A New York City resident, known as Jimmy Justice, has been video taping New York City Police officers and city workers breaking the law while working; and posting the clips on his own channel on YouTube.
In an interview with murdok, Justice spoke about what he does and some of the challenges he faces while video taping law enforcement and city workers.
Justice said he has been documenting the illegal activity of New York City public employees for about two years. He primarily films police committing traffic violations such as parking by a fire hydrant or in no-standing zones.
He said he started filming them because,” New York City employs a system of predatory ticketing.” “Traffic cops scour the streets looking for petty violations to write summonses. It is apparent that City Hall is not interested in public safety but rather using traffic law to raise revenue. I wanted to turn the tables on those who write the summonses, and I hoped to inspire some discretion in the manner that they ticket civilians.”
Justice said he is not intimidated by law enforcement officials when he films them. “I know that I am allowed to take video in a public place, so I cannot be intimidated.”
Justice says he publishes his videos under the pseudonym Jimmy Justice but that it would be naive of him to think the police don’t know his identity. “I can handle myself in any face- to- face confrontation,” Justice said. “What I am afraid of is a rogue officer coming to my house when I am not home and taking revenge by writing me 100 summonses for nonsense.”
The worst confrontation Justice has had was when a of board of education employee smashed his camera “to pieces.”
Justice said the city of New York has investigated some of the clips he has posted on his YouTube channel.”They have already investigated some of the officers who were caught abusing their authority in my videos. More importantly, the city has started to crack down on scofflaws who use their city issued parking placards improperly by parking illegally while running personal errands.”
Justice stressed he is “not against the police, I am only against rogue officers who abuse their authority.”
