Welcome to Crime Time Central legal talk hosted by attorney David Ridings. This is where we sort out the good guys from the bad guys and try to help you make sense of the law. We'll give you the latest on the big cases and highlight the weird ones as well. We'll hear from the defenders, the enforcers, and maybe even a few law breakers. Regardless, you'll come away knowing more than when you started. This is Crime Time Central legal talk. Hey guys, I'm David Ridings with Crime Time Central. Thanks for joining us. We're live on Stand Against Dark Blue and we're going to define Dark Blue for you tonight. So, lots of people have asked me, "Why do you call it Stand Against Dark Blue?" You know, don't they all wear dark blue? I'm not talking about their clothes. Not talking about the color that they wear. Dark Blue is just a quippy way of symbolizing the bullies in police department that need to be eradicated. The darkness in police departments. You know, dark blue. So, if you've ever seen a bully cop, you know exactly what that is. If you've ever been pulled over by one, you really know what that is. Here on Stand Against Dark Blue, we show you videos. We call bully cams sometimes. We have a bully cam of the day award uh typically. And this is not a new video here, but it's in the news. Um and we're reporting on it specifically because of some recent action that has taken place. Little bit of background. Officer Snyder, Matthew Snyder, uh was involved in a sort of a traffic stop, not really a traffic stop. These people pulled into a Motel 6. And he alleged that they didn't use a turn signal. In hindsight, he just made that up. And you can tell well, I can tell, having been a police officer, by the way he brings it up in this traffic stop, that that wasn't the reason that he stopped them. He claims that's the reason that he stopped them. And he And he did so under oath and in his reports. And then uh you'll see in one of these videos, he was caught bold-face lying. Because he he did not see them fail to use their turn signal. Now, in Tennessee, um I've had this incident a couple of times. I'm a defense attorney. I'm a former police officer. And if you watch this channel very much, you know that sometimes we talk about the law, we talk about what police are required to do, and what you're required to do on a traffic stop. And there are occasions when we will talk about specific cases. In general, however, when we're talking about somebody being stopped for not using their turn signal in Tennessee, the state statute requires that you use a turn signal when the failure to use the turn signal would affect the driving of another person. In other words, it's not illegal not to use your turn signal. Some cops don't even know that. Some cops still think that it's illegal not to use your turn signal if you don't if you're turning, and that's not true. I've had multiple cases where police have pulled somebody over and the only reason for the stop was the failure to use the turn signal. One case in specific in particular, um the police officer was a couple hundred yards away. He was down the road. He saw a car at a stop sign. It came to a full stop. He turned right, but he didn't use his blinker. It was 2:00 in the morning. It was in a a a ghost town of a neighborhood. Nobody else on the street. Um there wasn't a a dash cam or a body cam. So, all I knew was what my client told me was there was nobody behind me, nobody coming in either direction. When I passed the police officer after turning, he did a U-turn and and pulled me over. I particularly think that that officer was racially profiling my client and uh stopped him because he was black. He He said the reason that he stopped him was because he didn't use his turn signal. And he later, after stopping the vehicle, said that he smelled marijuana, ended up searching the car, and found a pound of weed in the back in the trunk. When it went to court, I just put the officer on the stand. I said, "Officer, how did you know it was my client that didn't use his turn signal?" He said, "Because he was the only one on the road." There was nobody There was nobody else around him. I said, "Okay. Where were you when he didn't use his turn signal? Were you behind him or in front of him?" He said, "I was down the road about a 100 yd away. I could very clearly see um And I said, you know, "How did you effectuate the stop?" And he said, "Well, when he turned, I was going the other direction. I did a U-turn, pulled in behind him." Which is exactly what my client told me. And pulled him over. I said, "So, was he driving recklessly? Did he Did he do anything other than not use a turn signal?" He said, "No, he just didn't use his turn signal. That's why I pulled him over." So, then I moved to dismiss, um showed the judge the law, which was very clear in Tennessee. Uh this officer was unaware of it. And the case got dismissed, and all the evidence was suppressed. Ultimately, the the criminal case again This This actual testimony happened in the traffic court on the citation that he was written for not using his turn signal. And then after we developed that testimony, um the criminal case against him was ultimately dismissed um because there was no justification for the search since the stop was illegal. So, in in this particular case, I'm going to show you the video. The officer lied. There's There's no easy way to say that. