Copwatch (2017) Movie Script
1
Ramsey has just been arrested
for filming the police.
Back up.
Why are you standing
in front of the camera?
Sir, you've got to get...
Get back on that sidewalk. Go back
over there and film over there.
They haven't told me
why am I being arrested.
This is my mom's name, Emily.
This was actually my first tattoo.
I remember I was told,
I wouldn't be able to get tattoos
unless it was my mom's name.
So, I went behind my mom's back
for Mother's Day
and got her name tattooed, and since then,
I've just been addicted to it.
Eyes of a dead man.
A part of my life where
I felt like I didn't have no soul,
I didn't have no heart
and everything was cold around me.
This is actually a victim
to the police brutality and stuff.
This signified how cops were killing us.
Ex gang-member, Ramsey Orta,
faces years in jail.
It all started when he shot
a video of his friend, Eric Garner,
being stopped by undercover officers
on suspicion of selling
untaxed cigarettes.
For what? Every time you see me,
you want to mess with me.
I'm tired of it. It stops today.
This guy right here is forcibly
trying to lock somebody up.
That day changed my life.
I wish it didn't have to happen this way.
Don't touch me, please.
Do not touch me.
- Why are they doing that to him?
- Damn, man.
All right, he's down.
Lift your hands, buddy.
Put your hands behind your head.
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
Officer had his knee
on Eric's neck like this.
And basically holding him down,
trying to restrain him,
while other officers was twisting his arm.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe!
Everybody back up. Back up.
Watching it now, it's like... It hurts.
I get goosebumps,
'cause I feel like I could've done
a lot more
than just stand there and videotape.
He can't breathe.
They don't even try to take
the cuffs of him and give him CPR.
They don't even try to put
an oxygen mask over his face.
I mean, they just left him there.
Laying on his side, with his eyes
rolled back and his mouth open.
And I'm like, "I killed him."
Back up.
I was here watching the whole shit.
You watched everything.
You know everything.
I couldn't believe it at first,
and then...
I went home and took a shower
and it hit me like,
"Damn, they just killed my friend."
Two days after a New York City grand jury
cleared a white police officer
in the choke hold death
of an unarmed black man,
the protests are growing larger
and spreading across the country...
Ramsey's video triggered
demonstrations across America.
I can't breathe!
Hundreds shut down
major highways in multiple cities.
For many,
including the city's medical adviser,
this was a homicide caught on camera.
I can't breathe!
Summer, 2016.
Ramsey's video has still
not led to any arrests.
But it has inspired a network of people
who use technology to watch the police.
They're taking on the largest force
in America,
the NYPD.
Brooklyn, New York City.
Dennis Flores is a government employee
by day.
By night, he runs a team
that intercepts police radio
to film arrests as they happen.
342 tenth Street.
Can you check if that's
between third and fourth Avenue?
Let's roll with it.
We want to deter police abuse.
So, if our cameras are out there,
it's going to help prevent it
'cause they know
there's extra eyes on them.
These cameras are bad-cop repellent.
While it's legal to film the police,
Dennis has been arrested dozens of times.
Sometimes aggressively.
So, these cops came,
grabbed me, handcuffed me,
and then body-slammed me here,
like about five or six cops.
Slammed me to the floor.
This one police officer
grabbed his walkie-talkie
and cracked my head open
as all these other cops came
and kicked me, punched me.
And they dragged me out of here
and charged me with assaulting the police.
Now, Dennis never films alone.
He and his team have filmed multiple cases
of what New York's zero-tolerance
policing means in practice.
So, this is where Ray Tillery was standing
when he flicked the cigarette
onto the street.
The police around him,
swarmed him around this entrance.
As we see in the video,
right in here, in front of
this dollar pizzeria shop,
he gets arrested.
What?
What are these guys trying to do?
- Are they trying to handcuff him?
- Turn around.
Over ten police officers,
aggressively, take him down
for flicking a cigarette in the street,
something that thousands
of New Yorkers do every day.
He can't throw a cigarette butt down?
Come on, man.
For every ten people stopped
by the NYPD, eight are Black or Hispanic.
Literally, like, the police have a license
to hurt, arrest,
and kill people and get away with it.
Nothing happens to them.
Even those who intervene
run the risk of arrest.
Sebastian Lemos, he was right here
and the police were arresting him.
And as they approached, the mother,
she started telling the cops what
you're doing to her son was wrong.
She's six months pregnant.
She has a belly out to here.
You see them struggling with her
and he slams her to the floor.
He puts his knees on her back.
Another woman approaches,
and the cop tosses her, flips her over,
and she hits the ground
and fractures her kneecap.
These are crimes being committed
by police officers.
That's why cop watching is effective.
Because here we are, keeping a track
of all the corrupt cops.
We're making it public to make sure
that people know what's going on
and this doesn't just
get swept under the rug.
Police officer shot in the shoulder.
Now they've got an investigation
of the three individuals.
Two of them have been apprehended.
The officer has got shot in the shoulder.
And one individual's still at large.
Anthony Miranda
has spent his life in the NYPD.
They're doing an infrared and heat
to try to locate people,
probably in the backyards.
A senior detective,
he's investigated homicides,
organized crime and police corruption.
They shot one cop, they wouldn't
hesitate to shoot another.
It's highly unusual
for a police officer
to speak out against his own.
But after 20 years of service,
Miranda can no longer keep quiet
about the behavior of the police.
The enforcement against
African-Americans and Hispanics
is ten times more than it is against
any other community out there.
When cops become abusive is when
the they start believing the mentality
that it's us against them.
And that starts from day one
in the police academy.
Any police indoctrination,
it trains officers
to disassociate with
the communities they grew up in,
not to identify with the people,
sometimes not even to identify
with their own family members.
They have no screening process
whatsoever for racism.
They don't do it.
Imagine if the police department
can hire somebody
who has a tattoo on his arm
of a hanging...
Of a black person hanging,
they still qualify to be
a New York City police officer.
- Have you seen that?
- Yes.
White people
don't get arrested as much.
The criminal justice system
doesn't prosecute them as much.
It doesn't charge them
the same way that they charge
African-Americans and Hispanics.
There's a total imbalance to the process
that nobody wants to pay attention to.
Miranda is aware that by making
allegations of systemic racism,
he's pitting himself against the NYPD.
People say, "Well, these guys
are in uniform
and they're talking about discrimination.
These guys are in uniform
and they're talking about the abuses
that are going on in our community."
These were things that were unheard of,
you would never do that.
You're taking your life in your own hands.
The Police Department is
the biggest gang in New York.
You mess with the Police Department,
and the retaliation
is direct and absolute.
The NYPD has 36,000 officers,
and a budget of five billion dollars.
