police officers love to bully citizens recording in public but what happens when they tell an independent auditor to leave a place where he's perfectly allowed to be are you sir chief of police can I can I get your name you can look it up on the internet if you got smart but why would I have to look it up on the internet sir what's your name what where's the professionalism what's your name down because your sergeant doesn't know when he can legally identify somebody and you're telling me I can't film in a police Lobby yes I sure can I can film under police Lobby it's my constitutional right I'm I have freedom of press in this country sir here's a crazy example of police being complete tyrants and violating people's rights so in this video an independent journalist exposed Pooler police for their unlawful Behavior by exercising his first amendment right and seeing whether the officers will respect it or not here's how it all began today we were at the city hall here in Pooler Georgia we are here today to peacefully exercise our First Amendment right to film in public and publicly accessible areas to promote transparency and accountability within our government and to ensure that our public servants respect our rights and treat us with respect let's get into it under Georgia law there is no liability for an injury or death of an individual entering these premises of such injury or death results from the inherent risk of Contracting covet 19. interesting after some reading of what the poster on the door said the auditor enters the building and soon stumbles across some police officers and this is where the juice starts hey how you guys doing I'm here to see the city clerk [Music] I'm just want to see the city clerk s okay great said that he wants to see the city clerk and after a brief phone call he's informed that the clerk will come see him herself hi ma'am how are you clear yeah I'm looking to do an open records request okay I want to fill out a form okay sure you want me to um so what happened right there was that they measured his temperature since it was coveted 19 season back when this happened they had to ensure only healthy individuals were entering the building that's fine cool building you guys have here very beautiful [Music] thank you all right thanks guys or is it related to a police or fire item um this is general for the city all right yeah anything dumb police or fire would be done at their offices right I can you know have to bring them up you could just email it to me yeah so generally it'll um probably a couple hours for me to get this together but we do have free business days to get to yeah sure yeah not a problem it's not pressing or anything just whatever you can get around to it sure that you want all city employees every not a specific Department all city employees that's it okay thank you thank you okay all right so everything went well at City Hall did our foil requests no issues it's what I like to see now let's head over to the police department side and make sure that they respect our freedom of press right okay so as he said everything went smoothly he filled out the form and the clerk said she's going to email it to him in a few hours it seems like the day is going great until he arrives to the police department hey how you doing today sir yeah can I just get your name and bad's number first can I just get your name a badge number self Sergeant self and your badge number six one five six one five yeah okay no I don't I don't need any help you're in a secure you're in an employee parking lot it's not a secure area this is and you're making employees feel uncomfortable in the matter of seconds a police officer comes up to him and tells him that he's making employees uncomfortable I'm sorry what he literally just walked past so this is this this parking lot is not a secured area it's public property okay it might be only for employee parking I'm not parking in here my car is not parked in here I'm an independent journalist I'm working on a story it's for employees you're not an employee it's employees parking you're making it coming out of it so that that's where the problem is I the officer repeats himself again looking like a true NPC repeating the same thing again and again but you can hear how he's starting to get a little angry meanwhile another officer arrives let's continue and see what happens I I don't understand what you're saying because how would I make somebody feel uncomfortable I don't understand because you're not employed you're in a fully parking lot you're making this isn't this is an employee parking lot like you said I'm not parking I'm a journalist exercising my freedom of press right in a public area this is public like if I was behind those Gates over there behind you that that would be a restricted area do you do you suspect me of committing a crime sir do you suspect me of committing a crime do you have your idea do you suspect me of committing a crime sir I need to know if you're suspecting me of committing a crime first I'm a police officer I asked you for your ID I need you to give me your ID so with all due respect with all due respect sir can I can I speak to another supervisor I understand that you're a sergeant but I do not I am the supervisor here I understand but then you should know as a supervisor sir that unless you have reasonable articulable suspicion that I've committed a crime in the state of Georgia you cannot lawfully demand my ID from me what I told you was you're making employees feel uncomfortable I've asked you for your ID that's not a crime sir that's not a crime the auditor is completely right here and it's actually a shame that the officer who is a sergeant and claims to be the supervisor in the area doesn't know that simple law I'm asking you should know that in Georgia it's you have to have reasonable article suspicion of a crime that's been committed sir I just told you I'm engaged in a constitutionally protected activity freedom of press parking lot suspicious suspicious is not a crime sir suspicion is not a crime you know that Sergeant come on you know suspicion is not a crime ID sir I don't have a legal obligation to give you a driver's license or an ID sir I don't understand am I being detained Keep On Walking okay if I'm not being detained I'm going to continue about my business sir I'm going to do it here I'm an independent journalist who are you sir you're the chief of police can I can I get your name you can look it up on the internet and do that smart but why would I have to look it up on the internet sir what's your name what where's the professionalism what's your name okay so as the first officer seems to have ran out of words to say the other one who seems to be on an even higher position starts arguing