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. He He lied. And yet, he was still covered by other officers who laters Well, I'll let you watch some of what they said. And then I'll let you make up your own mind. In the parking lot of this Motel 6 in Glendale, police pull in How y'all doing? and approach this car. You guys staying here? I'm just visiting. I'm just not yet. I'm about to get a room. The passenger is Johnny Wheatcroft. He's in the front with another man. In the backseat, you can see his 11-year-old son, his 6-year-old, and their mother. You guys have your IDs on you real quick? All of you? Hey, when you turn in here, man, just make sure you throw your turn signal on for us. Huh? Hey, man, when you turn in here, you know, just make sure you throw your turn signal on for us. So, just the way he says that, indicated to me that wasn't really the reason that he stopped him. It was It was a pretext. Otherwise, he would have said, "Sir, I'm Officer So-and-so with the Metropolitan Police Department. The reason I stopped you was when you turned in here, you didn't use your turn signal." First thing he said to him when he walked up is, "Hey, man, are y'all staying here?" Um and then he said, "Do you Do y'all have your IDs?" Well, in in Tennessee, let me pull that up. Well, I'll let you keep watching this, and I'll pull up the law here in just a second. Yeah, that's all it is. Nobody has their ID on them? No. Anything with your name on it? Yeah, just grab it out real quick. Nothing in the car that shouldn't be right anybody? No. Nothing? Why are you It's July 27th, 2017, and these officers are part of a special unit assigned to high-crime areas. This is a reverse angle from the other officer's body camera. You're looking at Officer Matthew Schneider. You can just step out and hang out right there. Remember that name, because things with Schneider are about to escalate quickly. No. Well, just hang on a minute, okay? Yeah, just hang here for just a few seconds. Don't reach Don't reach in your bag, man. Okay, I'm sorry. You said you don't have no ID, I don't want you reaching in your bag. What's your name? Uh why are you Why am I even being asked? Well, you don't have ID and we made a We made a Yeah, if you're a passenger in a vehicle, you need to have your ID. I don't I have an ID. I'll give it to you. I mean, I didn't do anything wrong. Okay, well, I could So, this is the beginning of the confrontation. And let me just tell you what the law is in Tennessee. This actually was in in Arizona, so it it's not uh relevant to this particular video, but since I am in Tennessee and we have a lot of viewers that are in Tennessee, I think it's important for you to understand what your rights are in Tennessee. In Tennessee, are you required to give your identification to a police officer if he just asked you for it? You're a passenger in a car, for example, that was pulled over for not using your turn signal or speeding, running a red light or something, but you're not the driver. You're a passenger. And the police officer just wants to identify everybody in the car, which they always want to do. I've done it. As a police officer, I have asked for the ID of everybody in the car. And I don't believe I've ever had anybody refuse to give me their ID because most people think that you just have to do that if a police officer ask you for ID. Well, in Tennessee, when any police officer ask you if if they are um if they are making an arrest or issuing a citation or a civil warrant and he ask you for identification for the purpose of issuing a a citation or civil warrant, failure to produce such uh identification shall be grounds for for violator to be arrested and taken to booking, fingerprinted, photographed, and then released without having to make a bond. So, you can't even physically arrest somebody and put them in jail for not giving your their ID. What you can do, if you're issuing a citation and they refuse to give you an ID or you can't identify who they are, or you're placing them under arrest for um a misdemeanor that you would issue a citation for or you're writing a traffic ticket, you're allowed to take them to the booking room, fingerprint them, take their picture, and identify who they are um by use of of the booking room. But, then you're required to release them without locking them up and setting a bond. You're still You're still required to give them a citation uh for certain offenses. But, they're allowed to ask for your identification if they believe that if you're suspected of a crime, basically. So, if they have reasonable suspicion or probable cause of a crime and they plan to arrest you or issue a citation, then they can ask for your ID. In this case, the guy didn't want to give his ID. I don't know why he didn't want to give his ID, but he didn't have to give his ID. And he he resisted giving his ID. I say resisted, he didn't physically resist. He passively and verbally resisted and and said, "No, I don't really want to give you my ID ID." down to the station then. And anytime you tell a police officer no, that doesn't always go well. I don't have a better explanation for that, but police officers don't like to be told no. Usually, it's because they have a really big fat ego and they have a power problem, some of them. Not all of them. Um sometimes when you tell a police officer no and he understands the law and respects the law, he'll go, "Okay." Um he might ask why you don't want to give your identification. You're not required to answer that, but he might continue down that line of questioning. Uh but a good officer will allow you to refuse to give give the ID because you're not required to give the ID. Can we fingerprint you? Cuz we made a traffic stop on the vehicle, brother. I have an ID. I'll give it to you. I mean, I didn't do anything wrong. Okay, well, I could take you down to the station and fingerprint you cuz we made a traffic stop on the vehicle, brother. I'm not doing anything. I didn't do anything wrong. Cuz we made a traffic stop on the vehicle, brother. Um that's not