San Diego fire chief calls firefighter confrontation with videographer ‘a training moment’
The chief of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department calls a recent confrontation between one of his firefighters and a videographer “a training moment”. Surprised by what he saw on the video from the July 9 incident, Chief Javier Mainar told Pauline Repard of the San Diego Union-Tribune, “We see enough in the tape to question whether we behaved appropriately in this case.”
Watch video in question & read previous coverage
A police investigation was started after James “J.C.” Playford filed a complaint saying he was attacked by the firefighter while taking video of a person being wheeled on a gurney. Playford believes the victim, who was covering her face, is a young actress from the TV show “Game of Thrones”. An internal affairs investigation by the fire department is also being conducted.
Playford has a history of being involved in confrontations with authorities over his videography. Reporter Repard takes a close and very balanced look at Playford and the issues surrounding taking such videos. I suggest you read the entire article, but here’s an excerpt:
Playford has a reputation of being confrontational with authorities, pushing the limits of where he is allowed to go at crime scenes and asking pointed but off-topic questions at news conferences. He defends his actions as falling under a First Amendment right to record what he sees and hears in public.
“I’ve stood on street corners with my camera and had cops come up to me,” Playford said in an interview. “I’ve had my cameras stolen from me, my video deleted, I’ve been stripped naked and put in a white room in handcuffs… These are the tactics your government uses.”
