Abusive Cop: Pastor Shuts Down Officer

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

She will not look at the city code. You won't look at the city code? You are engaging in thuggish, oppressive, unconstitutional behavior.

00:09

Officer, you need to repent of your lawless conduct. Yeah, ma 'am, I reject your warning.

00:15

I reject it. But I also got to see these same women turn to Christ and experience forgiveness.

00:31

I got to see their lives transformed.

00:41

I got to see... Can I talk to you for a moment?

00:47

Sure. Yeah, I need my

00:52

ID. I need to talk to you about... What's the complaint about?

00:58

The complaint was about sound amplification. Well, that's illegal activity.

01:04

Sound amplification is illegal? Yeah, I can show you. No, I think it's illegally amplified.

01:11

Yeah. I'm talking about disturbing somebody's peace. Yeah, that's been... That's what I deal with. Yeah, that's been ruled on?

01:18

No, don't give me the law. Just if I could get your name, it would be great. Okay, I'm just asking why you need my name.

01:23

I told you why. Sorry, are you arresting me or charging me with a crime? Not at this point.

01:29

I'd like my ID, though. No? So then the state law of Arizona says that you can't ask for my ID unless I'm being charged with a crime.

01:35

Well, I mean, I am in the process of investigating a crime. Well, I'm wondering how you get arrested.

01:42

You know, I have to be able to do an investigation. Sure, but the law says... I can't just grab people and arrest them. No, I appreciate that, officer, but you're a law enforcement official, and I'm showing you the law.

01:50

The law says that in order for you to say I'm disturbing the peace, it has to be more than a vague generality of your own opinion.

01:56

You have to have a calibrated meter that demonstrates I'm over 65 decibels. Do you have a calibrated meter?

02:02

Do I have to have a calibrated meter? You do. It's the city code. That's what it says.

02:12

Okay, so... Do you want to tell me who you are, or you don't want to? No, officer, I respect your position.

02:18

I'm a pastor. I respect law enforcement. And since you're law enforcement, the law says that you can't ask for my

02:24

ID unless you're charging me with a crime. Well, I can ask you a million questions. You just need to tell me whether or not you want to do it or answer them.

02:30

No, and just so you know, I respect your position immensely. I believe your position is ordained by God in terms of government, but I also believe that you and I both respect the law.

02:39

And our constitution says that I have a right to remain silent and not self -incriminate. And our state law says that in order for you to actually get my

02:47

ID, I have to be cited with a crime. So you're telling me you don't want to identify yourself.

02:55

Well, I'm happy to say my name. It's Pastor Jeff. I'm with Apologia Church. Okay. Jeff... It's Pastor Jeff.

03:05

Just Pastor Jeff. Yeah. Okay. I'd be happy to show you this. This is the

03:10

Supreme Court ruling, Federal Court of Appeals ruling, the City of Tempe's rules when it comes to noise ordinance.

03:17

Yeah, I understand. I've read all... Well, actually, I haven't read the Supreme Court's ruling. Okay. I understand the city code.

03:25

Okay. What we're dealing with is a complaint from a neighborhood. I understand.

03:31

And I understand where that's coming from there. The problem is, and I know you're a law enforcement officer, you took a note to the

03:36

Constitution, we have freedom of speech rights, and somebody saying, you're disturbing my peace because I don't like your message or I can hear it, isn't a valid reason to undo the

03:46

Constitution of the United States that says I have freedom of speech. The U .S. Supreme Court has ruled on this.

03:51

Somebody can't say I'm disrupting the peace because they don't like my message, because I'm amplifying my voice. The law, which you and I both are committed to, states that I'm in a lawful activity right now.

04:09

Well, that is what I want. And I appreciate you. No, I know, and I appreciate your position.

04:15

I have no disrespect for you. But when it comes to law and law enforcement, when someone calls with just a complaint,

04:23

I think it's incumbent upon us to at least educate those people that what's happening here is a lawful activity. It's not unlawful.

04:29

I realize you've got to give your spirit to this gal right here on Tuesday.

04:37

Okay. Yes, sir. Supervisor? Yeah. Okay. Be right back.

04:47

All right. You'll have to do it to me.

05:15

So, the police have shown up. Last week, they criminally cited one of our friends and confiscated property.

05:23

And so, we're going to probably have to engage in some instructions, legal instructions to the police officers as to what's actually lawful.

05:34

Hi, sound bite. Hi, how are you? I have a sound bite for you. Okay. I'm Sergeant Liz Lenzen, Tempe PD.

05:41

Hello. Hey, who's been using the megaphone? I have. Yeah, and what's your name?

05:46

Jeff. Jeff L. Yeah, it's Pastor Jeff. Pastor Jeff. Yes. I was so supposed to know.

05:51

Where are you, Pastor, at? Apologia Church in Tempe. Okay, and what's your last name, Jeff? Do you need that for anything?

05:57

Yes, we do, because we have a complaint that we're working. That's why we're here. Okay. Otherwise, we would not be here.

06:03

No, I respect your position. I was just telling this officer over here, in order for me to identify myself, I have to be cited with a crime according to Arizona State law.

06:10

Well, we're going to give you a warning right now, so we're going to need that for our street checks. So, what's your last name? Okay, so the warning is a violation of the law?

06:17

Well, because of the amplified sound device. What I was saying to the officer was... Where's Zach? He's right over here.

