Cops vs. Cameras: How Two Men Are Taking on the Miami Police Department

Cops vs. Cameras: How Two Men Are Taking on the Miami Police Department: "

Hammonds and his friend face the wrath of Miami Beach police.

Tim Elfrink writes in the Miami New Times:

When Robert Hammonds and a friend, Brent Bredwell, finished filming a DJ show at Jazid in South Beach, it was around 3 a.m. on a Sunday in September. A few minutes later, after they jumped into a car and headed down Washington Avenue, a drunk-looking driver swerved across traffic and cut them off.

Hammonds leaned out the window and yelled “What the hell are you doing?” at the guy.

Next thing Hammonds and Bredwell knew, a beefy cop was pulling them over. Holding his Sig Sauer .40 caliber gun at his side, the officer angrily thrust his hand into the car through the driver-side window and waved his walkie-talkie.

“Are you a fucking idiot?” the cop screamed. “Doing that in front of me? Asshole!”

Hammonds, in the passenger seat, was discreetly filming the outburst. When reinforcements arrived to put Bredwell through sobriety tests, Hammonds kept taping and agitating. “Oh, it’s martial law now!” he yelled.

Another officer gestured at Hammonds. “Take the camera,” he said to a colleague. “It’s evidence now. Take it.”

Read More in the Miami New Times

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