Randy Credico
Randy Credico
Randy Credico, the challenger to Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York's upcoming primary election, was arrested, handcuffed and jailed Thursday for video recording two plainclothes police officers aggressively arresting a man - only days after the NYPD issued a memo to officers stating recording is allowed.

Credico began recording video on his cell phone after witnessing two men without badges aggressively stopping an older black man at the Van Cortland Park subway station in the Bronx. Credico, who has spoken out against New York City's "stop-and-frisk" policy, was on his way to a campaign interview when he saw the older gentleman being arrested.

"The guy got right into my face, and says, you've got to move back," Credico told radio host Fred Dicker, while in a holding cell in the Bronx. "The next thing you know I got arrested."

Credico was charged with menacing a police officer, obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. According to Credico's friend, attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler, the police tightened Randy's handcuffs to the point where his hands went numb.

Credico, a former comedian who once appeared on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and former Director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, has been a frequent public critic of the police, attacking the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policies and frequent racial profiling. Years ago, Credico started a project in Harlem that provided locals with cameras to halt the use of police violence against innocent civilians. Credico has also championed the legalization of marijuana as part of his campaign and claims to smoke publicly in violation of the law as a political tactic.

Perhaps this latest incident of New York Police Department misbehavior combined with the well-deserved outrage over the NYPD's recent murder of a man for allegedly selling loose cigarettes will awaken New York voters to a gift-wrapped candidate that might truly change things in the city.

At the very least, Credico has more ammunition for a civil lawsuit to reinforce for the NYPD that Photography Is Not A Crime.

Finally, here's some more of Credico's entertaining campaign promises:
But just beneath banksters and taxes is a vow to begin reining in the NYPD by firing Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (to be replaced with Frank Serpico) and abolishing the NYPD's unconstitutional policies of racial profiling, stop and frisk, domestic spying, entrapment, and its infamous (albeit unadmitted) quota system."

Central to that policing reform plank, Credico says, is reclassifying the smoking and carrying of marijuana as no longer an arrestible offense. He also vows to fire any officer who lies or perjures himself on the stand, and to bar the use of "no-knock" warrants and stun grenades "except in the case of legitimate terrorist attack."
For news tips on aerial photography and drones, contact Andrew Meyer, PINAC's staff writer covering UAV photography, the First Amendment, and more. Follow him on twitter @theandrewmeyer.