A North Carolina deputy insisted that the county sidewalk in front of the jail belonged to him, ordering a man off the sidewalk solely for the reason that he was video recording.
Although he refused to identify himself as he threatened to arrest the man, he has since been identified as Lieutenant Wright with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department.
Wright began referring to the sidewalk as “county property,” but then when asked if it was “public property,” he clarified that the only public property in the area was the city-owned sidewalk across the street from the jail.
Then he became very territorial.
“You can get off my property or you’ll go to jail, sir,” Wright threatened.
The man with the camera agreed to leave, but insisted on asking for his name, which Wright refused to provide.
“You will get off my property,” he said. “I”m asking you very nicely to get off my county property.”
The man stepped off the property and called the Asheville Police Department in the hopes that they would identify the delusional lieutenant.
Although the responding officer was courteous, confirming that the man with the camera had every right to stand on any city-owned sidewalk, he did not go as far as saying he had the right to stand on the county-owned sidewalk in front of the jail.
The officer walked over to the jail to see if he could resolve the issue, but did not provide the man with the name he was seeking, only that he was the lieutenant of the facility, which enabled the man to eventually obtain his name.
The video was uploaded last November, but came to my attention this week.
Contact Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan at (828) 250-4503 or post on his Facebook page where he maintains a very active community information page.
UPDATE: The man behind the camera is named Tyler and had posted another video where he confronted a public official named Terry on camera, only for Terry to pull out his own phone and start recording Tyler. Both videos are below.
Terry was obviously bothered by being video recorded, but he responded the right way by turning the tables on Tyler. There was no need to escalate the situation any further.
They ended up having a civil conversation. Lieutenant Wright could take a few lessons from Terry Harrison.
In Terry’s video, Tyler mentions PINAC and Cop Block, a segment that Tyler removed from his video because he didn’t know if we would approve.
Yes, Tyler, you’re always welcome to mention both sites in your videos (I know my friends at Cop Block would approve). But for the record, it’s pronounced Pin-aK rather than having to spell it out.
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