‘Did I Break the Law?’: South Dakota Cops Show Up to Man’s Home, Order Him to ‘Refrain from Taking Pictures of Other People in Public’ After Woman Complains of Being Photographed In Gas Station, Video Shows
Knowing that no law was being broken, South Dakota police confronted a man at his house after a woman complained he had photographed her in public.
But Travis Duffy, who runs the YouTube channel Last Call Heroes BBQ, said all he was doing was sending Snapchat messages to his friends while waiting at a gas station for the chicken meal he had ordered – and perhaps inadvertently photographed a woman who was also at the store.
“Did I break the law by taking those pictures?” Duffy asked one of the Brandon police officers who had entered his property, according to a security camera on his property.
“No, you did not break the law,” the cop responded.
However, the cops insisted on looking through his phone to determine if he had taken any inappropriate photos of the woman or of a 6-year-old girl who was also at the store. And Duffy, noticeably nervous about the interaction, allowed them to view the contents of his phone.
But not only was he under no legal requirement to show them his phone, but he was also under no legal requirement to even open his front door to talk to the cops, according to Abiyah Israel, former cop turned police accountability activist who runs the YouTube channel, We the People University, which he uses to educate viewers on their rights when it comes to interacting with police.
“He’s showing them his phone which he did not have to do, but he is being very compliant with these guys, although he does not have to,” Israel said. “I would tell anyone never to do this because they could have looked inside of his phone, saw something they thought was illegal, ’cause they clearly don’t know the law … then the next thing, this guy is going to jail.”
“Never talk to the police,” Israel continued. “He had every right to not come outside to start with. He had every right to go back inside of the house. He didn’t break any law. This is one of the silliest calls ever.”
Duffy, who said he has never been arrested in his life, is still upset about the incident that took place last month.
“I was basically accused by the Brandon PD, bullied in my front yard in front of all my neighbors that I was a pedophile taking pictures of kids at a gas station,” he explained a conversation he was having with friends and family on a video posted to his channel.
Duffy said he called the Brandon Police Department to complain, but they told him they had done nothing wrong.
“Better yet, I got the whole encounter on my camera at home,” he said in his video. “So I’m going to upload this to YouTube, along with the other camera footage, I’m going to tag Brandon city and Brandon PD.”
“They wouldn’t believe me last night, I’m a liar,” he said. “Is this lying? I told the whole f_cking story in front of everybody.”
Israel said the cops should have ignored the call after hearing the report from dispatch about a man taking photos in public.
“If they dispatch you to the scene, ‘Hey, go out to the scene, it’s a guy out there taking pictures, they’re in a public area,’” Israel said. “Tell them, ‘we’re not going to respond to that’ because that’s not illegal, our job is to enforce the law, not to stop people from taking pictures in public.’”
But instead of respecting his rights, the cops told Duffy to “refrain from taking pictures of other people in public places” which is an unlawful order and contradictory to the advice provided by the ex-cop-turned-activist.
“Know your rights, always record the police, stand on your rights,” Israel said in the closing of his video.