a reason that you can identify everybody in the car, officer. I'm not doing anything, man. So I'm just here trying to help us out. We can do this one of two ways. We can do this the hard way or the easy way, son. And this is where a lot of officers will make the mistake. And and get in trouble. And this officer does ultimately get in trouble. Not for a very long time cuz this happened in 2017, people. I'm bringing it to you today because we have recent information about his work status. And finally um some action was was taken against this officer, which I'll tell you about in a minute. Can we relax for a minute, please? No, I'm going to relax. Listen. Listen to me. So the officer opens the door, which he's not allowed to do without reasonable suspicion of a crime or uh if he's if he's got probable cause, obviously he's allowed to open the door and do other things with probable cause, but if he's got if if he's only trying to identify this person and they don't want to identify themselves, he can ask them to step out of the car. They don't have to step out of the car unless they're suspected of a crime. Um I take that back. In Tennessee, you are required to step out of the car because it's a minor inconvenience that the courts have allowed the police to get away with because of officer safety concerns. But beyond that, you'll see in a minute this officer takes it too far. We're in a I don't have Don't stuff anything. All I want Okay, I don't want you stuffing anything down in between the seat like you're doing. Relax. Right there. So, you see right here, he's got his hand firmly on his on his tricep area and has grabbed this guy by the arm. Uh he thinks that he's trying to hide drugs or something, which, you know, he may have been. I don't know. I don't know that that doesn't report that this guy was uh in possession of any drugs, but this officer has absolutely taken physical control and custody of this man without without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a crime. I'm sorry. Keep your foot in there. Okay, stop, please. I didn't do anything wrong. Here's the deal. You'll also notice Well, besides the fact he just pulled his taser and stuck it on his shoulder, you'll also notice this this seat belt right here is still over the guy's arm. It's not around his waist, but it is over his arm and the officer has a hold of his arm on the outside of that seat belt. That's going to be important in just a minute. Listen to me. I listen to me. Listen to me. Relax your arm, okay? it. Don't start Listen. A couple of things. One, I mean, you don't have no ID on you, okay? I'm trying to do this as easy as we can. You already done stuffed something down in your backpack and you stuffed something down in the seat. Okay, are you going to fight or not? I'm not. Okay, we're going to do this cuz I just watched you. Let's pause for a quick second. Notice here the officer has been grabbing Weicroft's arm for the past 34 seconds. That's kept the seatbelt from sliding off and that's going to be important. Listen, he's going to fight, dude. Relax. Don't pull away. Hey, get your taser You are. You got a taser on you right now. So it doesn't appear to me that this man is is actively aggressively resisting. It appears to me he's tensed up because he doesn't want his shoulder to be pulled out of socket. Um he hasn't tensed up and jerked back and and fought and I've been in these situations before. You can typically tell when somebody's going to fight and that's what this officer thinks he's going to do, but you threaten the taser at that point and you say, "Sir, I'm going to tase you if you don't comply." Now, forget about whether or not he's it's right or he's reasonable in in taking physical control of him or custody of him at this point. Forget about that. Let's just say for a second he has the right to do that. Even if he does, he needs to warn him that he's about to be tased. He doesn't do that. He pulls the taser. He actually tells another guy to get his taser out and then he gets his taser out. Um and you can be the judge and let me know by your comments below, do you think this guy was actively resisting? And just watch it play out here. RELAX. OKAY, SO THEY'VE TASED HIM RIGHT THERE. In your opinion, was that reasonable? It didn't appear to me to be reasonable because this man was not fighting. This man was fighting the position of his arm, maybe, but the use of the taser was premature, in my opinion, and unnecessary, in my opinion. And he's he's yelling basically because, you know, he's he's obviously in pain. And then the officer drives him to the ground and and tases him, in my opinion. And in Wendy's opinion, prematurely. Um and it gets worse. Okay. So, now he's on the ground. And he was not, in my opinion, actively or passively resisting. He was screaming because he'd been tased and he was hurt. And this officer backs up and tases him again. This is stupid. Okay. So, what you probably didn't see there was another officer was hit in the head by something, by a water bottle or something. I'm told it was an accidental um it was an accident that this lady accidentally hit this guy on the head with some kind of water bottle. I don't know how serious it was. It didn't It didn't appear to be serious, but this officer saw that and that caused him to to further retaliate against this man who he's struggling with, who he um blames basically for that incident occurring to the other guy. You hear him call for medics and call for fire um because he's he's saying that we've got an officer hurt. I don't know how hurt he is, but certainly it didn't warrant what was going on um with with the taser here. This guy's tased 11 times and at least one time in the testicles. Uh and then the