It can control every corner of New York.
In multi-ethnic areas like the Bronx,
the department operates a fleet
of mobile observation towers.
These are deployed 24/7 in poor areas.
The whole place is lit up.
It's like it is a war zone.
It's an occupying force.
Crime rates have fallen to record lows.
But Jose LaSalle, who runs
the local Copwatch team,
believes this is because
the entire community is under siege.
I'm just filming the lights all around.
Kind of give people an idea
of how police has actually took over
these projects in the Bronx.
I mean, there's no problem having
police, you know, around.
My problem is when they just
don't follow the proper procedures
and protocols, and take this to a point
where they just become more
of a harassment.
Suddenly, Jose intercepts
a police request for backup
on a possible domestic violence incident
and disappears down the road.
Jose films as two officers lead
a vocal but handcuffed man
to their vehicle.
But I didn't do nothing.
Did I hit you? Did I hit you?
He's walking on his own to the car.
By the time he reaches the police station,
multiple officers are carrying him in.
Jose's team seek legal advice.
They're concerned about the way
events are unfolding.
We ran over, got over here
in time to catch him
being pulled out of the van
like a fricking sack of potatoes,
completely inert.
What the police officer said that,
"He hit his wife,
so we can do whatever
the fuck we want with him."
And then ten minutes later,
an ambulance is called
and they brought in a stretcher,
so we're waiting to see what the story is.
I'm hoping that he's alive.
We have some video here
of him being pulled into the precinct.
We don't know
what happened to this man.
But the cop watchers
have their suspicions.
So, somewhere along inside that van,
this black male got either knocked out,
beat up by police to the point
where he was unconscious.
They're saying that they have
the right to be the judge,
jury and executioner, you know what
I'm saying, because he hit a woman.
' Cause, obviously,
domestic violence is serious.
And that's why there's a court system,
I mean, why there's a process.
You get locked up, you go to court,
you see the judge.
Their only job is to arrest people.
Just as the team fears the
worst, there's an unexpected development.
They're bringing him out.
They're taking him to the hospital.
Excuse me, sir, are you okay?
- Excuse me.
- I want to know if that man's okay.
- Hold on.
- Are you okay, sir?
Stay here.
Sir, are you okay?
Sir, are you okay?
- Back up, sir.
- Sir, are you okay?
Why do I have to back up?
'Cause we need
ample space over here.
- You have ample space.
- Back up.
Why are you standing in front
of the camera?
- Sir.
- I've given you space.
There's no cars coming, sir.
I want to know that man's okay.
You're going to get hit by a car.
He's not complaining. He has to go
to Lincoln. That's it. Okay?
The police seem to have
changed their story.
They're no longer mentioning
domestic violence.
Now they're saying that the guy
in there is emotionally disturbed,
which is another way to cover
why they had to be so aggressive with him.
The police refuse to give out
the man's name,
so the cop watchers were unable
to find out what happened to him.
What is this?
Cop watcher, Kim Ortense,
thinks it's only a matter of time
before her sons are stopped by the police.
You know that
if a police officer stops you,
- you need to be very, very careful, right?
- Yeah.
You need to not...
You put your hands to your side, right?
And you just ask them, "Am I free to go?"
- Or...
- Am I being detained?
Detained, all right.
Say it, so, "Am I free to go?"
Am I free to go or I'm being...
I'm being detained?
Excuse me, sir, what are you doing here?
- Can I talk to you for a second?
- Yeah.
- That's not what you're going to say!
- No. No!
And if they say you're being detained?
I just need to wait there for a minute.
You need to wait there
and then, when you get a chance
to call Mommy, you call Mommy.
- Okay.
- Okay?
Okay.
My nine-year-old's on the autism spectrum.
Aiden is very respectful.
Aiden is very peaceful.
But he won't understand,
you know, their aggressive,
jump-out-the-car tactics,
with guns in faces.
He will not understand that.
His mind is not equipped
to understand that in that way.
And police aren't equipped
to deal with people in that way,
so I'm terrified,
especially for Aiden,
because of that and...
So I fight and, hopefully, I fight
enough that they don't have to march,
that they don't have
to go through all of this.
Hopefully, something changes,
but, you know, the climate is just...
It's just heartbreaking.
Let me try.
Despite working full-time,
and raising her sons as a single parent...
Kim cop watches every single week
to make sure people know their rights.
Do you consent to that search, sir?
And to gather evidence
when the police step out of line.
We can get you this video.
You do not have to consent to a search.
Say, "I do not consent to this search."
- I don't consent to this search.
- I've got this on film.
He does not consent to a search.
So guess what's going to happen
when you get to court.
This video? Bye-bye.
So, I know I come across
as very aggressive and very militant,
and I am, and I'm unapologetic about it,
because, like, day-to-day,
I see police harass people
and, you know, it's every day.
Like, I can't go one day without
seeing someone's rights
violated by police officers.
And when you try to call them out on it,
it's like, "Who are you to talk to me
about what I'm doing?" Like, "Obey me."
So, yeah, I'm angry, yeah.
I'm aggressive, yes. I'm militant.
Because I've been dealing with
this shit for a long time now.
Stay back.
I'm taking one step back.
I'm at a reasonable distance.
You keep your hands away from me.
I'm not the one.
Yeah. I'm not the one.
Yo, what's the issue?
Record that.
- You need to get out of...
- I work for Copwatch.
- Get out of the street.
- Go on the sidewalk.
Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed
the death of Eric Garner,
has been filming the police ever since.
I told you
to stay on the sidewalk.
But when he is arrested filming
a traffic stop,
his wife, Bella, takes over.
We are on Beruche and Halston.
Ramsey has just been arrested
for standing off of the sidewalk
while filming
the police arrest someone else.
Jesus fucking Christ.
With Ramsey behind bars,
his wife Bella alerts other cop watchers.
Fuck this world, man.
Yeah. The charges are obstruction
of a government agent,
and disorderly conduct.
Right, I'm like, that's fucking bullshit.
I mean, it's been a crazy week.
You know? To hear that he got
arrested for filming cops.
Once again. You know?
My understanding, he was
charged with jaywalking.
I don't know...
You want your other shoelace?
Doing my job.
After five hours in custody,
and convinced he's done nothing wrong,
Ramsey is released.
Before I approach any situation,
I'm like, "Yo, my name is Ramsey Orta.
I work with Copwatch.
I got video footage of
everything that went on.
Don't try to falsify reports."
Man, I think you're crazy
still filming the police.
For Ramsey, the battle
with the NYPD is personal.
He doesn't want the death of his friend,
Eric Garner, to count for nothing.
I'm not going to say
they won by taking my friend.
But they won, in a sense, to show
that they don't give a fuck.
