Video: NYPD Undercover Cop Threatens Cameraman with Rape

By John Del Signore, Gothamist
Aug. 19, 2010

Late Friday night/early Saturday morning, the NYPD raided Surreal Estate, an underground party club in Bushwick. Witnesses say that when police arrived, the hosts refused to let them in, demanding to see a warrant. The police then forcibly entered by kicking down doors and breaking through windows. Once inside, some attendees say police unleashed pepper spray. We're told ten arrests were made and nine were charged with Obstruction of Governmental Administration (among other charges), but the real fun happened outside, when camera gadfly Vladimir Teichberg pestered an anachronistically dressed plainclothes cop, who promised Teichberg he'd be raped in jail if he didn't disperse.

The undercover officer—who looks like Marlon Brando wearing a Tie-Dye in Apocalypse Now—identifies himself as a detective at the 1:36 mark. After he tells Teichberg to move along, and Teichberg refuses, the detective—fine, let's call him Detective Tie-Dye—threatens him with arrest. Videotaping police action is legal in New York, provided the person doing the documenting isn't interfering with police action. At the scene, that comes down to a judgment call on the part of the officer, and in this case Detective Tie-Dye was not pleased about being recorded for posterity. He promises to send Teichberg through the system, and assures him he'll be in custody for three days before seeing a judge.

Teichberg stands his ground, even after Detective Tie-Dye calls for the "paddy-wagon." About three minutes in, Tie-Dye takes out his phone and starts videotaping the civilians, telling one woman with a camera pointed at him, "You're ugly." (3:26) The best part comes when Teichberg tells the detective, "By the way, as a police officer you are now violating the law because you're not allowed to film unless a crime is being committed." Detective Tie-Dye replies, "Call a cop." And Teichberg says, "You are a cop and I'm calling you." Even better: Teichberg laughingly telling the detective, "You don't understand the power of the Internet, man."

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