The police are attempting to use YouTube’s stringent copyright system to keep people from posting recordings of encounters with law enforcement.
In a video posted Thursday by the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), a community organization dedicated to defunding the Oakland Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy David Shelby pulled out his phone and began playing Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” during an encounter. He openly admitted, “it can’t be posted to YouTube.”
“Are we having a dance party right now?” APTP’s policy director James Burch asked in the video, which is posted on YouTube.
“Are you playing pop music to drown out the conversation?” the person recording asked. You can record all you want, I just know it can’t be posted to YouTube.