But now it's my turn.
My main goal is to put pressure on cops.
Once they see camera in somebody's
hand or a phone in somebody's hand,
they're quick to think twice,
like, "Oh, shit,
I can't do what I wanted to do."
For Ramsey,
the stakes couldn't be higher.
He has a criminal past.
And since his video exposing
the NYPD went viral,
he has been arrested
in multiple undercover sting operations.
Altogether,
I have five bail bonds.
Empire is covering the gun charge,
'cause that was the first case
that I caught behind the video,
and allegation was I was
selling drugs to an undercover.
His family
is helping pay his bail,
and each week he has to check in
at this bail bond office.
The names that
I'm putting back on the list,
let's just say two cases,
if my grandmother's on three,
can she sign for that other two?
Okay.
Ramsey's lawyers,
Ken Perry and Will Aronin,
believe these latest arrests are bogus,
designed to discredit Ramsey.
He doesn't have a clean record.
But that has nothing
to do with these cases.
It does feel that
they had it in for someone.
And I do think that had he not filmed
this video,
we would not be in this situation
defending him on six or seven
different cases.
It was more like, "Okay, this guy
is getting fucked completely."
Lawyers Aronin and Perry
specialize in cases
of alleged police abuse.
So, tell me what happened.
Uh, well, first off...
Increasingly they are using
Copwatch material
in their court battles with the NYPD.
Keep on going.
Today, they are meeting Christen Conyers.
It's amazing how lucky it is
that this was all on video.
As you can see on tape,
I didn't commit any crime.
This is me right here.
He is facing charges
of resisting arrest
after cycling into a demo.
But footage shot by cop watchers
could be key to his defense.
Of course, I looked
to see what was going on,
'cause this is where I live,
I have every right to be here.
That's when he grabbed me.
I had to stand up.
If I didn't stand up,
I would have fell off the bike.
While this was going on,
officers are kicking my legs.
They're trying to push you down.
They're pushing me down on the floor.
Let's...
From the start for a second.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
You can see me under here.
And there you are there.
Y ou have seven guys as we counted,
maybe more on top of you now.
It's a dogpile.
What are you saying at that point?
At that point, I'm trying to tell them...
I'm gasping for air, telling them,
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe!"
I'm against the ground with three or four
different officers on my back.
How am I supposed to breathe?
Eric Garner didn't get a chance
to tell his story.
I wound up spending the night
in the hospital. Just madness, man.
Christen will be in court
in a few days
and it's taking its toll on his family.
My son doesn't even look
at the police the same now.
He shouldn't live in a place
in which he fears the people
that are supposed to serve
and protect him.
You're going to go to court?
Yeah, me and mommy are gonna go to court.
Just in case anything happens,
mommy is going to come with me.
I don't think anything is going to happen,
but in the event that it does,
it would be better
for mommy to know,
because the courts are not going to call
and tell Mommy that they are
remanding me or anything like that.
The gulf between cop watchers
and the NYPD has never been greater.
- We're here tonight...
- We're here tonight.
- ...'Cause black lives matter.
- 'Cause black lives matter.
Each week, they meet
to remember a person of color
who's died at the hands of the police.
Every Monday, for over a year,
we've been highlighting different cases
of police brutality, and unfortunately,
we're not running out of names.
They're going to shut down the streets,
they're gonna do some civil disobedience
to draw attention to the issue.
Are they going to get arrested?
Most likely some of them will.
What do we want?
- Justice.
- And when do we want it?
Now!
What do we want?
- Justice!
- And when do we want it?
Now!
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down.
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down.
There is some brave people willing to
put their lives at the hands
of the police, you know?
All I can do is watch their backs
as long as...
Just filming as much as I'm able to do.
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down!
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down!
These two sides now view
each other with complete hostility.
Sorry to disrupt your shopping!
Sorry to disrupt your shopping!
- But while you're shopping...
- But while you're shopping.
- Black people are dying.
- Black people are dying.
- By the hands of the police.
- By the hands of the police.
- Put your fist in the air.
- Put your fist in the air.
- Our lives matter.
- Black lives matter.
- Our lives matter.
- Black lives matter.
Rather than target
the main demonstration,
the police single out one
of the cop watchers they know well.
Go back over there and film over there.
This is the seventy-fifth time
Dennis has been arrested.
You've got to get back
in your little space.
What's happened, Dennis?
There are arresting me. I have no clue.
I have no idea why they are arresting me.
They haven't told me
why am I being arrested.
Please step back
on the sidewalk. You're on the street.
The more we report of your abuse,
the more people win,
the more we win.
Three, six, seven cops on somebody
who was walking on the crosswalk?
It is our duty
to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty
to fight for our freedom.
- It is our duty to win.
- It is our duty to win.
We must love and support each other.
We must love and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Dennis is driven to the nearest
police station for processing.
But just two hours later,
he's released on bail.
Look what they gave me.
They locked me up,
kept me in there for an hour,
and they gave me a ticket
for disorderly conduct,
'cause they claim that
I was crossing the street
when there was a red light.
Luckily for me,
I videotaped the entire thing.
As I crossed the street,
I made sure I documented
the traffic signal.
I don't even jaywalk when I cop watch.
I recorded myself being stopped
in the middle of the street
when it was still my turn to cross
and I was arrested for doing nothing.
Kim is in court today.
Six months ago, she was also
arrested when filming the police.
He wasn't doing anything!
- Are you nervous about today?
- No, I'm not nervous.
I have video evidence that it was
a completely bogus arrest.
I'm not nervous at all. If anything,
it's just inconvenient
that I have to keep taking time out
to keep doing this
and I'm not going to fall for
this bogus charge
just because that's what they want.
But when Kim's case is called,
the arresting officer doesn't turn up
and her trial is postponed.
She believes it's part
of a deliberate strategy
to wear cop watchers down.
The irony, I think,
is that had I not shown up,
I would have had a warrant for my arrest,
but he can come as he pleases
or not come at all.
I mean, let's be perfectly honest.
You know,
this is a white supremacist country.
The laws, the courts, the police,
everything runs on white supremacy,
so you have the cards stacked against you.
If you're a person of color,
you have the cards stacked against you.
If you're a poor person, you have
the cards stacked against you.
If you're a woman of color.
What about people
who say you're exaggerating?
I would ask those people to come
and sit down and I would ask
those people to witness
what we witness all the time.
I would also be insulted
because someone
that would say that I'm exaggerating
is probably someone
that lives in the suburbs
and has no idea the issues
that I'm talking about,
because it doesn't affect
or pertain to them.
Is there a reason
behind all these arrests
and seemingly heavy-handed police tactics?
One serving NYPD officer
with 17 years experience
is prepared to speak out.