last time the the taser was put directly on his genitals and he was threatened again, "Do you want it again?" And you'll see that in just a second. We'll play it all the way through, but I want you to notice right here. This man is handcuffed at this point. Okay? So forget for a minute whether or not they were reasonable in the use of the taser to begin with. The tasing now should cease. And it clearly and it clearly doesn't. At this point, we crop is handcuffed, still tangled in the seat belt wrapped around his legs. It's the 11-year-old boy who has to untangle his father as officers try to drag HIM AWAY. OW! HEY, get in front of the car right now. Get in front of the car. Come on. You're all right. Come on. Bless his heart. So, I don't blame that 11-year-old boy for crying. I mean, they they they tased his father. They're about to arrest his mother. Um and he's probably never seen anything like this before. So, uh it just you know, these uh this abuse of power by police, it upsets me. It aggravates me. And there's no shortage of these videos out there. And they're they're going to become more and more prevalent. Um you know, like I said, this one was was from 2017. The reason it has gained notoriety of late is because for so long it was hidden. This this uh particular footage didn't come out for at least a year after this occurred. And it's because the police buried it. You're all right, buddy. Come on. Officers claim the woman in the car hit an officer with a water bottle. Mark's hurt. Mark is hurt. He got hit in the head by her. We need to get her in handcuffs right now. She didn't mean to. Please don't TAKE MY MOM. HEY, STOP. SO, THIS GUY BASICALLY TASED him in the genital area from behind. And um he the the man on the ground has filed a federal lawsuit against the police department. We need to play that back. If you missed it, with Weikart handcuffed, another officer on his back, Schneider kicks him in the groin, then takes his left hand, pulls down Weikart's shorts, and according to his lawsuit, tases him in the testicles from behind. And if you missed it, the video shows another officer pushing this woman down, and then seconds later yelling at her, too. And you're about to see Officer Snyder threaten another tase. This time, with Weecroft on his side, Snyder places the taser at the crease of his hip, on his penis, ACCORDING TO THE LAWSUIT. OKAY, KEEP FIGHTING, YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT AGAIN. YOU WANT IT AGAIN? SHUT YOUR MOUTH. I'M DONE SCREWING AROUND WITH YOU. GLENDALE ARREST SO, an officer that gets that upset in in the course and scope of of an arrest like this has got a problem. Maybe counseling can help that problem. I don't know. I don't advocate firing an officer for a single incident of maybe an an over expression of anger. Um because your adrenaline can do things to you and things like that. But when you have a pattern, as as this officer had, um reported in his personnel file, um and then in this incident, he only gets suspended for 3 days. After the federal lawsuit was filed, however, um the body cam comes out, and some other uh issues come out that really looked bad on the police officer here. So, I'm going to let that play. And then you'll see why here in just a second. If I can get this computer to agree with me. So, we charged and charged him with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer. Aggravated assault? In all, records show Weecroft was tased 11 times. Shut up. Shut up. You're fine. We can listen to me. Okay, well, you shouldn't have been stupid then. Watch your Watch your hand. He's got one right there. Hey, Bill. RIGHT AND BEHIND AND BEHIND. AND BEHIND. RELAX. STOP BEING A BIG BABY. THAT'S ALL for you. First of all, two counts of aggravated assault on police officers, that's felony aggravated assault. Aggravated assault is an assault with the use of a weapon or where there was serious bodily injury done, neither of which I see here. Yeah, I think that is right. I can't breathe, though. You're fine. You're talking. Weecroft spent months in jail because he couldn't AFFORD BAIL. OW, MY WRIST! HIS LAWYERS SAY HE WAS finally released and all charges dropped once prosecutors saw the body camera video. So, yes, here the charges were ultimately dropped against this this guy because um of this of this body cam. So, let me show you another video that's related to this video about the stop. Because the use of force here is not the only reason that we're showing this video tonight. Uh the use of force, in my opinion, was uh excessive. He would He would have a bad day in court when someone files a civil suit. Yes, he already has had that bad day in court, missing. Um yeah, I get so sick of these uh videos and and police officers acting like this because they really do bring um they they just bring a bad name to policing altogether. But, let's look at uh Let's look at what happened behind the scenes in this incident. with you. But, this story isn't about the abuse of force. It's about what happened behind the scenes. What happened when a fellow officer raised concerns about Officer Schneider's truthfulness and the fact Schneider pulled over the car for an alleged blinker violation he could not have seen. Hm. Two things there I want you to pay attention to. Number one is another police officer brought this to the attention of the prosecutors. Another police officer that that was on the scene that was concerned about what he saw went public. And that's one of the things that we advocate here at Stand Against Dark Blue. It's why we have an officer pledge and a citizen pledge. And we ask police officers to do this very thing. We want good police officers to police themselves. We want the good police officers to