Pepper sprayed and charged down
for filming the police
Abigail Tracy
A University of Massachusetts
Amherst student is suing the Amherst police for smashing his iPhone after
charging him during a disturbance. Thomas Donovan alleges that he was assaulted
and falsely arrested for filming an arrest last March.
Donovan was arrested during an
annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day celebration known as the Blarney Blowout.
According to Donovan’s lawsuit, the Amherst senior was filming the police
officers make an arrest with his phone when he was approached by a police officer
in full riot gear who tried to make him stop recording the scene. In the film,
Donovan shouts at the officer that he has “freedom to fucking film” at which
point the police officer sprays him with pepper spray, approaches him, and
tells him that he’s going to be arrested. Donovan keeps recording, and another
officer approaches him, knocks his phone out of his hand and subsequently tries
to stomp it to pieces with the sole of his shoe. The phone, however, was
protected by its case and managed to film the entire incident, reported local
news sources.
Based on the footage, all
criminal charges brought against Donovan during the altercation were dropped,
and the university, which had temporarily suspended him, revoked the
suspension. Jesus Arocho, Andrew Hulse and John Does One, Two and Three are
named as defendants in the suit.
“The goal of the lawsuit is to
obtain money damages to compensate Mr. Donovan, as well as to vindicate his
first Amendment right to videotape officers in public,” David Milton, an attorney
representing Donovan, told the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