This was actually my graduation,
one of my graduation jackets.
Julio Diaz is president
of New York's Latino Officers Association.
- When was your graduation?
- 1999.
He's now bringing
a class action lawsuit against the NYPD
claiming the existence of secret
and illegal arrest quotas.
The police department
will retaliate against you
if they think you're saying
something they don't like.
Quotas is something that they don't
want people to know about.
If you put a system now that tells
police officers to go out there,
and go stop people, and here's a number,
and if you don't come back with that
number, you're going to be disciplined,
you're going to cause some problems
with the police department,
with some police officers because
they might not know the balance now.
They might go, "Okay, I've got to get this
at all costs."
The minority communities, Latino
and African American communities,
are being targeted as enforcement strategy
by the NYPD.
Who are you going to target more?
The poor people, the people who
are not going to sue you,
the people who're not going to fight back,
the people that you know
are not going to call a politician
to come after you?
These are the people
that are getting targeted.
These allegations, that the
NYPD aggressively pursue arrest targets
were recently put
to Police Commissioner Bratton.
Bullshit! Bullshit is my response to that.
Quite clearly.
If any of my cops out there still think
we're pushing for the summons, etcetera,
I'm sorry, we're pushing to reduce crime.
Despite this official denial,
Detective Miranda is adamant
quotas not only exist,
but were a key factor
in the arrest of Eric Garner.
They went out here to put his ass in jail
for something that he didn't do.
To constitute the sale,
they had to have seen the exchange
of money and the cigarettes.
Their own reports after the incident,
they never said
that they saw an actual exchange between
Eric Garner and anybody else.
So if that was the premise
in why you stopped him,
then your stop was illegal.
Your approach to him was illegal
and you should never have
approached him to begin with.
I am minding my business, officer.
I'm minding my business.
Please, just leave me alone.
He said, "These guys are targeting me,
they're planting evidence on me."
Every time you see me,
you want to mess with me.
According to Miranda, not only were
the detectives aiming to hit their quota,
they were also punishing Eric
for daring to complain about harassment.
Prior to this,
he's already made allegations
against a team at Staten Island,
the same officers,
that they had planted evidence on him,
and are falsely arresting him
and accusing him of a crime.
Don't touch me!
I can't breathe!
To establish that they retaliated
against him was easy
for any federal investigator,
anybody with authority and oversight.
The City Council, all these people
who held the hearings,
nobody asked the right questions 'cause
they didn't want the right answers.
We should all be up in arms.
Two years on and people
in the community are still angry.
They cannot understand
why the police have not been
held accountable.
- You telling the true story?
- You tell them what's true.
Are you sure?
If it can happen to him,
it can happen to my sons, you know,
my sisters, my brothers,
and it's been happening.
To find out later
when it came out and it said
he was not going to be prosecuted,
the police officer, I lost it.
The whole damn system is guilty as hell.
For many New Yorkers,
the fact the officers involved
in the choke hold death of Eric Garner
face no charges...
...while Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed
it all, faces years in jail,
shows the imbalance in the system.
The whole damn system is guilty as hell.
Ramsey is out on bail,
but he cannot afford
to be caught out again.
With his trial looming,
Ramsey's lawyers call a crisis meeting.
I expect the DA
to ask to increase the bail.
We will do everything we can to make sure
you walk out of that court room
with us on Wednesday.
But, now that there's more in
from yesterday,
every single one is gonna make our lives,
make your life more difficult.
- So we're not getting another one, right?
- No.
Be mentally prepared, we're gonna fight
like hell to keep it from happening.
Be mentally prepared.
Play the game
because right now they hold the cards.
The man who inspired
the movement, faces the prospect
of no longer being able to cop watch.
Ramsey knows this.
We've had this conversation with him
very seriously many, many times.
This case has to be
resolved at some point.
Do I expect that all the police officers
will be saying nothing,
but all the truth? No.
I assume the police officers
are going to be lying on the stand
to get done what they want,
to get done what they think
is in their interest.
If everything went wrong,
118 years maximum.
He's theoretically facing 118 years.
For some, Ramsey is a
career-criminal hiding behind allegations
of NYPD brutality.
To others, he's a hero.
I exposed, literally,
the modern-day lynching.
That's what happened.
They choked him to death.
I don't regret it, but I don't want
to be dealing with this shit.
I'm about to go give up some time
of my life for taking a video.
It's going to be a rough ride,
but hopefully I've
got my head on my shoulders
by the time I get in there.
What's the worst it can be now?
What's the worst?
Death.
Pretty much.
You'll probably be doing me a favor
because I ain't gotta go
through this bullshit
that I'm going through now.
I had a great career.
I did, I had a great career.
For Detective Miranda, the
criminal justice system is out of control.
He's seen the prison population of America
increase by two million people
and maintains each
arrest, trial and conviction
helps hit a financial target.
People make money from this whole process.
This is a money-making system.
The summons generate income,
the arrests generate an entire system.
When you arrest somebody,
everybody is making money.
The courts make money,
the jails make money,
the court officers make money,
the correction officers make money.
It's a money-generating system
that nobody wants
to correct the imbalance,
because if you make it fair,
then there won't be as much
income in the system.
That's just the reality of it.
There's not enough...
The city won't make
the same amount of money.
I think Copwatch should be everybody.
I think everybody who owns a camera now,
everyone who owns a cellphone
should be a part of Copwatch.
Every time you see something going on,
you should take the picture.
Despite the cop watcher's video,
Christen Conyers is back in court today.
If convicted, he faces
a one-year sentence.
Go in there and do
what you got to do today, man.
Behave and do a good job today.
All right? No complaints, all right?
- All right?
- Okay.
Give me some.
See you later.
Who's going to pick me up
from school today?
Huh?
Who's going to pick me up
from school today?
Either me or mommy should be able
to pick you up. All right?
If anything, at the most, Grandpa.
But it'll probably be me and mommy,
all right?
All right.
I love you. See you later.
Go ahead, man.
This seems a community
more divided than united by the police.
This is the view
from my son's bedroom.
Police sitting right here.
They're here every day,
day and night, 24/7.
Think about it. They're right here.
It's almost like an invasion
of your privacy.
It's supposed to be New York City
public housing, you know?
But when you come home,
they sit right outside your window.
You're not free.
Who's anyone to say that you're free
walking around in New York City
or anywhere in America right now?
I mean, especially being a black man.
Do you think...
Do you see that it's round?
Because you have no glasses.
I can't see from here.
How do you see all of this from down here?
Because he got them good ol' glasses.
And I can see without it.
Just imagine if those videos wasn't there,
you would have been still in jail.
People need to wake up.
We gonna be all right.
I just don't want to keep loosing you.