shine a light on the bad police officers. So, we want the good cops to show us who the bad cops are. And there's multiple ways that that can happen. The The first way it happens is you've got a police officer on the scene of something that says, "Hey, that didn't look right to me." Put it in your report. File your report, go to your supervisor and say this this didn't look right to me and this should be investigated. Yes, that's going to take bravery. Yes, that's going to take cops that um well it's going to take a really brave cop to stand against the blue code of silence and denounce the blue code of silence. That's not something that's going to be easily done. But we are seeing more and more incidents of it and police are coming out and basically reporting other cops. So that's what we're after and that's the only way really to fix this problem is to get the good cops to tell us who the bad cops are and to report incidents like this when they see them cuz when trust me good cops it good cops know when bad bad cops lie. And there are people out there that think cops don't lie. There's not many people out there that think cops don't lie. There are some people out there that think cops don't lie. It's just because they don't know cops. I'm telling you cops will lie to make a case. Some of them will climb a tree to tell a lie. And those kinds of cops need to be exposed. This cop here, the whole stop was predicated on a lie. The whole stop. And here's how we know that. Let's go back to the video. After several clicks here, sorry. For more than a year, sources say the department slow-walked an internal investigation. We obtained the case and audio of Schneider's interview. Just looking at the video, all right? I mean, you can't see through that bottom level, all right? So he the the police officer is over here on the top left corner of your screen. He's about to clear this building. He's in this back alley. This is the suspect car that turns in to the Motel 6. There's absolutely no way that this officer saw this vehicle turn without the use of a turn signal. All right, explain to me how the auto it up. All right, explain to me how the signal how you could have seen the signal from where you're at. The angle looks horrible. I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to lie. Now, obviously Uh yeah, you are going to lie. Anytime somebody says I'm not going to lie, um following a a question like that, it means they're probably going to lie. This cop absolutely lied. There's absolutely no way that he could have seen this car turn without a signal from his vantage point cuz he just didn't have a vantage point that would have allowed him to see that. obviously you know, watching this Um yeah, it's not possible that I saw the the violation. Wow. So, he admits here it's not possible that I could have saw the the violation. Not possible. And this is him in this SUV right here. His own body camera footage shows he's in the back alley at least 16 seconds before turning the corner. Honest to God, I really believed the day that it happened that I saw the no signal. I I don't have any explanation. Well, the only explanation is I lied and and you're not going to admit to that ever. So, I'm sorry. I don't believe a word this officer says. Nothing from this point forward coming from that officer is credible. Ever. Sure, people can get Jesus and get reformed and get saved and and yeah, I mean, I've been forgiven a lot. But we're talking about policing and and credibility issues on the stand. If he's going to lie about something little like this, he's going to lie about something big. And if a cop will tell a lie once to make a case, he'll lie every time. You can't believe a word he says. And the good cops are going to need to help us with this. Now, we will find out ultimately that the good news is with body cams as a defense lawyer, trust me, they're going to keep these cops honest. And there have been multiple times. We had a jury trial last year that an officer on the stand blatantly lied in front of the jury, in front of the judge, in front of the DA, in front of me, in front of everybody in the courtroom. And he never would admit that he lied, even though I caught him dead off in the lie and said, "Look, right here in this video, this is you, right?" Yes. "This is Well, but I didn't I didn't search it. But this is you holding the flashlight, right?" Yes. He never would admit that he lied. Cops there are cops out there that will lie. Not all of them. But when you find one that will lie like this, he just he just can't be a cop anymore. I I just that's a zero tolerance policy for me. If you're going to lie like that to make a case, you need you need to go. You need to to the outs- outski. You got to go. Sorry. For this camera angle, I really don't And Schneider was disciplined, but just for his use of force. In the final suspension Not for lying. personnel file. He was only disciplined for the use of force, not for telling the lie. There is nothing about the unseen turn signal violation. no sort of standard It's exactly the type of thing defense attorneys fear. So, we have 1,400 names of officers who have got serious credibility issues. But, we have no way to know how many more should be on this list. And we probably will never know based on the way the system is set up now. Right. I mean, that that's the problem with the system, right? It the gatekeepers to to these lists are the very people who have incentive to keep names off the list. Schneider was Glendale's leader in arrests. The department loved him for it, literally. In his 2017 review, his supervisor wrote, "He has it. He is a blood hound against criminals and can dig up crime anywhere you put him." If you don't have