Key West Cops Jail Man Videotaping Rough Arrest

The following article is reprinted in its entirety. It was published on November 9, 2001 by "Key West The Newspaper" (KWTN) and was written by Kip Blevin:
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COPS JAIL MAN VIDEOTAPING ROUGH ARREST;
DESTROY CAMERA, RUIN TAPE
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Cops Say He Was Interfering With Arrest. Man Says He Was Simply A Bystander And Cops Came After Him Only After They Saw Him Taping What He Considered To Be Police Brutality.

Officers Played And Viewed Tape Before Arrest. Witness Says She Saw Cops Throw Camera On Pavement.

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A locally-employed California man may have inadvertently stumbled onto a Rodney King-type incident the night before Fantasy Fest, when he turned his camera toward several Key West policemen in the midst of a violent arrest.

Tanner Dunlop is a skinny, shy, soft-spoken young man with choir boy looks, who says his only previous experience with police was a speeding ticket. He claims that all he did was videotape the cops in action in front of Sloppy Joes.

And this week, he'll get a chance to tell it to the judge, after getting arrested for resisting without violence. "I can't believe they would arrest a bystander. I've never been in trouble with the law," he said.

Police had been summoned to the sidewalk in front of the Key West landmark bar after recieveing reports that a young inebriated woman was being sexually abused by a group of men.

"It was after the bars shut down and I was on my way to find a taxi home," he said. "A photographer friend and I stopped in front of a crowd. We didn't know what was going on at the time."

He said he began videotaping after "cops came out of nowhere, pulled a girl from the pile and threw one man with a walking cast on the sidewalk, chipping his front teeth. The officer was out of control, stepping on the guys back and elbowing him as he got his cuffs."

Dunlop said he taped the whole incident, moving across the street when he saw an officer throw another man to the ground.

"I was just watching from the corner, when an officer saw me with my camera in my hand and said something to me. I don't know what, but I think it was to stay back against the wall. Then, all of a sudden, he told me to face the wall and I did. He then threw me against the wall. My camera hit first and pieces flew out along with the battery."

Dunlop said he was then put down on the hood of the police car, his beads were ripped off, his camera and camera bag were taken, his pockets emptied and he was handcuffed.

Then, reportedly, the cops watched a little TV.

"Three of the cops put my battery back in the camera and played my tape," Dunlop said. "I could hear my voice saying 'That's F-ing police brutality," he said. "But when I was taping, I was far enough away so they could not have heard my comment."

When the girl was brought to the car and unable to identify either Dunlop or the other two men as "rapists," Dunlop said he was told -- after an hour-and-a-half of sitting in the police van -- that he would be charged with resisting arrest.

"I was never read my rights," he said.

According to the official report, Dunlop was arrested for interfering with an arrest.

"I didn't interfere in anything," he said. "I was just watching from across the street with dozens of other people. But I had a video camera and I was taping what the cops were doing."

Dunlop spent the day in jail, not getting out until 9p.m. Saturday.

"I got my camera back Monday. It was broken and scratched, with the tape in it. I couldn't get the tape out, so I went to the camera shop where the tape was removed."

The tape appeared to have been erased, he said.

Dunlop said a girlfriend told him afterwards that she saw the police throw the camera to the ground.

The police, however, have a different story to tell. Arrest documents say Dunlop "approached the prisoner and ignored the officer's order." Not so, said Dunlop.

"He continued to walk in very close proximity (to the arrestee)," the report stated. Dunlop then allegedly "grabbed (the suspect's) right arm." Dunlop said that never happened, that he never touched the man getting arrested.

He also disagreed with the contention that he "continued to resist (his own arrest) by not allowing (himself) to be handcuffed." The police further noted that "while resisting, defendant Tanner's video camera was damaged."

For the young man who says he's never been in trouble before, his fate will now be in the hands of a public defender. "I can't afford an attorney," he said.

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To contact Key West The Newspaper for confirmation:
Editor/Publisher: Dennis Reeves Cooper, Ph.D.
422 Fleming Street
P.O. Box 567
Key West, Florida, 33041
(305) 292-2108
e-mail: office [at] kwtn.com