…but a big question in these sorts of things is whether the person taped had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the given situation. It’s a fair question that holds private citizens and public officials to the same standard.
To my thinking, being on a public road brandishing a firearm doesn’t meet that criteria. If he had turned on the lights, or if he was even wearing a uniform, that would change everything. Also, the rider didn’t do anything but back himself up…if he had taken off or jumped off the bike, I think things would play out very differently.
I totally agree there are times when there’s a good reason for not being taped (undercover work, etc), but me, a traffic stop on a public road is the antithesis of that.
This particular situation is sadly one of those train wrecks where both parties didn’t think, and b/c of that, there’s headaches to go around. I hope it works out with MD dropping the charges and making sure officers don’t do this sort of thing anymore, and the guy paying his fine and thinking twice before making videos of himself breaking the law.