One thing that’s been puzzling me is that the TV station obviously had no problem transmitting the video, at least after obscuring the officers face. If the whole problem was the video was illegally recorded why can the TV station retransmit it? That does not make sense to me.
For me the airing of the video comes back to identifying the officer, whether undercover or not. It would be all too easy to edit out the bits where you are a jackass and then just transmit the bit where you get a richly deserved ass whooping. Those officers could then be subject to harassment when they are in the grocery store with their families. That would be a legitimate concern to me.
I’m not talking specifically about this case here as I think the cop did overreact and the authorities were heavy handed in dealing with it, but I can at least understand the need for some type of protection for them.