OFF THE WIRE
An anonymous submitter shared the following story via CopBlock.org’s submit page.
In 2012, SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), an Illinois-based
animal protection organization, video-documented cruel acts of “horse tripping”
(where rodeo riders rope horses around their legs, which brings them crashing to
the ground) at the Big Loop Rodeo in Jordan Valley, Oregon. The video of this
animal abuse went viral, with more than 200,000 views, and it sparked a movement
in the Oregon legislature to ban horse tripping.
On May 18, 2013, when SHARK went to this year’s Big Loop Rodeo, the Malheur
County Sheriff’s Department, which has financial and personal ties to the rodeo,
violently arrested a SHARK investigator whose only crime was videotaping a cruel
event that many Oregon lawmakers were trying to ban (the law subsequently passed
and will take effect January 1, 2014).
Due to this abuse of power, SHARK President Steve Hindi immediately flew from
Illinois to Oregon to attend the rodeo the next day. Though he was legally at
the rodeo and was not violating any of the rodeo rules, Hindi was asked to leave
by the Sheriff’s deputies. Hindi left of his own free will. As Hindi drove away
from the rodeo, he saw that he was being followed by two Malheur County
Sheriff’s vehicles. Ten miles away from the rodeo location, Sheriff’s Deputies
Brian Belnap and Brian Beck, without any legal reason, performed a traffic stop
and held Hindi before declaring that he was “permanently trespassed” from the
Jordan Valley Rodeo and that he would be arrested if he ever returned.
This entire incident from Hindi’s perspective was filmed and can be seen
here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8getuMxnV0
Knowing that there must be more to this story, SHARK, using Oregon’s open
records law, received the camera recordings from the Sheriff’s deputies dash
board camera and a body camera. What we saw was shocking; the deputies
admitted:
• That they didn’t want to pull Hindi over.
• That all this had happened because of the [Jordan Valley] Rodeo Board.
• You can also watch as they plot a reason, after stopping Hindi, to justify
their illegal action. They then acknowledge that they will probably be sued for
what they had done to him.
• At the end you will also hear one yell “Dammit! I was still recording!”
Meaning that they knew what they had just said was evidence of their
wrongdoing.
You can see the most recent video here:
Corrupt Cops Caught by Their Own
Cruiser Camera!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSfCxq0hdY
These two police camera videos are also online unedited and available at the
following links:
Malheur Bodycam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoPeq0fKYmo
Malheur County Dash Cam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVac7X0SS4
(Please note that the audio for the first 30 seconds of the Dash Cam video
appear to have been erased. We can only assume that, as that directly preceded
the deputies stopping Hindi, that it contained damaging evidence).
“The Sheriff’s deputies openly spoke about their misconduct because they
simply forgot they were being recorded,” states Hindi. “First they stalked me by
following me for 10 miles after I left the rodeo, then they held me without
cause while conspiring to plot a reason for the illegal stop. Finally they
threatened me with arrest if I ever returned to the rodeo. Police are given
extraordinary powers and when they abuse that power, and act like armed security
for a private business, as the Malheur County officers did for the Big Loop
Rodeo, they must be held accountable.”
SHARK is filing an official complaint against the Malheur County Sheriff’s
department with both the Oregon Attorney General and the United States Justice
Department. We are calling for all the officers involved with these incidents be
immediately suspended.
