tasked with the job of taking pictures of the dirt bike he just took pictures of the dirt bike where it was sitting in the back of the truck he never had it unloaded because there was no reason to do so just to take pictures of it that's why he didn't include any photographs of the dirt bike in this report because if he did so you'd see pictures of the dirt bike in the back of the truck thus rendering this entire incident completely unnecessary he's trying to keep up the appearance of these boys having obstructed this investigation that he wanted to do but all he needed to do was take pictures he is the one who chose not to do that so what does Mr tough guy cop from California really do he goes over there and just within a couple of seconds he sets up this false arrest for obstruction but look closely at what he actually does you know he talks about the uh Samson existing no go look at what Mr tough guy does he tries to face plant Samson from the very first moment okay I'll back what do you want he chose violence he went up to this kid and committed violence look closely this guy likes his leg sweeps he grabs a hold of Samson very quickly and then he sweeps his legs out from under him with with the officer's right leg okay I'll back what do you want what the hell is wrong and just about causes Samson to face plant into the concrete okay back do you want what the hell isong D stop what the hell is the matter I'm not doing anything put your hand back and actually this kid could have been very seriously injured the only thing that saved him from doing a face plant into the concrete and remember tough guy cop has his right arm already so he couldn't catch himself with his right arm it's only his left hand his left arm that's hanging onto his truck that saves maybe saves his life from doing a face plant into the concrete and a lot of people do get killed that way cops kill a lot of people that way um I've had one client who a cop um swept his feet out from under him he went into a coma he ultimately died I was there when they pulled the plug I was there with his mother when they pulled the plug I had another client Logan County West Virginia a cop leg swept a guy he had handcuffs did a face plant down into the asphalt fractured his head open and he was in a coma for an extended period of time and he fortunately survived and I was able to get him a settlement but who knows what would have happened to this kid here who had his whole life ahead of him no criminal record law-abiding citizen had committed no crime wasn't even there for the dirt bike wreck that his brother had he could have been killed or Paralyzed by doing a face plant into this driveway for no reason just because this cop chose violence first and you can see he gets angry when Samson is able to save his own life perhaps by hanging onto his truck with his left hand that's when the cop gets angry and he wants the left hand also but then Sam as you'll see Samson complies with that and he gives him both hands behind his back the matter with you stop stop what stop what stop resisting stop what I'm resisting stop resisting and then when the kid's completely defenseless the cop does it again because he's a violent violent person he leg sweeps him again and fortunately does not take the kid head first into the asphalt but but it was very close and I believe he did end up with a concussion from what this officer did Ganon and Jax continued to interfere and I eventually had to draw my Taser to gain their compliance this is also pretty bad and I didn't go into this in the prior video look at the size difference and he's laying on this kid with his arm wrapped around his neck he gets more aggressive with him then he says roll over roll over on the ground now of Thea he's not going to hit you what roll over on your stomach now on your stomach if you'll let me roll I will dude what the hell but the kid can't move you can see and look he's got control of both of the kids arms he gets on top of the kid and there's no way for the kid to comply any more than he's complying and the officer again the size difference he puts all of his weight right down on this kid's neck and head get away from your car get back holy is it any wonder that his brothers are upset in trying to film was it necessary for him to rest his weight on this kid's neck and head like that no in fact as I read he didn't even mention that part in his report but thanks to the little brothers we can see that it happened let him do his job step back hey chill a man hey back up get on sidewalk get on the sidewalk on the this guy's pointing a laser at me or a taser for no reason at all what's theas to get out of his way detaining my brother for no reason Samson was taken into custody placed in handcuffs that I check for proper fit and double locked he was cleared at the hospital and booked into the Ada County Jail on the violation of Idaho code resisting and obstructing after the arrest was made officer Chambers had a conversation with his Sergeant explaining to him what had just occurred listen to what he says okay so 253 that's his badge number by the way uh staying here this gentleman here as well this is obstructing he's about ready to go J hall if you don't get back uh B did not want me to take the bike or even look the bike they start to load up stra it out move back move back as well you're going to move step sounds good one thing he says is they were trying to take the dirt bike away I didn't see that in the video did you he also says that both of the kids did not want me to take the bike or even look at the bike is that true no the video shows otherwise they told him to examine it to take pictures of it he chose not to do you need pictures of it problem do you need pictures of it so you can s pictur here he said they started to load it back up and strap it down the video didn't show that he said that he said move back move back and move back again so I went up and said you're going to move that didn't happen also but he did say that Samson tensed up and then we went full on well the video shows that he went full on not Samson officer Chambers what was the Sergeant's response to this Sergeant Alber with the Meridian Police Department now this guy is a high quality public servant highquality supervisor he just says sounds good sounds good the main problem that I see here is when the officer first walked up he says he was investigating but he didn't ask for anyone's identification he actually told the kids that they were not being detained and if you're not being detained what are you allowed to do you're free to leave then after the fact he says he had to seize Samson