BADer🇰🇼

Where is the line between a First Amendment audit and pure trolling? 🎣 In early 2020 outside the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office in Camp Verde, Arizona, auditor James Freeman was photographing the law enforcement parking lot when Detective Mike Jardine approached and started questioning him. Freeman turned the tables, asking the detective the exact kinds of questions cops routinely ask civilians: • Where have you been today? • Have you been to the bar? • Are you drunk? (citing slurred speech) • Got any drugs on you? • Would you submit to a breathalyzer right now? He identified himself as an investigative journalist looking into corrupt officials. Jardine grew increasingly flustered, claimed Freeman was “on this property,” tried to order him to leave within five minutes, and eventually told him to “shut the hell up” and "get out of here". Freeman responded by telling the detective to get back in his office, do his job, quit drinking on the job, and declared him under investigation. *There is no real evidence of the drinking accusation. Shortly after the encounter, Jardine left the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office to become police chief for the Coyote Valley Reservation Police Department in California. Local reporting described him as a dedicated officer who had been named Detective of the Year by the American Legion. ❓Can you see why this would make an officer immediately uncomfortable? ❓Is asking police officers the same questions they ask us protected free speech or no? ❓If you're a police officer how would you handle a citizen investigating you the way you investigate them?