Inside Edition's Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero finds out if police officers are being provoked while doing their jobs.
Being a police officer is a very stressful job, but it's being made worse for some cops by some people who claim they're holding police accountable.
Critics say they're taunting officers to provoke them into situations they can record and post on social media. In some instances caught on camera, cops have been cursed at, had pig noises made at them or even been called “piggy.”
Inside Edition’s Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero asked tough questions of the man who called an officer "piggy." Tyrone Eddy, 52, calls himself a First Amendment auditor, one of a group of online activists who say they shoot video footage of public officials to see if they violate people's rights.
“Aren't you just being a jerk?” she asked.
“I must say, sometimes I do go overboard on purpose to elicit a response,” he said.
He even posted video of an encounter he had with a female state trooper.
“Look how fat you are. You f***ing Miss Piggy,” Eddy says to the female state trooper in the video.
“I was really offended when you called a woman 'Miss Piggy' and you said she was fat and you were screaming at her when she was simply doing her job,” Guerrero said to him after watching the video.
“That was one of the things I felt bad about,” Eddy said.
He said that was the one video he felt bad about but that will not take any of the videos down.
“People are going to look at your videos and they are going to say, this guy is being obnoxious, he’s being rude,” Guerrero told Eddy.
“If you’ve ever been violated by a police officer, you would understand that isn’t even close to far enough,” Eddy answered.
He's not the only one Inside Edition found appearing to taunt and insult police officers.
Jesus Padilla, 28, called a cop an “a**hole” after the officer approached him at a mall in Texas.
Padilla says he's trying to hold police accountable. However, critics point to the fact that the interactions are being recorded and posted online, where they can receive millions of views and generate money. One of his videos has more than 4 million view on YouTube.
When Padilla entered a small town police department in Texas, he was told it was restricted area and was ordered to leave by Leon Valley Police Chief Joseph Salvaggio.
“Don't touch me, get the f*** away from me,” Padilla says.
“Turn around, you are under arrest, get on the ground,” Salvaggio orders.
“Don't touch me! F*** you,” Padilla snaps back.
Padilla was arrested and charged with harassment. He denies any wrongdoing.
“He was asked to leave multiple times,” Salvaggio told Inside Edition. “When you are told to leave and you refuse to leave when a person who has that authority tells you that, then you can go to jail for that.”
“Videoing police officers and their interactions is not a problem, but there is something fundamentally wrong when someone spends their day trying to antagonize another human being,” Salvaggio said.
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