a robust internal affairs investigation happening, or you have one that sort of doesn't sustain the allegations, or figures out a way to sort of sweep them under the rug, right? That information may never even get to the county attorney's office, which means that that officer will never be placed on the on a Brady list. Here's something else about the Glendale case. The internal affairs investigator actually concluded it was clear that Schneider could not see through the building to observe the traffic violation. Schneider did not have probable cause, but those findings were overturned by four supervisors. Here's what they wrote, "I believe that Schneider did observe a legal traffic stop. The one surveillance video obtained does not have the exact view that Schneider had when the violation occurred. Addit- So, these are supervisors that have reviewed his report that in spite of him admitting, okay, yeah, I I obviously didn't see the no use of the turn signal. You had four supervisors. Now, I'm not one that believes in systemic racism in policing. I don't believe that it's a When you When you talk about systemic, that means system-wide. Okay? It means everybody in the system is racist. I don't believe that. It's just not possible. I don't believe our country is systemic racist. This is the least racist country in the history of the world. It's the best place It's the best place in the world to be a black person. Where Where else other than America would you rather be as as a person of color? Where? What country? China? Russia? Iraq? Iran? Turkey? Mexico? Where? Name me one other country that it would be better to be a person of color than America. And yeah, I've gotten a little bit off track here. But, I don't believe that there's a systemic racism problem in policing. But, I do believe that there's a systemic blue code of silence problem. And the blue code of silence is very real, people. It is police protecting other police at all cost. That needs to come to an end. It has to come to an end. If we're going to fix this problem with uh public trust and and policing and law enforcement, if we're going to fix this issue, the blue code of silence has to be put to rest. Now, I'm interested by your comments. Who's with me? I don't believe that a system can be based upon secrecy and be healthy. And when you've got, like in this case, four supervisors saying, "Yeah, I know he he admitted that he didn't really see it. And the camera shows that he really didn't see it, but there might have been another camera view that we don't have today that shows that he could have seen it." He didn't see it, people. He lied about it. He made up a reason for the stop. He he he justified the stop by saying you didn't use your turn signal. Uh and what he really wanted to know was "Does this car that's backed in over here at the Motel 6, which is known for high crime and and in drug activity, you reckon they've got any, I don't know, meth in there or weed or cocaine?" That's what he was after. He was after dope. And he just pretextually stopped them and worked his way through it. And if he found something, it's it's it's what police call backing into it. And if you're a cop out there, you can't disagree with me cuz I used to be one. And I've been I've been there and I've been trained by police. And I hung out with cops. So, if you're a cop out there, am I right? It's called backing into it, backing into the stop or backing into the arrest. You find somebody, you arrest them for something you didn't really have a legal right to stop them. So, once you find the thing that that's illegal, you go backwards and you work your way back to find some justification for the stop. Happens all the time. Additionally, Officer Pittman advised in his statement that he observed the turn signal violation from a different camera perspective while reviewing the Motel 6 surveillance footage. Catch that? The day after the incident, records show Schneider and another officer, Jeff Pittman, claim they went back to the Motel 6 and saw another camera angle proving Weikart didn't use his blinker. Try to get that burned. She said she didn't know how. We asked her if she can get the manager to burn it when he got in the next day, but I don't know if that ever happened. Can you stand by with my So, I'm not interested in another camera view that showed that he didn't use his turn signal. I'm interested in the camera view that shows that you couldn't possibly have known that. Lots of people do things that are against the law that cops don't see. God bless America. If cops were behind me every day, I'd probably get a ticket every day. Lots of people commit traffic violations that cops don't see. But if the cop doesn't see the traffic violation, he doesn't have a reason for the stop. And that's the point here. It's not The point is not did he not use his turn signal. The point is did the police officer see him not use his turn signal? Or did he make that up? And he made And he made that up, folks. So, I don't care that there was another camera view. Officer Pittman is a close colleague of Schneider. They worked together for years, starred in Cops TV together. In this scene, they kicked down a door without a warrant. Did he lock it? Yep. All right. Using a baby stroller for leverage with that baby still in it. Just when you're walking, you need to be on the sidewalk, just not in the street. In another scene, the pair stop a black man for not walking on a sidewalk on a road that doesn't have a sidewalk. Oh, wow. Oh, just wow. But back to the other Motel 6 camera allegedly showing the blinker violation. Apparently, the officers never went back or used their body camera to record the screen at that time. Um, and you guys weren't able