Focus Tuesday morning at the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland began with the hearing of a former San Leandro officer being charged with manslaughter for the April 2020 shooting of Steven Taylor.
But things quickly took a bizarre turn.
About 20 or so members of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) had gathered on the steps on the Lake Merritt side to livestream the proceedings of the hearing. The group had hung banners in support of the victim and were busy drinking coffee and eating breakfast when four Alameda County Sheriff's officers approached.
The group was told to move their banners. According to James Burch, policy director of the APTP, the sergeant argued that the banners were blocking the stairwell, claiming they were a tripping hazard.
"No one was using the stairway," said Burch. "Nothing's happening on this side of the courthouse, and there's no entrance to the courthouse on this side."
As the two argued, the sergeant noticed he was being filmed by another APTP member.
"She did that for our safety," said Burch.
To retaliate, the sergeant started playing "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift on his phone to exploit copyright laws and keep the video from being posted on social media.
People have a First Amendment right to record police, but playing music in the background of a video could set off YouTube's automatic takedown system.
Burch wanted to get the sergeant away from their livestream as quickly as possible, because the family members and friends of the San Leandro shooting victim were watching.
"We don't want them having to be retraumatized by engaging with cops," he said.
When the sergeant started playing Taylor Swift, Burch was surprised.
"Are we having a dance party now?" he asked.
"No, sir," the sergeant said.
After some back and forth, the officer on camera said recording was OK, but it wouldn't be postable online.
Alameda County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Sgt. Ray Kelly said this incident was "a bad look."
"We don't want officers censoring YouTube by playing copyrighted music in the background," he said. "It's not something that is part of the work that we do, if anything we should be protecting those rights."
According to Kelly, the video has been circulated amongst the department internally and they're looking into it. There's no policy that prohibits that activity, because it's the first time anyone in the department has done something like that, he said.
"We'll look into it," he said. "If we have to write a policy, then we will."
"But let's just hope that this is a one-time thing," Kelly added.
The sergeant in the incident is still on active duty, said Kelly.
