AAA I think you're one of the more insightful articulate regulars here. But I'm with Piggy on this one.
I agree that AAA is a really good poster and I read most of his posts and usually agree with them. I can also sort of see what he's saying, like for example if this guy had gone up to a random officer and was sticking the phone in his face that would be actual obstruction. Also, if some shady character was sitting there all day filming a police station or something that would be suspicious and I think it would give them a reason to go over there and see what's up. BUT that isn't what happened here. Also, how can smoking outside be banned, that's insane imo. I can see if you got caught throwing the butt on the ground, it's pollution, but really how can you tell someone they can't smoke outside? lol california is all kinds of backwards.
the guy at 5:00 is priceless, the one at 11:00 is RCG's mom. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rXYgvayux-w?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I had a similar issue with bicycle cops in Mission Beach S.D. about 20 years ago. Those guys are known to be lose wires. Some of them go around attitude checking people all day long. I would have hoped the dept changed by now. I was stopped for backing into a parking space on a diagonal sort of across the flow of the one way street. The cop did not like the fact there was no violation he gave me a very aggressive attitude check... calling me all sort of names. I was also new to working for a District Attorneys office at the time. So I was never going to be provoked. (I liked that job) and I knew you never want to leave a cop or prosecutor in charge of or your life's direction. When he realized he could not provoke me he started calling my girlfriend at the time a whore and all sorts of vile names. This was sick. Luckily, this barrage of names did not really match up. But, this cop was as real loose canon. I always suspected the SD police dept sends their cops with problems to bike patrol.
If that were me, I would have found out where the guy lived, caught him off duty, making sure there were no witnesses, and beat the livin' daylights out of him. I have heard about South Dakota though, if you aren't careful, they'll trump up charges and send you down the river, especially if you are an outsider.
That video is disturbing. When he was on private property and asked to leave and stop videoing he was trespassing at that point and could have been arrested and prosecuted. In public though, I don't think there is any law, other than stalking, that would apply to what he was doing. Of course, he could be sued by any of those people if he made any money with the video without their permission. Even a google ad on that video would constitute making money off those people.