to get that video at all? No, I we asked her and she says she she told us she didn't know how. Finally, in the highest ranking opinions, a commander and assistant chief ensure findings against Schneider won't be sustained. The video obtained does not prove or disprove what Schneider observed while the vehicle turned into the parking lot. Schneider has been adamant during the entire investigation that he observed the driver failed to signal. In other words, taking an officer's word over video evidence. And that's what happens. Um, cops will just take the word of another cop in spite of overwhelm overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Point in fact, the a recent trial that we had, police officer on the stand lied. I said, "That couldn't be because here this is you and you said you didn't do that." "Well, I didn't do that." "Well, isn't that you doing that?" "Well, I'm not really doing it. The other officer's doing it." "Isn't that you holding the flashlight for the other officer doing it?" "Well, yeah." "Doesn't that mean that you're participating in it?" "Not really." And the judge, I was watching the judge when he was testifying and she was like, I mean, she was doing everything but not signal to the jury. And then when the when the jury left for the day, this judge was like, "General, this case is a mess. When when it was all over, when it was all said and done, she basically chastised this officer for lying on the stand and not admitting that he lied in in spite of overwhelming evidence right in front of him. And that's what that's what cops sometimes will do. In spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they will take the word of another officer 10 times out of 10. A lying cop is extremely dangerous because that officer will routinely come into court, look the judge in the eye, look the jurors in the eye, and and lie. You'll Listen, you'll have your day in court, buddy. And the problem is is that the public, you know, who make up the jury and even judges, right? They want to believe the officers, okay? They want to. Now, there's no way to put a number on this problem. No way to know how many cases were never opened, swept aside, minimized. Plus, after a couple years, usually five, officers can purge misconduct from their personnel files. That's why solving this problem may be the most difficult of them all. I'm investigator Dave Bixby. And Dave, you did a good job. You did a good job on that on that case and investigating that case. So, ultimately, um share one more screen with you. Sorry, it takes me several minutes to switch screens cuz this software only lets me share one screen at a time. It'd be nice if it let me share three or four and then I can just switch between them. But, no. All right. So, this is uh a report that that talks about Matt Snyder at the Glendale Police Department who in 2017 uh stopped a man and while he was handcuffed, tased him 11 times. Uh once in the genitals and then threatened once more in the genitals. So, the Arizona Peace Officer Standard Training Board, the POST board like we have here in Tennessee, ultimately did this investigation. And that's what I've been advocating for here in Tennessee. Take the investigations away from the local department. Don't let your local police internal affairs invest I mean, they can investigate them. They can investigate officers because that's what they're there for. But, in connection with that, you need to let POST investigate these officers because POST has authority to suspend your license. And if your license is suspended, then you can't do what a lot of police officers do and resign while under investigation, so that the department investigating them can't take any action against them. And then they pop up in another um in another police department. So, here it said POST basically unanimously uh agreed to accept Schneider's voluntary surrender. They let him voluntarily surrender his license. So, he's no longer a cop, okay? That just happened in 2020. And basically, if somebody is stripped of their license in Arizona like it would be here in Tennessee, they can't be a law enforcement officer ever again in that state unless they go back through and they get recertified. So, that was all based upon the initial um or the 2017 use of force complaint against him. But, it took 3 years to get him off the force. 3 years. He was suspended for 3 days, and then he's right back out there stopping people, arresting people, harassing people, and doing his job getting paid for it. When when we know he lied and maybe they didn't know in 3 days that he lied, but eventually if this had been investigated properly, they could have known that within 3 days. It didn't take long to look at that footage and go, "Let's look at Let's break this down like a defense lawyer would." And like I said, I've been on every side. I'm not saying that in a bragadocious way. I'm just saying that this is how you evaluate policing. You take their video and you start at the top. Was the stop valid? Why did he stop this vehicle in the first place? He said he stopped the vehicle because they didn't use a turn signal. Let's look at the video. Does his body cam show that? No. Does his dash cam cam show that? Nope. Let's see if there's some surveillance footage that shows one, the person didn't use a signal, and two, he was in a position to see it. We don't have that. We have just the opposite of that. We have clear video showing the man turns in and after he's turned in and pulled in and fixing to back up, this officer clears the other side of the building. There's no possible way he could have seen the the non-use of a turn signal. That right there would have accelerated this investigation a thousandfold