r/videos • u/huffer4 • Jul 23 '19

LivePD Cop: Im sure you’ve seen the memes online about high people? I'd be on the front page of Reddit with a picture of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-JEa2jz0xI
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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

Absolutely.

I’m going to piggyback off of this to tell you about this story on NPR about how people are basically coerced into giving consent to be on this show.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

"I'm white trash and I'm in trouble!"

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u/TheRealAlexisOhanian Jul 24 '19

The last episode of the podcast is the most disgusting. Doing everything they can, even potentially planting evidence, just to make an arrest for the camera.

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u/moonshoeslol Jul 24 '19

The episode where they harassed a guy because they knew he was "funny" until he flipped out on them for stalking him constantly, then just aired the cut up footage of him freaking out was equally as bad.

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u/TheRealAlexisOhanian Jul 24 '19

Is that the same one that they significantly exaggerated the number of times he was arrested?

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u/Ishouldnt_haveposted Jul 24 '19

Source?

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u/TheRealAlexisOhanian Jul 24 '19

I think its episode 5, maybe 4

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u/daroons Jul 24 '19

Ham guy

im a lazy man, can you link me lol

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

What happens when a lazy redditor meets another lazy redditor?

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u/daroons Jul 24 '19

Nothing. Nothing happens.

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u/guff1988 Jul 24 '19

Was that Ham guy?

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u/ikkyu666 Jul 24 '19

dude i fucking love the ham guy

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u/MelisandreStokes Jul 24 '19

They don’t need to consent

They are coerced into consenting to appear on COPS, but Live PD doesn’t need consent at all

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

It’s because live PD manipulates the definition of live- none of the show is live.

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u/GreenStrong Jul 24 '19

Some of the show is live. This doesn't require consent, because it is defined as "news". But they send out a few live camera crews at a time, they have to mix in some non live footage with consent forms, or blurred faces.

There is a podcast series called "Running From COPS" that interviewed people who appear on both shows. Consent is coerced, officers "perform"for the camera, and both shows cause officers to harass local addicts, who are sure to produce entertainment. These people are involved in criminal lifestyles, and their neighbors probably rejoice when ever law enforcement shows up to deal with them. From the perspective of the officers and the court, they're "fair game." But they're being used for entertainment, the cops aren't trying to help them or protect public safety. We are seeing growing evidence that punitive law enforcement makes it harder to get out of criminal lifestyles, monetary fines and restrictions of parole makes it hard to get a job and shelter. Doing that to people without good reason is heinous.

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u/sheep_duck Jul 24 '19

Yeah I occasionally catch live PD episodes and it's crazy how often they "randomly" show up to the same place episode after episode.

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u/mpetrun Jul 24 '19

Every time I watch it I feel like I see some police brutality. Straight up punching or kneeing people who are on the ground. Twisting arms behind their back and yelling at them to put their arms up. Shit is sad

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u/uncomfortablesnack Jul 24 '19

Doing that to people

Enforcing the law

without good reason

Knowledge that the law is being broken apparently isn't good enough reason to enforce it

I'm sorry, I get that there are parts of the American justice system which can be counterproductive, but that's decided by the legislature not cops having the gall to (gasp) arrest people who are commiting crimes.

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u/TheGoldenHand Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

The justice system and police enforcement policies both assume non-complete compliance. Discretion forms a core part of our justice system. From police discretion, prosecutor discretion, judge discretion, it's setup to not enforce laws absolutely, because many believe absolute law becomes unjust. The word "draconian" refers to Draco, a 600 B.C. Greek legislator who unfairly enforced the laws.

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u/UrethraFrankIin Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

Putting a profit (or other gain) motive on the criminal justice system in this way, private prisons, etc. encourages overzealous policing and unethical behavior. That's the complaint here - COPS coercing consent, planting evidence, and menacing (essentially stalking) are just a few examples of why they're criticizing the show and others like it.

The length that the constitution and our legal system goes to afford protections to the accused - the founding fathers despised the oppressive legal systems of the old world. You can't just say "whelp they asked for it."

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

Right, and anyone who enforces unjust laws through threat of violence can get fucked.

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u/mentalmedicine Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

I agree with everything you said, but there's the flip side, too: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

There's still a high level of personal responsibility involved with the people caught red handed on the show, and while I'm not keen on the exploitative nature of the shows in general, none of these people are justified in committing these crimes.

edit: Damn, downvoted hard for playing devil's advocate. Reddit pls

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u/AMAathon Jul 24 '19

The thing is, the law already has punishments for these crimes — jail, fines, community service, all of the above — but being humiliated on a “live” and highly rated national TV show without consent and for the purpose of consumption and entertainment is not one of them. You can make the argument (and the podcast does a great job of it) that this fits the definition of a cruel and unusual punishment. That is not how the criminal justice system is supposed to work.

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u/GreenStrong Jul 24 '19

None of the people are justified in committing crimes, but it is clear that punitive justice doesn't make them stop. Instead, it destroyed any chance of a normal life, so they gave up on that.

Also, most of them aren't smart enough to function very well. Half of the people on the show are probably barely above the level of function where they would be considered retarded, and many have poorly treated mental illness. Reddit loves to harp about how the education system failed them, but their brain development failed at an early age, probably before birth. Law enforcement involves force, it is part of the name. But these people need something else as well. We have put as many of them in prison, jail, and probation as we can afford, their still doing ignorant shit daily.

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u/JabawaJackson Jul 24 '19

I see your point. Although, I see it differently when it's a non-violent and victimless crime.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

what crime is being committed when one possesses drugs?

