No wonder the Kops hate people photographing them. Amateur photojournalism is a major Enemy of Freedom® and must be stopped.

Why are police such liars? It seems they are perfectly willing to lie under oath.

Wouldn't it be nice if they had actually arrested the asshole who stabbed the reporter in the head with his sharpened stick?

@2

Liars? Ever heard of Jennifer Fox?

Kudos to the prosecutors for doing their job well. At cop-taunting events such as this cops being teased often make "extra" arrests and let prosecutors sort it out. It's great there was convincing video evidence, not to mention a fine attorney taking a break from her usual DUI work, Andy Robertson, who subleases her office space from McGinn and O'Brien's old corporate law firm Stokes Lawrence.

Note to future mayhem-tourists like Garland: memorize Andy's number before you don your black face bandanna.

This guy should file a claim with the City to get his attorney fees paid.

Cameras cameras everywhere. Just not in the hands of the state?

@4 yes I have, why? Are you telling me that people other than the police lie too?

When's the last time a SPD officer faced a perjury charge?

What a coward, covering his face with a mask like that. He wants to be anonymous so that he won't be held accountable for his actions. Then, the douchebag provokes the police.

I am a real video journalist and I work with real photo journalists and we never cover our faces and we usually carry ID so we can get special access during events. As well, real photojournalists are there to document events, not create news. Finally, the police in North America usually give us tons of leeway as long as we identify ourselves and behave appropriately.

This guy is a wannabe photographer provocateur who tried to stir shit up so he would have something to take pictures of. Good thing the police got him off the street before he could start something more.

@12, @13, @14: I hear Golden Dawn's looking for recruits over in Greece...

@9 Are you telling me that people other than the police lie too?

Yes and sometimes theyre members of the Occupy Seattle movement. Sometimes they like to lure children away from their parents, promising them Olympic glory.

No way we'd convict him.

Everyone knows the SPD is out of control. Except the Council, the Mayor, and the Chief - they're still in denial.

I have no problem with the cops making life a little more miserable for assholes like this "photogapher."

The other Alex Garland is better looking. Just saying.

Let's compare the officer's version of events to the video. Here's what Officer Stephen Smith, serial #6829, said in the charging documents:

"Garland had tried to push past Officer Smith, and when he was ordered back, he refused to do so although he had room and he kept trying to get by Officer Smith to the prisoner. Officer Smith put his left hand on Garland's chest and tried to turn him away from the officers trying to handcuff and deal with their suspect, but Garland grabbed officer Smith's left hand with both hands and twisted and squeezed, causing Officer Smith pain and concern. Smith said he thought that Garland was trying to pull him into the crowd so he was more vulnerable to an assault from the crowd..."

Does the video show Garland try to push past Officer Smith? No.
Does Garland grab either of Officer Smith's hands "with both hands" and twist or squeeze? No.
Does Garland pull at Officer Smith in any way? No.

This officer, Stephen Smith, fabricated a false version of events to get an innocent person charged with felony assault, at a considerable & needless expense to both the city and county. Officer Smith should be fired, and then charged with official misconduct under RCW 9A.80.010.

McGinn and Diaz: if you can't cut a harmful fabricator loose, all this talk about reform is just lip service.

@22,

Histrionic? Please precisely quote exactly which words and phrases I used that were "histrionic."

Also, when an officer tries to substantiate an assault charge by claiming that the defendant "grabbed his hand with both of his hands" when the defendant never grabbed him at all, and then "twisted and squeezed", when the defendant never had a grip by which to twist or squeeze, causing him "pain and concern" when there was no actual twisting or squeezing, and causing him to worry that he was being "pulled into the crowd" when in fact it's the officer who responded by pulling at the defendant... that's not necessarily lying? What is it, then? Fact-like embellishment?

Also, it's clear which officer is Smith, and it's clear that at the moment when Smith reached out and pushed Garland, that Garland's right hand was on his camera, and his left hand was at his side.

@24,

I don't think it's possible in any manner that would still be compatible with the narrative.

@25, yes, I expect that he would. Notwithstanding any mitigating facts excluded from the narrative, it describes an assault.

@26: Ken, what's your point? Yes, absent the video evidence which makes it clear that Seattle Police Department Officer Stephen Smith #6829 blatantly lied in his report, Alex would very likely have been tried for a felony offense that he did not commit, and it would likely have been his word against that of this lying piece of shit with a gun and a badge.

