Police versus priest, cameras contradict cop

The area about New Haven Connecticut has had a new source of population coming from the south of the Rio Grande. This is not new, but yesterday, the Associated Press picked up a story from East Haven. On the 19th of February, police accused ecuadorian storeowners of abusing government property. The police then had the owner, of My Country Store, remove five dozen car license plates from display on a rear wall. A priest, Father James Manship, pastor of Saint Rose of Lima church in New Haven, was inside the store, and began filming.

The police accused the storeowners of abusing government property, and the priest of pointing a weapon on the police. Store surveillance images, and the priests video too, have surfaced onto YouTube, and other internet sites. Oddly, the videos contradict the police. At first the police were not aware of security cameras, the police wanted the surveillance images or to erase the hard drive, but could not secure it, over the owner’s insistent refusal. The owners received a $372 ticket, and the confiscation of most of the plates.

Conversation on the priest’s camera:
policeman David Cari: "Sir, what're you doing? Is there a reason you have a camera on me?"
priest: "Yes."
police: "Why's that?"
priest: "I'm taking a video of what's going on here."
police: "Well, I'll tell you, what I'm going to do with that camera."
--end of recording

The priest pled not guilty on the 4th of March (there was not a police report until then) to creating a public disturbance and interfering with police. There is to be a trial on the 27th.

The police have ‘lawyered up’. Hugh Keefe says the video does not show what happened after the camera went off, and the priest is “creating controversy where none needed to be.”

“He refused two or three times and at that point Officer Cari approached him wanting to check out if it was a weapon. He wouldn't tell him, the officer went up to him and grabbed him and finally saw it was a camera.”

Now, of course, there are always two sides of the story: what actually happened and the official story. Certainly there are many who will support all armed authority, and there are people who believe catholic priests brandish guns, and are meddlesome dangers to the community, and the safety of police officers. Then there are the left wing troublemakers, who invent stories of racial and ethnic harassment. Where in the second amendment are people allowed to carry dangerous cameras?
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Postscriptum: Father Manship appeared in court on the 26th of March. The state prosecutor admitted there was not evidence to prosecute. The judge dismissed the case. That day, parishioners petitioned the federal government to investigate the East Haven police for harassment of civil rights. Now, since the busheviks, presumably, are not running the Justice Department, perhaps some justice will come.