Ramsey has just been arrested
for filming the police.
Back up.
Why are you standing
in front of the camera?
Sir, you've got to get...
Get back on that sidewalk. Go back
over there and film over there.
They haven't told me
why am I being arrested.
This is my mom's name, Emily.
This was actually my first tattoo.
I remember I was told,
I wouldn't be able to get tattoos
unless it was my mom's name.
So, I went behind my mom's back
for Mother's Day
and got her name tattooed, and since then,
I've just been addicted to it.
Eyes of a dead man.
A part of my life where
I felt like I didn't have no soul,
I didn't have no heart
and everything was cold around me.
This is actually a victim
to the police brutality and stuff.
This signified how cops were killing us.
Ex gang-member, Ramsey Orta,
faces years in jail.
It all started when he shot
a video of his friend, Eric Garner,
being stopped by undercover officers
on suspicion of selling
untaxed cigarettes.
For what? Every time you see me,
you want to mess with me.
I'm tired of it. It stops today.
This guy right here is forcibly
trying to lock somebody up.
That day changed my life.
I wish it didn't have to happen this way.
Don't touch me, please.
Do not touch me.
- Why are they doing that to him?
- Damn, man.
All right, he's down.
Lift your hands, buddy.
Put your hands behind your head.
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
Officer had his knee
on Eric's neck like this.
And basically holding him down,
trying to restrain him,
while other officers was twisting his arm.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe!
Everybody back up. Back up.
Watching it now, it's like... It hurts.
I get goosebumps,
'cause I feel like I could've done
a lot more
than just stand there and videotape.
He can't breathe.
They don't even try to take
the cuffs of him and give him CPR.
They don't even try to put
an oxygen mask over his face.
I mean, they just left him there.
Laying on his side, with his eyes
rolled back and his mouth open.
And I'm like, "I killed him."
Back up.
I was here watching the whole shit.
You watched everything.
You know everything.
I couldn't believe it at first,
and then...
I went home and took a shower
and it hit me like,
"Damn, they just killed my friend."
Two days after a New York City grand jury
cleared a white police officer
in the choke hold death
of an unarmed black man,
the protests are growing larger
and spreading across the country...
Ramsey's video triggered
demonstrations across America.
I can't breathe!
Hundreds shut down
major highways in multiple cities.
For many,
including the city's medical adviser,
this was a homicide caught on camera.
I can't breathe!
Summer, 2016.
Ramsey's video has still
not led to any arrests.
But it has inspired a network of people
who use technology to watch the police.
They're taking on the largest force
in America,
the NYPD.
Brooklyn, New York City.
Dennis Flores is a government employee
by day.
By night, he runs a team
that intercepts police radio
to film arrests as they happen.
342 tenth Street.
Can you check if that's
between third and fourth Avenue?
Let's roll with it.
We want to deter police abuse.
So, if our cameras are out there,
it's going to help prevent it
'cause they know
there's extra eyes on them.
These cameras are bad-cop repellent.
While it's legal to film the police,
Dennis has been arrested dozens of times.
Sometimes aggressively.
So, these cops came,
grabbed me, handcuffed me,
and then body-slammed me here,
like about five or six cops.
Slammed me to the floor.
This one police officer
grabbed his walkie-talkie
and cracked my head open
as all these other cops came
and kicked me, punched me.
And they dragged me out of here
and charged me with assaulting the police.
Now, Dennis never films alone.
He and his team have filmed multiple cases
of what New York's zero-tolerance
policing means in practice.
So, this is where Ray Tillery was standing
when he flicked the cigarette
onto the street.
The police around him,
swarmed him around this entrance.
As we see in the video,
right in here, in front of
this dollar pizzeria shop,
he gets arrested.
What?
What are these guys trying to do?
- Are they trying to handcuff him?
- Turn around.
Over ten police officers,
aggressively, take him down
for flicking a cigarette in the street,
something that thousands
of New Yorkers do every day.
He can't throw a cigarette butt down?
Come on, man.
For every ten people stopped
by the NYPD, eight are Black or Hispanic.
Literally, like, the police have a license
to hurt, arrest,
and kill people and get away with it.
Nothing happens to them.
Even those who intervene
run the risk of arrest.
Sebastian Lemos, he was right here
and the police were arresting him.
And as they approached, the mother,
she started telling the cops what
you're doing to her son was wrong.
She's six months pregnant.
She has a belly out to here.
You see them struggling with her
and he slams her to the floor.
He puts his knees on her back.
Another woman approaches,
and the cop tosses her, flips her over,
and she hits the ground
and fractures her kneecap.
These are crimes being committed
by police officers.
That's why cop watching is effective.
Because here we are, keeping a track
of all the corrupt cops.
We're making it public to make sure
that people know what's going on
and this doesn't just
get swept under the rug.
Police officer shot in the shoulder.
Now they've got an investigation
of the three individuals.
Two of them have been apprehended.
The officer has got shot in the shoulder.
And one individual's still at large.
Anthony Miranda
has spent his life in the NYPD.
They're doing an infrared and heat
to try to locate people,
probably in the backyards.
A senior detective,
he's investigated homicides,
organized crime and police corruption.
They shot one cop, they wouldn't
hesitate to shoot another.
It's highly unusual
for a police officer
to speak out against his own.
But after 20 years of service,
Miranda can no longer keep quiet
about the behavior of the police.
The enforcement against
African-Americans and Hispanics
is ten times more than it is against
any other community out there.
When cops become abusive is when
the they start believing the mentality
that it's us against them.
And that starts from day one
in the police academy.
Any police indoctrination,
it trains officers
to disassociate with
the communities they grew up in,
not to identify with the people,
sometimes not even to identify
with their own family members.
They have no screening process
whatsoever for racism.
They don't do it.
Imagine if the police department
can hire somebody
who has a tattoo on his arm
of a hanging...
Of a black person hanging,
they still qualify to be
a New York City police officer.
- Have you seen that?
- Yes.
White people
don't get arrested as much.
The criminal justice system
doesn't prosecute them as much.
It doesn't charge them
the same way that they charge
African-Americans and Hispanics.
There's a total imbalance to the process
that nobody wants to pay attention to.
Miranda is aware that by making
allegations of systemic racism,
he's pitting himself against the NYPD.
People say, "Well, these guys
are in uniform
and they're talking about discrimination.
These guys are in uniform
and they're talking about the abuses
that are going on in our community."
These were things that were unheard of,
you would never do that.
You're taking your life in your own hands.
The Police Department is
the biggest gang in New York.
You mess with the Police Department,
and the retaliation
is direct and absolute.
The NYPD has 36,000 officers,
and a budget of five billion dollars.
It can control every corner of New York.
