Tennessee Deputy threatened to arrest 12-year-old girl for "unlawful photography"

This picture almost landed a 12-year-old girl in jail!

Tennessee Deputy threatened to arrest 12-year-old girl for "unlawful photography"

WJHL TV 11 (July 11, 2008) reported that Johnson County deputy Starling McCloud arrested Scott Conover for "unlawful photography." To quote the press, "the cell phone photographer says the arrest was intimidation, but the deputy says he feared for his life." They (WJHL) failed to mention other facts in the case. This was not a mere traffic stop. There's no such law about taking a picture of a cop on a public street, it was an excuse. The cop claimed Conover had a laser pointer, but it was only the picture he wanted that was taken on an IPhone, which has no such thing as a laser pointer. When Conover tossed the IPhone to his 12 year-old daughter and she took a picture of McCloud, he threatened the child with arrest too.

Another blogger Carlos Miller filled in the missing details.

Scott Conover was from Key Largo, Florida and moved to Johnson County five years ago. He didn't stand for the intimidation and disregard for the Constitution that some Tennessee Counties such as Sullivan and Johnson engage in and had been in fights with the Johnson County sheriff before.

Conover witnessed deputies as they "beat the shit" out of a man in front of his bar. He acted as a witness for the victim, and they demanded to know why he was involved. That cost the county an undisclosed amount in a closed settlement. According to Conover, "They were wolf-packing my customers. They would lie and wait for them to leave and then pull them over to see if they had been drinking." He was suing them over this tactic and it was in front of his bar (Jammers Rocking Road House) where the so-called "traffic stop" occurred.

Conover rolled down the window and said, "Hey fellas, I'm just getting your picture." He snapped the picture, then Deputy McCloud (on the force only 18 months) went crazy. Keep that in mind, now here is the rest of the news report.

"Here's a guy who takes me out of the car and arrests me in front of my kids. For what? To take a picture of a police officer?" said Scott Conover. A Johnson County sheriff's deputy arrested Scott Conover for unlawful photography. "He says you took a picture of me. It's illegal to take a picture of a law enforcement officer." said Conover. "This is a public highway."

The deputy also asked Conover to delete the picture three times. "He said if you don't give it to me, you're going to jail," said Conover. Under the advice of the Johnson County attorney, the sheriff would not comment and the arresting deputy said he didn't want to incriminate himself by talking to us...the deputy said he saw something black with a red light which he thought was a threat. Conover was also arrested for pointing a laser at a law enforcement officer...In a witness statement by a Mountain City officer, it says the deputy asked about the picture rather than looking for a laser...

Update: Carlos Miller says, "I talked to Scott Conover this morning and he said they delayed his court appearance to Sept. 3rd, which sounds familiar because they kept doing the same thing in my case. (I was arrested last year for photographing cops against their wishes). In my case, I took it as a sign that they were hoping the delay would cause the media interest to die down." Conover wasn't the only person targeted by this nonsense it seems. Let's keep it in the news. View the police report here (pdf file) that has nothing to do with any laser pointer and McCloud only demanded the picture be deleted.

Tennessee Law Book (humor)

Church faces legal problem over yard sales???

A Johnson City church, the House of Prayer seems to be in legal hot water. This small, non-denominational church like many in the region holds yard sales to pay for the many good things they do for our community. Yet Gary Barnett has found he is a criminal for having too many yard sales without collecting sales tax. (Reports claims they only make $100-$300 per yard sale.)

"We've helped people on their power bills. We've helped people that have lost somebody in their family." claims Mr. Barnett. Sale number three of the year has the Tennessee tax goons coming down on their head. To quote the press, "I said, 'you mean the church has to collect tax from the garage sale,'" Barnett recalled. "He (the state tax goon) said, 'yes, write down everything and charge them tax.'" Welcome to the People's Republic of Tennessee.

To quote, "Tennessee law, even tax-exempt charities are only allowed to hold two tax-free yard sales a year. If a person or charity wants to hold three or more, they are required to collect sales tax for every purchase." To which Barnett replied, "It seems like that when you give or try to help somebody, that they're trying to come in and trying to interfere with that." The law has been around for a while, but they don't enforce it unless there's "complaints."

With an exploding crime rate including drug and gang shootings in Johnson City, it seems they could find something more important for this tax goon to do. Ref. BHC July 29, 2008.

Christian Identity, Militias

[ Article archive 1 ] [ Article archive 2 ] [ Article archive 3 ] [ Article archive 4 ]
[ Article archive 5 [ Homepage ] [ Guestbook ]

Overview of Religion
Deism Christianity Judaism Islam Gnosticism Unitarianism

Zoroastrianism Pantheism Fundamentalism Evolution Original Sin Trinity

End Times Apostle Paul Apostle John John Calvin St. Augustine Pelagius

Martin Luther Real Jesus Identity Willie Martin Royal Race Pat Robertson

Also see New Age Religion and What is paganism?

[ Homepage ] Article List ] [ Another Article List ]

Visitors since
March 2002