Sioux Falls Police say 'videoed encounter' with officers on Friday under review
Sioux Falls Police say they are reviewing an "encounter with officers" caught on video Friday evening.
The video of the encounter, uploaded to YouTube, shows an arrest of a man after he flipped off police and shouted obscenities at them. The arrest was caught on camera by the owner of a popular YouTube account, prompting numerous callers to swamp police phone lines.
The incident took place at the scene of a traffic accident investigation at 41st Street and Carolyn Avenue around 6 p.m., the police said.
The police are "aware of the videoed encounter," they said in a news release sent just after midnight, early Saturday morning.
Below: Monday's police briefing:
Sgt. Jon Thum, a Saturday shift supervisor, said that the review would be handled on a "case by case basis."
"When a complaint’s made or a video comes out, it’s very standard that we do an internal investigation," Thum said. "We’re handling it just like every other thing that comes our way in this nature."
Thum was not able to comment on the review process or what will happen to officers involved in the incident while the review is being conducted.
More information will be available at police briefing at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Thum said.
Videos show arrest after obscene gesture, words
The video to which they're referring appears in footage uploaded live to YouTube Friday evening on an account named James Freeman News.
The 27-minute video is entitled "TYRANT ALERT PLEASE SHARE! Sioux Falls PD South Dakota Beat and kidnapped for hurt feelings," livestreamed by the account owner, James Freeman.
Freeman has nearly 54,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he regularly posts videos stridently critical of police conduct, including videos he shoots himself of police in action across the country.
Freeman's video shows officers responding to a multiple-vehicle collision on the 4200 block of West 41st Street, just in front of the BP gas station. Freeman is recording the police who were responding to the scene as they're citing a driver for a number of offenses.
**Story continues below. Note: Video contains explicit language**
The video then showed Mark Burgess, a local YouTuber and fan of Freeman, arrive a few minutes after the livestream started. Minutes later, Burgess flips off officers and yells obscenities at them as Freeman records. Several officers then approach Burgess, tackle him to the ground after he backed away from them, and arrest him as Freeman questions what they're doing.
In a YouTube video posted later, Burgess said he was now out of jail but faces three charges from the incident: disorderly conduct, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest.
Burgess refused to comment on the incident and directed Argus Leader requests to his lawyer, Manny DeCastro of DeCastro Law Office.
"At this point, I've reviewed the video and I'll do what I think is appropriate to help Mark out," DeCastro said. "We'll look at all his legal options at this point."
Freeman didn't immediately respond to Argus Leader requests for comment on Saturday.
'It makes it very difficult to do our job'
Freeman later talked with officers about the incident outside the police department headquarters in downtown Sioux Falls about 1 a.m. Saturday, and broadcast it live on YouTube. He was questioning the arrest, citing Constitutional free speech rights, and said he had tried to call police about the incident.
"You and apparently half the country have been trying to call us," said Lt. Petersen, who spoke to Freeman on the livestreamed video and said the department was inundated with calls and struggled to keep up with them. "I understand people are concerned and they want to talk about it."
The two discussed the incident, and Petersen told Freeman why police had issues with "people sitting there yelling at police."
"It makes it very difficult to do our job, especially at one of the busiest areas during the busiest times of the day – they're trying to deal with an accident," Petersen told Freeman. "It just adds a lot of stress to it. They're trying to do their job. And the other gentleman that came up and became very exuberant, unfortunately this all happened."
Swearing at police protected by free speech
The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that swearing at police officers are protected by the constitutional guarantee of free speech, according to an Argus Leader article.
Marcus Suhn, from Brookings, yelled the "f" word and other profanities at passing police during bar close in downtown Brookings on Sept. 2, 2007. He was convicted of disorderly conduct, according to an Argus Leader article.
Brookings Police Officer David Gibson, one of the officers in a passing patrol car, heard Suhn let out a string of obscenities that included several derogatory references to police officers.
The state Supreme Court said Suhn's words did not fit the definition of fighting words established in prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
The nation's highest court has said the First Amendment does not protect "fighting words - those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace."
The text of the full news news release is below:
Accident Scene Encounter
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The Sioux Falls Police Department is aware of a videoed encounter with officers that occurred at the scene of a traffic accident investigation at 41st Street and Carolyn Avenue around 6:00 p.m. tonight. The matter is being reviewed.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: The Sioux Falls Police Department is aware of a videoed encounter with officers that occurred at the scene of a traffic accident investigation at 41st Street and Carolyn Avenue around 6:00 p.m. tonight. The matter is being reviewed.