In multi-ethnic areas like the Bronx,
the department operates a fleet
of mobile observation towers.
These are deployed 24/7 in poor areas.
The whole place is lit up.
It's like it is a war zone.
It's an occupying force.
Crime rates have fallen to record lows.
But Jose LaSalle, who runs
the local Copwatch team,
believes this is because
the entire community is under siege.
I'm just filming the lights all around.
Kind of give people an idea
of how police has actually took over
these projects in the Bronx.
I mean, there's no problem having
police, you know, around.
My problem is when they just
don't follow the proper procedures
and protocols, and take this to a point
where they just become more
of a harassment.
Suddenly, Jose intercepts
a police request for backup
on a possible domestic violence incident
and disappears down the road.
Jose films as two officers lead
a vocal but handcuffed man
to their vehicle.
But I didn't do nothing.
Did I hit you? Did I hit you?
He's walking on his own to the car.
By the time he reaches the police station,
multiple officers are carrying him in.
Jose's team seek legal advice.
They're concerned about the way
events are unfolding.
We ran over, got over here
in time to catch him
being pulled out of the van
like a fricking sack of potatoes,
completely inert.
What the police officer said that,
"He hit his wife,
so we can do whatever
the fuck we want with him."
And then ten minutes later,
an ambulance is called
and they brought in a stretcher,
so we're waiting to see what the story is.
I'm hoping that he's alive.
We have some video here
of him being pulled into the precinct.
We don't know
what happened to this man.
But the cop watchers
have their suspicions.
So, somewhere along inside that van,
this black male got either knocked out,
beat up by police to the point
where he was unconscious.
They're saying that they have
the right to be the judge,
jury and executioner, you know what
I'm saying, because he hit a woman.
' Cause, obviously,
domestic violence is serious.
And that's why there's a court system,
I mean, why there's a process.
You get locked up, you go to court,
you see the judge.
Their only job is to arrest people.
Just as the team fears the
worst, there's an unexpected development.
They're bringing him out.
They're taking him to the hospital.
Excuse me, sir, are you okay?
- Excuse me.
- I want to know if that man's okay.
- Hold on.
- Are you okay, sir?
Stay here.
Sir, are you okay?
Sir, are you okay?
- Back up, sir.
- Sir, are you okay?
Why do I have to back up?
'Cause we need
ample space over here.
- You have ample space.
- Back up.
Why are you standing in front
of the camera?
- Sir.
- I've given you space.
There's no cars coming, sir.
I want to know that man's okay.
You're going to get hit by a car.
He's not complaining. He has to go
to Lincoln. That's it. Okay?
The police seem to have
changed their story.
They're no longer mentioning
domestic violence.
Now they're saying that the guy
in there is emotionally disturbed,
which is another way to cover
why they had to be so aggressive with him.
The police refuse to give out
the man's name,
so the cop watchers were unable
to find out what happened to him.
What is this?
Cop watcher, Kim Ortense,
thinks it's only a matter of time
before her sons are stopped by the police.
You know that
if a police officer stops you,
- you need to be very, very careful, right?
- Yeah.
You need to not...
You put your hands to your side, right?
And you just ask them, "Am I free to go?"
- Or...
- Am I being detained?
Detained, all right.
Say it, so, "Am I free to go?"
Am I free to go or I'm being...
I'm being detained?
Excuse me, sir, what are you doing here?
- Can I talk to you for a second?
- Yeah.
- That's not what you're going to say!
- No. No!
And if they say you're being detained?
I just need to wait there for a minute.
You need to wait there
and then, when you get a chance
to call Mommy, you call Mommy.
- Okay.
- Okay?
Okay.
My nine-year-old's on the autism spectrum.
Aiden is very respectful.
Aiden is very peaceful.
But he won't understand,
you know, their aggressive,
jump-out-the-car tactics,
with guns in faces.
He will not understand that.
His mind is not equipped
to understand that in that way.
And police aren't equipped
to deal with people in that way,
so I'm terrified,
especially for Aiden,
because of that and...
So I fight and, hopefully, I fight
enough that they don't have to march,
that they don't have
to go through all of this.
Hopefully, something changes,
but, you know, the climate is just...
It's just heartbreaking.
Let me try.
Despite working full-time,
and raising her sons as a single parent...
Kim cop watches every single week
to make sure people know their rights.
Do you consent to that search, sir?
And to gather evidence
when the police step out of line.
We can get you this video.
You do not have to consent to a search.
Say, "I do not consent to this search."
- I don't consent to this search.
- I've got this on film.
He does not consent to a search.
So guess what's going to happen
when you get to court.
This video? Bye-bye.
So, I know I come across
as very aggressive and very militant,
and I am, and I'm unapologetic about it,
because, like, day-to-day,
I see police harass people
and, you know, it's every day.
Like, I can't go one day without
seeing someone's rights
violated by police officers.
And when you try to call them out on it,
it's like, "Who are you to talk to me
about what I'm doing?" Like, "Obey me."
So, yeah, I'm angry, yeah.
I'm aggressive, yes. I'm militant.
Because I've been dealing with
this shit for a long time now.
Stay back.
I'm taking one step back.
I'm at a reasonable distance.
You keep your hands away from me.
I'm not the one.
Yeah. I'm not the one.
Yo, what's the issue?
Record that.
- You need to get out of...
- I work for Copwatch.
- Get out of the street.
- Go on the sidewalk.
Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed
the death of Eric Garner,
has been filming the police ever since.
I told you
to stay on the sidewalk.
But when he is arrested filming
a traffic stop,
his wife, Bella, takes over.
We are on Beruche and Halston.
Ramsey has just been arrested
for standing off of the sidewalk
while filming
the police arrest someone else.
Jesus fucking Christ.
With Ramsey behind bars,
his wife Bella alerts other cop watchers.
Fuck this world, man.
Yeah. The charges are obstruction
of a government agent,
and disorderly conduct.
Right, I'm like, that's fucking bullshit.
I mean, it's been a crazy week.
You know? To hear that he got
arrested for filming cops.
Once again. You know?
My understanding, he was
charged with jaywalking.
I don't know...
You want your other shoelace?
Doing my job.
After five hours in custody,
and convinced he's done nothing wrong,
Ramsey is released.
Before I approach any situation,
I'm like, "Yo, my name is Ramsey Orta.
I work with Copwatch.
I got video footage of
everything that went on.
Don't try to falsify reports."
Man, I think you're crazy
still filming the police.
For Ramsey, the battle
with the NYPD is personal.
He doesn't want the death of his friend,
Eric Garner, to count for nothing.
I'm not going to say
they won by taking my friend.
But they won, in a sense, to show
that they don't give a fuck.
But now it's my turn.
