Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 9, 1993 TAG: 9304090149
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
OFFICER'S CAMERA TAKES HIT
When Roanoke police started rolling the video cameras Wednesday night in a crowd at Melrose Park, one man made a not-too-subtle request:Cut.
Police charged Tony Gerard Jordan with obstructing justice after the camera was hit to make the officer stop filming.
George Snead, the city's director of public safety, said video cameras are becoming standard equipment for police departments, especially in documenting what happens in crowd disturbances.
"It's just to simply have a record of what happened," he said. "It helps to show the attitude of all parties involved."
Snead said it's not the first time Roanoke police have used video cameras.
"We use the camera any time there is high potential for violence and crime-related problems," said Lt. R.L. Ross. "The idea behind them is to try and disperse the crowd."
Wednesday night about 8:30 p.m., some members of the crowd in Melrose Park apparently had a different idea.
More patrol officers had gone to the park after a police cruiser was struck with a bottle. Several other bottles had been thrown in the vicinity of the park, but not at police cruisers.
As police walked into the park, they found 150 to 200 people standing around. A small group was loud and boisterous. That's when an officer with a video camera was confronted, police said.
After Jordan was arrested, police said, another man started taunting officers with obscenities as he ran through the crowd yelling. Douglas Troy Jordan was charged with conspiring to cause a riot.
Police also said a 270-pound man rushed them and knocked a flashlight out of an officer's hand. Thomas Manuel Taylor, 23, was charged with obstructing justice.
As police officers placed Taylor in a patrol wagon, several more bottles crashed around them, police said.