A Northern California man plans to file a complaint after a local police officer brandished his gun against him during an encounter outside the man's home, KGO-TV reported.
The man who filmed the incident, Don McComas, can be heard telling Officer David Rodriguez, "You don't touch me" as Rodriguez advances toward him. McComas said the encounter started when Rodriguez drove up to his Rohnert Park home while McComas was hitching his boat to a trailer.
Rodriguez can be seen taking out his own phone to record McComas before getting out of his vehicle and telling McComas to take his hand out of his pocket. When McComas refuses, the officer immediately pulls his gun out and asks, "Seriously?"
"Put your gun down," McComas says. He also asks "Are you accusing me of a crime? Are you suspecting me of a crime?"
"If I did, I would arrest you," Rodriguez replies. At one point in the encounter, he asks if McComas is "some kind of constitutionalist, crazy guy, something like that."
Rodriguez eventually left the area without arresting McComas. But the video does show him saying, "Go ahead, have a nice day and put it on YouTube. I don't really care."
McComas' attorney, Jarin Beck, told Sonoma Valley Patch that local authorities had "an issue" with McComas' son in the past. The video includes a possible reference to this, as McComas tells Rodriguez, "You guys have done enough to my family," and accuses local officials of corruption.
Rodriguez was placed on leave after McComas' video of the July 27 encounter was posted online earlier this week. The Los Angeles Times reported that officials cancelled a "Coffee with a Cop" event after complaints followed the video's release. Police argued that several of the complainants planned to "cause a disturbance, potentially putting our community and citizens at risk."
KGO's report on the encounter can be seen below.
[h/t Boing Boing]