My main goal is to put pressure on cops.
Once they see camera in somebody's
hand or a phone in somebody's hand,
they're quick to think twice,
like, "Oh, shit,
I can't do what I wanted to do."
For Ramsey,
the stakes couldn't be higher.
He has a criminal past.
And since his video exposing
the NYPD went viral,
he has been arrested
in multiple undercover sting operations.
Altogether,
I have five bail bonds.
Empire is covering the gun charge,
'cause that was the first case
that I caught behind the video,
and allegation was I was
selling drugs to an undercover.
His family
is helping pay his bail,
and each week he has to check in
at this bail bond office.
The names that
I'm putting back on the list,
let's just say two cases,
if my grandmother's on three,
can she sign for that other two?
Okay.
Ramsey's lawyers,
Ken Perry and Will Aronin,
believe these latest arrests are bogus,
designed to discredit Ramsey.
He doesn't have a clean record.
But that has nothing
to do with these cases.
It does feel that
they had it in for someone.
And I do think that had he not filmed
this video,
we would not be in this situation
defending him on six or seven
different cases.
It was more like, "Okay, this guy
is getting fucked completely."
Lawyers Aronin and Perry
specialize in cases
of alleged police abuse.
So, tell me what happened.
Uh, well, first off...
Increasingly they are using
Copwatch material
in their court battles with the NYPD.
Keep on going.
Today, they are meeting Christen Conyers.
It's amazing how lucky it is
that this was all on video.
As you can see on tape,
I didn't commit any crime.
This is me right here.
He is facing charges
of resisting arrest
after cycling into a demo.
But footage shot by cop watchers
could be key to his defense.
Of course, I looked
to see what was going on,
'cause this is where I live,
I have every right to be here.
That's when he grabbed me.
I had to stand up.
If I didn't stand up,
I would have fell off the bike.
While this was going on,
officers are kicking my legs.
They're trying to push you down.
They're pushing me down on the floor.
Let's...
From the start for a second.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
You can see me under here.
And there you are there.
Y ou have seven guys as we counted,
maybe more on top of you now.
It's a dogpile.
What are you saying at that point?
At that point, I'm trying to tell them...
I'm gasping for air, telling them,
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe!"
I'm against the ground with three or four
different officers on my back.
How am I supposed to breathe?
Eric Garner didn't get a chance
to tell his story.
I wound up spending the night
in the hospital. Just madness, man.
Christen will be in court
in a few days
and it's taking its toll on his family.
My son doesn't even look
at the police the same now.
He shouldn't live in a place
in which he fears the people
that are supposed to serve
and protect him.
You're going to go to court?
Yeah, me and mommy are gonna go to court.
Just in case anything happens,
mommy is going to come with me.
I don't think anything is going to happen,
but in the event that it does,
it would be better
for mommy to know,
because the courts are not going to call
and tell Mommy that they are
remanding me or anything like that.
The gulf between cop watchers
and the NYPD has never been greater.
- We're here tonight...
- We're here tonight.
- ...'Cause black lives matter.
- 'Cause black lives matter.
Each week, they meet
to remember a person of color
who's died at the hands of the police.
Every Monday, for over a year,
we've been highlighting different cases
of police brutality, and unfortunately,
we're not running out of names.
They're going to shut down the streets,
they're gonna do some civil disobedience
to draw attention to the issue.
Are they going to get arrested?
Most likely some of them will.
What do we want?
- Justice.
- And when do we want it?
Now!
What do we want?
- Justice!
- And when do we want it?
Now!
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down.
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down.
There is some brave people willing to
put their lives at the hands
of the police, you know?
All I can do is watch their backs
as long as...
Just filming as much as I'm able to do.
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down!
- And if we don't get it?
- Shut it down!
These two sides now view
each other with complete hostility.
Sorry to disrupt your shopping!
Sorry to disrupt your shopping!
- But while you're shopping...
- But while you're shopping.
- Black people are dying.
- Black people are dying.
- By the hands of the police.
- By the hands of the police.
- Put your fist in the air.
- Put your fist in the air.
- Our lives matter.
- Black lives matter.
- Our lives matter.
- Black lives matter.
Rather than target
the main demonstration,
the police single out one
of the cop watchers they know well.
Go back over there and film over there.
This is the seventy-fifth time
Dennis has been arrested.
You've got to get back
in your little space.
What's happened, Dennis?
There are arresting me. I have no clue.
I have no idea why they are arresting me.
They haven't told me
why am I being arrested.
Please step back
on the sidewalk. You're on the street.
The more we report of your abuse,
the more people win,
the more we win.
Three, six, seven cops on somebody
who was walking on the crosswalk?
It is our duty
to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty
to fight for our freedom.
- It is our duty to win.
- It is our duty to win.
We must love and support each other.
We must love and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Dennis is driven to the nearest
police station for processing.
But just two hours later,
he's released on bail.
Look what they gave me.
They locked me up,
kept me in there for an hour,
and they gave me a ticket
for disorderly conduct,
'cause they claim that
I was crossing the street
when there was a red light.
Luckily for me,
I videotaped the entire thing.
As I crossed the street,
I made sure I documented
the traffic signal.
I don't even jaywalk when I cop watch.
I recorded myself being stopped
in the middle of the street
when it was still my turn to cross
and I was arrested for doing nothing.
Kim is in court today.
Six months ago, she was also
arrested when filming the police.
He wasn't doing anything!
- Are you nervous about today?
- No, I'm not nervous.
I have video evidence that it was
a completely bogus arrest.
I'm not nervous at all. If anything,
it's just inconvenient
that I have to keep taking time out
to keep doing this
and I'm not going to fall for
this bogus charge
just because that's what they want.
But when Kim's case is called,
the arresting officer doesn't turn up
and her trial is postponed.
She believes it's part
of a deliberate strategy
to wear cop watchers down.
The irony, I think,
is that had I not shown up,
I would have had a warrant for my arrest,
but he can come as he pleases
or not come at all.
I mean, let's be perfectly honest.
You know,
this is a white supremacist country.
The laws, the courts, the police,
everything runs on white supremacy,
so you have the cards stacked against you.
If you're a person of color,
you have the cards stacked against you.
If you're a poor person, you have
the cards stacked against you.
If you're a woman of color.
What about people
who say you're exaggerating?
I would ask those people to come
and sit down and I would ask
those people to witness
what we witness all the time.
I would also be insulted
because someone
that would say that I'm exaggerating
is probably someone
that lives in the suburbs
and has no idea the issues
that I'm talking about,
because it doesn't affect
or pertain to them.
Is there a reason
behind all these arrests
and seemingly heavy-handed police tactics?
One serving NYPD officer
with 17 years experience
is prepared to speak out.