with the auditor however this one is verbally abusing his authority even more and starts the conversation off way more aggressively than his colleague tell me if you tell me your name and identify yourself this is a private this is the employee parking lot you're not an employee you have no business this is this is I'm not parking here you just dude is this fenced off look I want to make it very clear it's not a fenced off area let me make it very clear this is an employee parking lot there's no there's no no trespassing signs or anything like that sir I'm not breaking the law sir I'm next I'm I'm actually engaged in a constitutional protected activity and I feel like you're trying to bully me along with your sergeant and Sir who are you who are you sir he's one of my employees okay one of your employees I feel like all three of you are trying to bully me and trying to exert authority over me that you don't have demanding ID your sergeant doesn't understand that he cannot demand ID lawfully unless unless he has Reasonable articulable Suspicion I've committed in my parking lot that's a failure that's a failure on your part sir you're supposed to educate your employees correct why are you in my parking lot they should know I'm working like I told your sergeant I'm not just not answering questions I I cannot answer questions but I'm answering I'm an independent journalist I'm gathering content for a story on the city can see it in the officer's eyes that he actually knows he's wrong but keeps on being loud about how the auditor can't be walking in the parking lot they're in let's see what happens next I was inside doing a foia request no yes I was who says I'm recording anybody and plus it's public information you guys run tags all day people people drive around all day in the city with tags on it's not like any private information do I have a database where I can look up people come on you gotta you gotta think logically here I don't have a database where I can just type in somebody's you know license plate and figure out who they are are you ordering me to leave under threat of arrest sir uh yeah I'm ordering you this is the third time I've told you to leave my parking lot I'm gonna go on a public sidewalk and I'm gonna continue to record I'm gonna continue to record your parking lot and I'm gonna hit you up with civil litigation over this just so you know because you're you're violating a constitutionally protected activity and in this small town here you might think that you're gonna get away with it but you're not I'm telling you right now Chief and I don't know your name but you are the public servant here sir you are the public servant here you're making you're all you're doing is you're allowing your city you're you're portraying your city in a negative light for the world to see remember that remember I told you that Jesus so this is a public sidewall correct this is a public sidewalk make sure you guys are nothing but a bunch of bullies you're not gonna get my ID you're not gonna get my ID and I'm going to be civil I'm going to start civil litigation against you it's funny how the officers just leave the scene as they realize the auditor is way smarter than they are and since he stepped on that sidewalk there's nothing more they can complain about crazy trespassed me from an open parking lot not restricted area or anything let's go catch up with them can I be can I be trespassed from this sidewalk where it's right in front of the parking lot ridiculous Chief I wanna I wanna submitica complaint Chief I want to submit a complaint you're not getting away with this one you might get away with them you might get away with them normally on a regular basis but not today I want to submit a complaint so I go inside to do that or look like public internet I need I need your names if it is your policy to give me your name who do I know I'm filing a complaining against it oh I gotta figure it out that's real professional something else that's real professional now you can go ahead you can go ahead uh you guys you guys are the ones that being aggressive here you're not walking behind me I will don't worry about it I will what's your name I need to file a complaint against you Chief Ashley Brown Chief Ashley Brown yeah okay great and your name sir be professional come on is it really that serious you're not making yourself look good here I'm just asking for your name your name sir oh okay thank you your name sir heintzmann and you have a badge number heinzman six five four six five four thanks reply yeah I know you don't care but that's just that's just the tip of the iceberg then comes civil litigation chief then comes to litigation because I was trespassing in your parking lot that's a public parking lot hey hey you don't tell me what to do you don't tell me what to do let's make that clear the officers actually give him their names which comes out as of kind of a surprise since they weren't looking like they wanted to do that at first then the argument continues as the auditor lets them know they're in legal trouble after the harassment in the parking lot which was actually public not private as they wanted to make him think you don't tell me what to do so you're the public servant here I do want to file a complaint you can go get it I'm not stopping you you guys have a bad attitude special use Sergeant you came over here trying to threaten me with my ID you had a bad attitude man you got to learn you got to learn Georgia state law that's your matter of opinion so do you understand that under Georgia state law you cannot demand ID from law abiding citizens sir do you understand that or not was that on the Sergeant's exam or was it maybe I'll put a suggestion in that that should be on the Sergeant's exam when you can and cannot identify a law-abiding citizen foreign this is a public Lobby you're gonna kick me out of a public Lobby too Chief oh fill it out then all right excuse me you need to board a pin too or excuse me you can't record while you're in here why can't I record while many or I have a constitutional right to film the police in the course of their Duty sir is this department so uneducated and so inept at their job that you it must be from the top down because your sergeant doesn't know when he can legally identify somebody and you're telling me I can't film in a police Lobby auditor is completely right when saying that this department is completely uneducated since it really seems like that is the case the funniest thing is though that the auditor is about to file a complaint right in front of them in their own Lobby let's see how they react to that yes I sure can I can film on the police Lobby it's my constitutional right I'm I'm freedom of press in this country sir what country do you