06:23

Zach. Where's the other Zach? Zach number one? Morgan, he's out of state right now. Okay, I'm used to... They know me, and Stephen knows me.

06:30

So, you're going to be given a warning you cannot use, and you know... Officer, you can't do that unless you have a calibrated meter according to city code.

06:37

Oh, we can. And you test it. Yeah, we can. You can violate this law. We have a complaint that's a citizen.

06:44

A complaint of illegal activity. We have a complaint... Of illegal activity. Of disorderly conduct.

06:49

Ma 'am, if you read the city code, you'll see you can't... We're not arguing. You've been given a warning. You can't use your amplified sound device.

06:55

If you will, you go to jail. You've already been given that warning. Ma 'am, you're not even looking at the... You're a supervisor. You won't look at the law?

07:01

No, I know the law. We'll file a suit against you. Go ahead. Okay. Lenzin. Got you.

07:06

Okay, let's get that on the camera. Officer Lenzin. Get on the cam. We got our cams going. Officer Lenzin, would you like to look at the law?

07:11

We'll do this. Lenzin. Is this professional activity on your part? It is. You've got a warning, so please don't do it.

07:19

We don't really want to have to arrest you. This is my question. What's the warning for? You've been warned already. Officer, what's the warning for? Amplified sound device.

07:25

That's legal activity. You can't use it. You won't look at this? Don't use it. It's illegal activity. We have a complaint.

07:31

Ma 'am, we'll sue you for violating our constitutional rights. You can sue us. You can. It's your right. It is my right.

07:37

And I want to do this for the record of the court. She will not look at the city code. That's a warning. Thank you. You won't look at the city code?

07:43

No, I already know it. And we're going to continue to use sound application because it's our constitutional right.

07:52

And if you try to violate our constitutional rights, we will sue you and the city of Tempe.

07:57

Okay. Okay? Thank you. All right. And just know it's on record. You refuse to see the city code.

08:04

You refuse to look at it. You don't have it, ma 'am. You don't even know what it is. Officer.

08:18

Officer, you need to repent of your lawless conduct. This is lawless.

08:24

You are not engaging in activity as law enforcement right now. You are engaging in thuggish, oppressive, unconstitutional behavior.

08:34

You don't know the law, and yet you pretend to represent it. The law states

08:39

I have freedom of speech. The law states you have to have a gun. The law states you have to have a calibrated meter in order to cite me for anything.

08:48

You didn't even know you're not allowed to ask for my ID without citing for a crime. Officer, you didn't know the law, and she didn't know the law.

08:58

Right. Right. I appreciate that. But how come you guys didn't know you have to have a calibrated meter?

09:06

You're citing people for disorderly conduct and no amplification, and you didn't even know the law. That's not law enforcement.

09:14

That's being a thug. You will be sued, sir.

09:22

You're on record. This entire activity has been documented on video.

09:30

You guys criminally cited somebody last week. You stole their property.

09:38

You're engaged in lawless behavior, sir. So, obviously, we're being a little more firm with the police today.

09:56

The police recently have been harassing us and trying to stop us from doing this work.

10:03

The police recently cited our friend Steven, who's been out here for years saving lives.

10:10

He has a court case this month for this very issue. Also, they stole his property, which is valued at over $300, which

10:19

I think is a felony if a private citizen was to do that. So, the police showed up just now, had no idea of what the law was.

10:28

That was a supervisor. She didn't realize that you cannot criminally cite somebody for constitutionally protected activity.

10:37

They didn't know that you had to have a calibrated meter to actually test the level of sound.

10:43

And you just noticed that she wouldn't even look at the city code. She wouldn't even look at it because they're not concerned with it.

10:51

It's apparent that the city of Tempe, two different departments, including the police department, are colluding with the business owners here and with Planned Parenthood to stop our constitutionally protected activity.

11:05

So you'll notice I was a little more firm with the police department there and calling them out on their lawless activity.

11:13

Because if Christians don't actually stand on what the law is and actually confront lawless behavior of police officers, they'll continue to oppress people.

11:23

They'll continue to perpetrate injustice. They'll continue to violate our rights. And they'll actually try to halt ministries like this that work to rescue children.

11:34

So you'll notice something. When Stephen was here and Stephen was criminally cited, they confiscated his property,

11:40

Stephen didn't actually confront the police officers, from what I understand, with the law itself, the city code.

11:46

And so what did they do? They ran roughshod over Stephen, they confiscated his property, and now he has a court case.

11:53

But as soon as you confront the police officers with the law itself, they don't even know. And you'll notice her very unprofessional behavior when she's being asked to look at the law itself.

12:03

She wasn't even willing to do that. And so I want to encourage you guys to keep praying for us, because this could get worse for us.

12:11

We are not stopping. As a matter of fact, I'm going right back on this to continue to talk to the women.

12:17

Because that is our constitutional right, and beyond that, it's also what God commands us to preach the gospel.

12:23

We're legally allowed to use amplification. They have to have a calibrated meter. They're not obeying the law.

12:29

And so as Christians, we have every right to obey the law, which is freedom of speech.

12:35

We can use amplification. It's been ruled on by the Supreme Court, by federal courts, and the city of Tempe says we can use this.

12:43

If they think it's a disturbance, they have to actually use a calibrated meter and test it for a minimum of five minutes.

12:50

So that's it, guys. Pray for us. There's a good chance they might show back up. There's a good chance I'm going to jail.