This was actually my graduation,
one of my graduation jackets.
Julio Diaz is president
of New York's Latino Officers Association.
- When was your graduation?
- 1999.
He's now bringing
a class action lawsuit against the NYPD
claiming the existence of secret
and illegal arrest quotas.
The police department
will retaliate against you
if they think you're saying
something they don't like.
Quotas is something that they don't
want people to know about.
If you put a system now that tells
police officers to go out there,
and go stop people, and here's a number,
and if you don't come back with that
number, you're going to be disciplined,
you're going to cause some problems
with the police department,
with some police officers because
they might not know the balance now.
They might go, "Okay, I've got to get this
at all costs."
The minority communities, Latino
and African American communities,
are being targeted as enforcement strategy
by the NYPD.
Who are you going to target more?
The poor people, the people who
are not going to sue you,
the people who're not going to fight back,
the people that you know
are not going to call a politician
to come after you?
These are the people
that are getting targeted.
These allegations, that the
NYPD aggressively pursue arrest targets
were recently put
to Police Commissioner Bratton.
Bullshit! Bullshit is my response to that.
Quite clearly.
If any of my cops out there still think
we're pushing for the summons, etcetera,
I'm sorry, we're pushing to reduce crime.
Despite this official denial,
Detective Miranda is adamant
quotas not only exist,
but were a key factor
in the arrest of Eric Garner.
They went out here to put his ass in jail
for something that he didn't do.
To constitute the sale,
they had to have seen the exchange
of money and the cigarettes.
Their own reports after the incident,
they never said
that they saw an actual exchange between
Eric Garner and anybody else.
So if that was the premise
in why you stopped him,
then your stop was illegal.
Your approach to him was illegal
and you should never have
approached him to begin with.
I am minding my business, officer.
I'm minding my business.
Please, just leave me alone.
He said, "These guys are targeting me,
they're planting evidence on me."
Every time you see me,
you want to mess with me.
According to Miranda, not only were
the detectives aiming to hit their quota,
they were also punishing Eric
for daring to complain about harassment.
Prior to this,
he's already made allegations
against a team at Staten Island,
the same officers,
that they had planted evidence on him,
and are falsely arresting him
and accusing him of a crime.
Don't touch me!
I can't breathe!
To establish that they retaliated
against him was easy
for any federal investigator,
anybody with authority and oversight.
The City Council, all these people
who held the hearings,
nobody asked the right questions 'cause
they didn't want the right answers.
We should all be up in arms.
Two years on and people
in the community are still angry.
They cannot understand
why the police have not been
held accountable.
- You telling the true story?
- You tell them what's true.
Are you sure?
If it can happen to him,
it can happen to my sons, you know,
my sisters, my brothers,
and it's been happening.
To find out later
when it came out and it said
he was not going to be prosecuted,
the police officer, I lost it.
The whole damn system is guilty as hell.
For many New Yorkers,
the fact the officers involved
in the choke hold death of Eric Garner
face no charges...
...while Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed
it all, faces years in jail,
shows the imbalance in the system.
The whole damn system is guilty as hell.
Ramsey is out on bail,
but he cannot afford
to be caught out again.
With his trial looming,
Ramsey's lawyers call a crisis meeting.
I expect the DA
to ask to increase the bail.
We will do everything we can to make sure
you walk out of that court room
with us on Wednesday.
But, now that there's more in
from yesterday,
every single one is gonna make our lives,
make your life more difficult.
- So we're not getting another one, right?
- No.
Be mentally prepared, we're gonna fight
like hell to keep it from happening.
Be mentally prepared.
Play the game
because right now they hold the cards.
The man who inspired
the movement, faces the prospect
of no longer being able to cop watch.
Ramsey knows this.
We've had this conversation with him
very seriously many, many times.
This case has to be
resolved at some point.
Do I expect that all the police officers
will be saying nothing,
but all the truth? No.
I assume the police officers
are going to be lying on the stand
to get done what they want,
to get done what they think
is in their interest.
If everything went wrong,
118 years maximum.
He's theoretically facing 118 years.
For some, Ramsey is a
career-criminal hiding behind allegations
of NYPD brutality.
To others, he's a hero.
I exposed, literally,
the modern-day lynching.
That's what happened.
They choked him to death.
I don't regret it, but I don't want
to be dealing with this shit.
I'm about to go give up some time
of my life for taking a video.
It's going to be a rough ride,
but hopefully I've
got my head on my shoulders
by the time I get in there.
What's the worst it can be now?
What's the worst?
Death.
Pretty much.
You'll probably be doing me a favor
because I ain't gotta go
through this bullshit
that I'm going through now.
I had a great career.
I did, I had a great career.
For Detective Miranda, the
criminal justice system is out of control.
He's seen the prison population of America
increase by two million people
and maintains each
arrest, trial and conviction
helps hit a financial target.
People make money from this whole process.
This is a money-making system.
The summons generate income,
the arrests generate an entire system.
When you arrest somebody,
everybody is making money.
The courts make money,
the jails make money,
the court officers make money,
the correction officers make money.
It's a money-generating system
that nobody wants
to correct the imbalance,
because if you make it fair,
then there won't be as much
income in the system.
That's just the reality of it.
There's not enough...
The city won't make
the same amount of money.
I think Copwatch should be everybody.
I think everybody who owns a camera now,
everyone who owns a cellphone
should be a part of Copwatch.
Every time you see something going on,
you should take the picture.
Despite the cop watcher's video,
Christen Conyers is back in court today.
If convicted, he faces
a one-year sentence.
Go in there and do
what you got to do today, man.
Behave and do a good job today.
All right? No complaints, all right?
- All right?
- Okay.
Give me some.
See you later.
Who's going to pick me up
from school today?
Huh?
Who's going to pick me up
from school today?
Either me or mommy should be able
to pick you up. All right?
If anything, at the most, Grandpa.
But it'll probably be me and mommy,
all right?
All right.
I love you. See you later.
Go ahead, man.
This seems a community
more divided than united by the police.
This is the view
from my son's bedroom.
Police sitting right here.
They're here every day,
day and night, 24/7.
Think about it. They're right here.
It's almost like an invasion
of your privacy.
It's supposed to be New York City
public housing, you know?
But when you come home,
they sit right outside your window.
You're not free.
Who's anyone to say that you're free
walking around in New York City
or anywhere in America right now?
I mean, especially being a black man.
Do you think...
Do you see that it's round?
Because you have no glasses.
I can't see from here.
How do you see all of this from down here?
Because he got them good ol' glasses.
And I can see without it.
Just imagine if those videos wasn't there,
you would have been still in jail.
People need to wake up.
We gonna be all right.
I just don't want to keep loosing you.