because that's when you call the officer in and you say, "Tell me again why you stopped him? I mean, we're not even going to get to the use of your taser yet. Tell me again why you stopped him. And then show him the video. Could you have seen that from this video? Now, it shouldn't have taken 3 years for that to come out. So, once that came out and you realize number one, he lied out of the jump about the stop, then nothing else he says is credible. And then you break it down a little bit farther. You go, "Okay, so let's say you did see that. You walk up on this car. This man doesn't have his ID. Is he required to give you his ID?" Well, under Tennessee law, the answer to that would be no. And Arizona law, I believe mimics Tennessee law in this in this regard as far as the identification is concerned. So, he's not required to identify himself, and you're opening the door, taking him into custody because he won't give you his ID. You couldn't have taken him into custody if he did give you his ID cuz he hadn't committed a crime. And you're not allowed to ask him for his ID unless you suspect that he's committed a crime. This is not hard. None of this is very difficult to to analyze. It It takes time. It shouldn't take 3 years, but it takes time. And it takes honesty. And it And this right here with the four supervisors saying, "Yeah, well, he could have seen it." Or "Yeah, there was another camera view that maybe showed it." Uh and taking his word for it over what the video evidence showed just shows you that that blue code of silence that we're talking about here is real and it's alive today. And cops will protect other cops. That's why you got to get the investigation outside of the force. You've got to let the the peace officer standard and training uh organization do the investigations. Post certification needs to do the the investigations. So, if if I'm going to bring change to law enforcement, that's the first thing I'm going to do. I'm going to create an investigatory board under post that has the authority to take suspend revoke and eradicate the license of a police officer if it's called for. First things first, let's suspend it while we're under investigation. So, they can't resign here and go be a police officer somewhere else. That happens all the time. I know I know so many investigations that allow the police officer to resign quietly and he's still under investigation for something that would ultimately lead to his termination. And trust me, they know that. When they're under investigation for something that's going to lead to their termination, cops will resign quicker than than goose not. And then they go apply somewhere else. And if it's an if it's an investigation that's been sealed at the department level it's not even being reported to prospective new employers. So, you got a cop going around um go going around to different agencies applying for a job while he's under investigation for something that's sealed in the department that he just left. If you take that investigation out of the local department and you give it to the state board for post and you let them investigate it then they can they can temporarily suspend his license pending the outcome of that investigation. Now if if you don't have enough evidence to to do that, then you temporarily suspend it with pay. I mean, you can suspend it with pay or or suspend him with pay. Well, sometimes they will. They'll put him on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation. That shouldn't take long to investigate enough to know whether or not this is going to lead to his termination. And then you can, you know, in a in a case like this when you've got body cam and you you've got a guy that's in handcuffs being tased 11 times, once in the testicles, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to watch that video and go, "You know, that probably wasn't right." The end result of that's probably going to be his termination, and it should be his termination. Policing in America has been damaged in the last 12 to 18 months. And there's no easy answer to fix it. But when you find lying cops and you can prove that they've lied and they unnecessarily use force that's excessive and you got all that caught on camera, it shouldn't take 3 years for that that cop to be fired. If you agree with that and you like this video, give it a thumbs up, share it with somebody, and sharing it actually helps us more than anything. It you know, liking and subscribing and all that that that does help. If you're on Facebook, go to YouTube, Stand Against Dark Blue, and like and subscribe on YouTube. And if you're on YouTube, go to Facebook and like and subscribe on Facebook. And then share this video with a friend. And if you support this organization, go to standagainstdarkblue.com, sign our citizen pledge. If you're a former, active, or retired police officer, sign our officer pledge, and join in the movement because we're going to get vocal, and we're not going away. It's It's time that the police police themselves. And we're here to help them do that. We support good cops against the bad cops. And it's And it's time. So, if you're with me, go sign our pledge, and uh you can donate, too. Share that with somebody as well. Six Uh go to standagainstdarkblue.com, and you'll find all that there. In the meantime, we'll be back tomorrow with uh another bully cam, probably. And uh in the meantime, you keep standing against the darkness, and I'll keep standing there with you. And when we find it, we're going to shine a light on it. So, together, we can ultimately make a difference. That's the goal. Hey guys, thanks for watching. We'll be back tomorrow. You ain't seen nothing yet. Oh, yeah. You ain't seen nothing yet.