because he was trying to take the dirt bike which which he wasn't they were in the process of trying to fix the oil League they weren't even trying to drive away at that point I mean just the video itself shows that everything he said happened that was alleged obstruction didn't didn't even occur the main issue here is the violent use of force that he engaged in to seize and arrest Samson even where a police officer is allowed to physically seize somebody they have to do it in a reasonable way and if they use an unnecessary amount of force that is a Fourth Amendment violation that is excessive force the US Supreme Court in a case called Graham versus Connor laid out three elements that we are to look at to analyze um using the totality of the circumstances every case is different based on the facts whether or not an excessive amount of force was used in this case the first factor is the severity of the crime at issue Samson is the one who had Force used on him he wasn't suspected of having committed any crime at all that factor very easily goes in favor of Samson the second factor which is the most important is whether or not the suspect poses an immediate safety threat that one also in my opinion goes to Samson um he hadn't made any verbal threats to the officer didn't um make any physical threats to the officer at most he was engaging in passive resistance when the much larger officer came up and just suddenly grabbed him and then tried to head plant him into the concrete the only individual posing an immediate safety threat was the officer against Samson the video shows that Samson never attempted to harm the officer or strike the officer in any way the third Grand factor is whether the suspect is evading or attempting to resist arrest the officer is saying stop resisting stop resisting but that's all theatrics that's what cops are taught to say right before they get violent with somebody the purpose of that is so that nearby witnesses will remember yeah the officer said stop resisting stop resisting and the kid was resisting at most the only resistance that was occurring was passive resistance they were actually working on the dirt bike at this time and there there was no attempt to evade the officer in any way there are many many court cases out there to stand for the fact that just mere passive resistance in an obstruction type investigation is does not justify violent uses of force such as trying to slam somebody head first into the asphalt in my opinion this is a clear case of excessive force and perhaps also a false arrest though the criminal charge is still pending and so if you're going to sue over a false arrest which just means a warrantless arrest in the absence of probable cause you have to first beat the criminal charges because if you get convicted of it that is going to get honored in federal court due to something called the HEC Doctrine and you're going to lose now if you beat the criminal charges you still have to prove the total absence of any probable cause and that in that you have to go through the State issue of whether or not the conduct that occurred you know can meet the state law definition of obstruction or resisting so usually it's best just to wait see if he beats the criminal charges first and then go through the weeds of whether or not there was probable cause under Idaho law but the excessive force case here in my opinion is a slam dunk it's a piece of cake and that brings us to the update since Saturday's doomed upload to Youtube so my YouTube video made the channel 2 Idaho news this afternoon the city of Meridian investigating a use of force incident involving a Meridian Police Officer now here's some of the video posted to YouTube of the arrest of 22-year-old Samson Allen and that news report announced that there was going to be an official investigation and also that apparently this officer has already left now they said that he left in early September the city says he's already voluntarily left the department this departure happening earlier this summer or earlier this month while the announcement this afternoon taking place after video was released of the arrest earlier this summer since the video was uploaded on Saturday not in early September the implication is is that he left before this video was even released according to their written article a spokesperson for the Meridian Police Department sent cbs2 the following information about the incident the chief of police has asked our office of professional standards to conduct a thorough review of the incident from start to finish including the use of force review which was initially conducted on this incident to ensure the law and our expectations were met this will take some time and given that this is an active pending case we are mindful of what can be released to protect the Integrity of the investigation I can share that officer Chambers voluntarily left the department for another opportunity in early September and when the complete review is finished we will provide additional information and that same basic statement was also provided by the city to several of you who emailed them following Saturday's video release so this is yet another example of something that happened like a few months past and supposedly supervisors Etc had already reviewed it the courts had looked at it and nobody had a problem with it then people just saw the egregious footage and were outraged by it and now there isn't actual thorough investigation or reinvestigation on what actually happened and the officer's gone but as I said there's more to be done because this department actually has a history and I'm running out of time here I think so that might be for a different video but there was a bad cop there before same Police Department everything was cool until the footage was released all of a sudden there's problems the guy end ends up leaving in disgrace but perhaps then popping up somewhere else or having the ability to pop up somewhere else and this is the same department so now where did Officer Chambers go or where will he pop up next if these departments if these agencies don't follow through then he's going to pop up somewhere else and if you don't stay on top of them and watch what they're doing they're not going to take appropriate actions but we can wait and see so please subscribe both here and at the blog at the civils lawyer.com and help me stay on top of this as well you can also follow me on Twitter John brryan Esq let me know in a comment your reaction to this footage did it outrage you or do you not care if you don't care tell me why our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it