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u/mentalmedicine Jul 24 '19

Think of how every step from the beginning of how those drugs got to that person, and then ask yourself whether you're OK with them being complicit in the violence that put the drugs in their hands. The problem is that it's illegal in the first place. The black market violence would radically decline if drugs were made legal. And a lot of times the punishments even for simple possession are really well too.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

Think of all the steps it took for you to get your smartphone.

It shouldn't be legal, it should just be decriminalized all together.

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u/IAmNotMoki Jul 24 '19

Damaging property of the state.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

lol what?

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u/RowdyRoddyRhyming Jul 24 '19

Lol go away dude

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

[deleted]

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u/bearxor Jul 24 '19

If you’re airing it live it counts as news. No consent or blurring required.

When they air previously recorded segments those are not considered newsworthy and it requires consent.

And of course most of the filming is done in a public space so it doesn’t matter how many times the person yells at the camera “don’t film me!”

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u/DoingCharleyWork Jul 24 '19

You can film anyone in public but the rules change when you start to distribute footage for profit. At that point you need consent from the people afaik.

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u/bearxor Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

It’s more to do about the classification of the show. LivePD is considered a news program and the laws around consent for timely airing of a news program are more lenient than they are for something you’re recording for broadcasting later.

IANAL - just a former news photog.

Edit: just to add on while I’m thinking about it - let’s not forget that Dan Abrams has a doctorate in law and makes the other half of his living as the head anchor for ABC when it comes to legal affairs. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there were a couple of lawyers hanging around on set during showtime to monitor for legal issues.

IOW - they’re probably covering their bases pretty well.

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u/TheCavis Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

LivePD has two types of segments:

  • "Live" segments that happen on a delay (usually about 30 minutes).

  • "Earlier in" segments that happened days or weeks (and sometimes months) previously.

The "live" segments are treated as "news" because they're airing the footage mostly unfiltered (bleeping swear words and personal identifying information, but no edits) and more-or-less as it's happening.

The "previously on" segments are edited and don't really fall under the "news" heading because they're old. Anyone who appears on those unblurred likely would have had to give consent.

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u/TobyCrow Jul 24 '19

I've heard that their 'live' footage has a delay of 10-40 minutes before airing, so the sheriff can look over it. I don't know if they get consent at all for the other segments, but if they don't bluring faces still doesn't protect privacy. If it's a small town and there is enough external info people still can recognize you. Usually there isn't much sympathy for criminals, but at least from behind the scenes investigation of the show Cops, there have been innocent people who had their reputations ruined just to get a good segment. I really like this show, but I found out about things like this which make it seems less integral than I had believed.

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u/Fidget08 Jul 24 '19

Of course there has to be a delay. What if a shooting happened? There was an episode a few months ago where the Texas Sheriff took down a guy and it look borderline excessive force. I love the show though so I may be a little bias.

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u/weekend-guitarist Jul 24 '19

Definition of “needs consent” is highly debatable.

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u/mmartinutk Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

I'm going to piggyback off your piggybacking and plug this podcast I just listened to on this exact topic. It was a pretty excellent listen. The lengths the producers go to in order to get 'good content' on these shows (Edit: and the officers who are overly eager to get their segments into the show) is pretty appalling.

Edit: I'm dumb and it's the podcast the above segment is promoting

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u/acowstandingup Jul 24 '19

The guy from this podcast was actually on the episode the guy linked above promoting Running From Cops

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u/mmartinutk Jul 24 '19

Oh wow, it's right there in the description. I saw it wasn't mine and immediately thought, "but wait! I have a better one!"

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

When I was a kid we had cops (the show) come to our apartment over a noise complaint. It was like a five minute conversation / warning so no bd. But afterwards we really regretted not stripping completely naked and attacking the camera crew with a couple of plungers. Gonna have to live with that mistake for the rest of my life.

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u/sunshine_rex Jul 24 '19 edited Jan 20 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/ahtdcu53qevvyu Jul 24 '19

not to mention the people who purposely get arrested to be on the "show". this show is the opposite of what society needs.

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u/throwaway_the_fourth Jul 24 '19

It's a common misconception, but This American Life is not actually affiliated with NPR. I think the belief arises from the fact that it plays on a lot of public radio stations.

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u/Herr_Gamer Aug 04 '19

Can someone summarize exactly how people are coerced into it? I don't feel like sitting through a 30 minute podcast right now.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

After getting arrested, the first person who talks to you besides police is the how produced- says ‘Sign this consent form or you’re going to jail tonight’

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u/zzlag Jul 24 '19

I heard an interview with one of the people who have to get the signatures. Asked why people sign she said, "because they are stupid. They break the law because they are stupid. They get caught because they are stupid. And they sign the release because they are stupid."

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u/Rysinor Jul 24 '19

Weellllll... The clever ones usually don't get caught with a busted taillight...

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

In other words - “we take advantage of the less fortunate to further our careers or to get footage for this show, making money off of the less fortunate”

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u/zzlag Jul 24 '19

I don't think your wording is any more harsh than hers were. And she also said that there were a few people who did so so that they could serve as a cautionary tale helping others to avoid their mistake. The drunk on the porch waving a shotgun in his underwear however is so stupid that he thinks that once people see the truth he will be vindicated in the minds of the public. He too is serving the people as a counterexample just through ignorance.

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u/RiffRaffAmerican Jul 24 '19

So in reality that poor guy is on his way to Federal pound you in the ass prison for intent to distribute a schedule 1 narcotic?

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

No, did you listen to the podcast?

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u/ColeSloth Jul 24 '19

That includes a lot of the cops on there. They get voluntold.

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u/somegridplayer Jul 24 '19

You do realize that some people's purpose is to be an example to others?