Entitled dickhead vs cop
I watch a lot of these videos, from Canada and the US. It is important know your rights under the law. Auditors with cameras are also important for keeping the abuse of power of police in check because people's rights are violated every single day, which is why they wear body cams in the US but usually don't in Canada because most Canadians lick boots.
A cop can ask anyone questions, but the guy could have refused his questions. If the guy was operating a vehicle (driving it) then the cop can ask for license and registration/insurance and you cannot refuse by law, the reason doesn't matter. In the US a cop can only stop you and ask you for your ID/driving info if he has reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime. Cops just can't pull people over and demand their info/ID arbitrarily, which I think should be the law in Canada.
The issue here is that it seems that the guy was parked and taking photos/video while parked, which means he was arguably then not operating a vehicle, which means the cop shouldn't have a right to demand his ID and driving info. But the cops could have just waited him out until he started to leave if they wanted.
Because the laws in Canada and the US are different this guy got them confused and got himself into trouble, he wasn't properly educated on Canadian laws.
The cop actually behaved quite poorly here. He physically hit the guy's camera twice and behaved unprofessionally and interfered with his right to film cops in public. The guy could easily be arrested for failing to identify which it looks like he was, and the cop should be reprimanded for unprofessional behaviour and possibly be charged with assault. This is the very reason all cops should always be on film during every encounter with the public (accountability, transparency)....yet not many police wear body cams.
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