think you live in are you with the Press yes get up thank you sir have a good one yeah no problem how do I file the complaint if I can't get in the building hello hello I don't think anyone anticipated that but they actually kicked the auditor out of the building which is crazy these guys are crazy get out my building this is the People's Building not yours all right let's try and open the door who do I who do I hand the Complaint Form to when I'm done okay and do I get like a receipt number or something like that there's no receipt number for your complaints [Music] oh yeah I will you're right you're right what a bunch of clowns Pooler Police Department clowns we're gonna fill out this complaint on Ashley Brown the chief of police who investigates the chief of police crazy all right guys so we just filled out our Pooler Police Department citizen written Complaint Form yeah right here it says um all parties filing a form over and complaint are entitled to receive a copy of the original statement free of charge so I would like it for receiving supervisor can sign right there and give you a copy as it's stated on the form you guys are a bunch of bullies abuse of authority after requesting a copy the auditor requests something else but will the officers give it to him let's see you know what I want to do a public records request too let's let's find out how much money you guys are making abusing your Authority how much tax dollars you're taking from everyone foreign [Music] they don't want me recording but there's cameras in here ridiculous the irony okay okay my copy yeah well you will you guys allow me to do it here I don't understand what's the big deal but where's where's where's the signs that says I can't record in here where is where is the law you sure do this is a this is a constitutionally protected activity because that's what this is as soon as you pass through that doorway you're now private property it's public property there's sensitive information okay yeah all right sure thing so they again tell the auditor that he cannot record in there even though they're wrong it looks like he doesn't want to argue with them anymore just to be same so he goes out and finishes the paper business out there yeah I went in there with a spy camera or my sunglasses that record it wouldn't be an issue but these guys are just looking for a reason to lock me up so we're not going to push it but you know we'll put them in the court of public opinion let's fill out this open records request yep so what I'm requesting is all Police Department employees names titles and salaries can I get a copy of that too uh no I don't have to put in that choice you're allowed to do an anonymous complaint do not make it Anonymous it doesn't matter it doesn't matter okay well I'm going to tell you the place not valid it doesn't matter I want to speak to the chief I want to speak to the chief he's not here you got me I'm the one accepting the complaint you're accepting the complaint on yourself okay well I'm going to tell you that it's it's you didn't finish you didn't fill the form out correctly so you can submit a complaint anonymously let me explain you how something simple here Anonymous would mean you didn't put your name and phone number so you took the anonymous part it doesn't matter okay whatever certain parts of it can be certain parts of it can be anonymous I don't have to get I don't have to give you my name all right I don't have to give you my address you're just being difficult Sergeant a little bit of de-escalation training will take you a long way you need to learn I understand you learn from your chief who's also a bully and a tyrant but you need to learn don't talk to people that way you understand yeah Tyrant it's important to note here how the auditor overpowered that supervisor to a point where he said okay whatever and actually took the complaint despite claiming it wasn't correctly completed at first ridiculous crazy these guys looking for any reason to lock me up I know you didn't get involved really but a little bit of de-escalation training goes a long way there's no no one was breaking any laws here no one was doing anything wrong I told you what was my purpose here I didn't have to tell you that I didn't have to tell you anything I could have remained silent I told you I'm an independent journalist Gathering content for a story there's no need for any of this you guys want to escalate the situation are you a detective or a sergeant you're just an employee all right well hopefully you're you'll see you'll see this this this behavior is going to be put on display for the world to see and that I know you didn't say much while you were here which is probably the smartest move but your Department's going to be under major public scrutiny so maybe things can change going forward that's that's the that's the whole point hopefully you guys can get some education and learn that you can't bully people on the street law abiding citizens all right you take care now all right all right after the short last conversation the auditor goes outside and Records a little more just to prove that he can in fact do that whenever he pleases it's not worth uh getting arrested over just to step foot on their parking lot but we're gonna film from the sidewalk here their parking lot still so kind of defeats their purpose of you know kicking me out of the parking lot unlawfully trespassing me but we're just gonna stick around for a few more minutes and then we'll get out of here all right guys so we're just getting out of the city hall and the police department in the city of Pooler Georgia definitely a big time fail here trespass from a publicly accessible parking lot trespass from a public Lobby I was treated with such disregard disrespect unprofessionalism the chief of police himself wouldn't identify himself until the very last minute I would just say that if my name was Ashley and I was a man I probably wouldn't want to identify myself to a member of the public either maybe that's the reason but either way he should have been professional and identified himself it just goes to show that when you have bad leadership at the top it trickles down to the entire department so I would definitely classify this department here in the city of Pooler as a bunch of tyrants because if their chief of police is a tyrant then they all must be tyrants because he sets the example he's the one that's supposed to investigate complaints and hold them accountable for their actions and obviously he's not going to do that because he doesn't hold himself accountable for his own actions now the only thing left to do was to speak to the mayor of Pooler to get some changes done in the Pooler Police Department because clearly many things are wrong there