Alex annoyed some cops, so they threw him in jail, pulled a charge out of their asses, then made up a story to support that charge. It happens all the time. It happened to me in Albuquerque. It happened to Eric here in Seattle. Without video evidence, all three of us probably would have been convicted on the word of lying police. It's no wonder they targeted the guy with the camera.

@30,

As to what actually happened, I agree insofar as it also looks to me like the arrest was the result of an overreaction by Smith. But from video, it appears what Smith is reacting to is Garland stepping up to him to say/yell something at close range. (Shouting "Let him go!" would be my guess.)

Garland is definitely not making a half-hearted attempt to push through the line. Watch closely as Garland steps up to Smith at exactly 0:23 and 0:24 -- first, notice the placement of Garland's hands, at his sides, which is not where your hands would be if you were trying to push past someone. Second, look at the placement of Garland's feet as they relate to his posture and balance. He's not squaring off to support a push in any direction, instead his feet remain close together, and at the instant when he leans closest to Smith, he's lifting his back (left) foot slightly off the ground, which again is not the way you'd balance yourself to push past someone.

I could forgive Smith for merely overreacting to someone yelling protests in his face. But sending someone to court to answer a felony assault charge is a very serious thing. It goes way, way beyond mere "self-delusion" to claim to have been assaulted, and elaborate in so much false detail, when it's so visibly clear that Smith, and not Garland, was the one who acted forcefully.

@30, Ken wrote that the victim of this wrongful arrest -- he who was forcibly removed in violation of his First Amendment protections against government infringement on speech and assembly, thereby neutralizing his ability to participate in this political demonstration -- was "decked out like a super-villain in dark glasses and a black bandanna." Ken, would you find peaceful demonstrators to have a less villainous appearance if they used some other protection from SPD's known-indiscriminate use of chemical agents to gain compliance of people suspected of jaywalking and/or of pedestrian interference? Are you truly frightened by the color choice? What colors do you see other people wearing when they're going about their everyday lives downtown?

And how would you describe people decked out in all black, most of them with dark glasses and dark helmets, with shields, shin guards, 4' clubs, and a belt full of weapons, with the only identifying information on individuals in this otherwise-anonymous black bloc being tiny 1/4" print on the fronts of their shirts?

@33: In the story SPD Officer Stephen Smith made up about the arrest, he did not accuse the victim of disturbing the peace, of disorderly conduct, or of jaywalking, but of felonious assault of a police officer.

If someone restrains you, locks you in a cage overnight, and justifies his actions by making up a wild story that has almost no connection with reality, would the fact that you were standing in the street documenting a political demonstration at the time he arrested you make your arrest any less wrongful?

@33,

I found it immediately apparent that there was no assault (by Garland) depicted in the video, but I didn't get into the slo-mo analysis until you & I got into the weeds of whether there had been any pushing or shoving on Garland's part.

As to your other question (which you directed to Phil), I'll take a stab:

It was definitely not legal as an assault arrest. I don't think it stands up as a disorderly conduct arrest either, since the courts consistently interpret the law as saying that the fist amendment trumps any application of disorderly/disturbance statutes to political speech. (If you're interested, there's a good article here complete with legal citations.)

You can see from the cameraman's position (visible from 0:32 onward) that the whole incident takes place on the sidewalk, so there was no jaywalking or pedestrian interference here. (Also, it's not jaywalking to step off the curb - you have to make it all the way across the street. Finally, jaywalking is just a civil infraction, not an arrestable crime.)

Oops, fixing the broken link in my previous comment.

The article is here.

@37,

If Garland had been charged for something he actually did, you'd have yourself an argument.

To your second point, you're correct to point out that an officer needs only probable cause for an arrest to be legal, but judges & juries need the much higher standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to convict. That being said, there was no probable cause for assault in this instance, so I would say Smith does bear some liability for a false arrest.

In your final statement, about whether cops need to know the finer points of case law, it depends on whether the legal question is considered settled by the courts. If the legal question is still open, then the officer has what's called qualified immunity from liability for a false arrest. But if a legal question is well-settled, then an officer who gets the law wrong is not guaranteed immunity. Here in Washington, the state attorney general's office prepares a monthly "Law Enforcement Digest" which is published & integrated into officer training by the WA criminal justice training commission, which is the agency that trains & certifies every LE officer in the state. You can find the LED publications here, and their annual digest update is, for civil rights freaks like myself, required reading.