Manila Cop Confronts Homeless Children Who Are Sniffing Glue

December 29th, 2015

Awake Goy

The following is a reader submission from ‘Nasty’ Nathanial Thomas who was amazed to see a cop in another country treat unfortunate citizens with compassion and understanding. He hopes that American police might also learn to treat our children with so much courtesy and respect, rather than gunning them down in cold blood for no reason whatsoever. Please share your stories, videos and experiences with us RIGHT HERE.

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MANILA POLICE DISTRICT – STATION 11 (PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE)
Felipe Ii Street, San Nicolas, City of Manila, Metro Manila 1010

On Wednesday December 9, 2015 while in Manila, Philippines I met up with my good friend Sidney, a freelance photographer who lives just outside of the city. We planned to spend the day filming and taking photographs of the city. I was hoping that some CopBlocking would be included in the itinerary.

So while walking through the streets of the Manila District of Binondo, the world’s oldest Chinatown, we came across a group of kids sniffing glue by the Pasig River. This has become somewhat of an epidemic here and Sidney and I have had past discussions about the possibility of doing some kind of documentary about this phenomena. I found it quite interesting that Sidney and I had just been discussing this glue sniffing issue when we spotted the group of street kids seen in the video doing just that.

Within’ seconds a motorcycle cop arrived on the scene and was shaking this particular group of kids down. So seizing on the moment I pulled out my camcorder and began filming. Being that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution doesn’t apply in the Republic of the Philippines, I wasn’t sure how well my CopBlocking/filming would go. I decided that I would just keep filming until I was told not to. However, that didn’t happen. This officer seemed not to mind my filming him. He actually seemed to enjoy it and even started narrating by explaining what it was that he was doing.

But the grooviest thing about this whole experience was that this police officer didn’t arrest or even cite any of these kids. He just confiscated the glue and encouraged them not to sniff it. If this had happened in California for example, all of the kids would’ve been in handcuffs and hauled off to the can. On top of that the cop probably would’ve threatened me with arrest, or God knows what else, for filming despite my 1st Amendment rights. Makes me wonder why cops here in the US seem to be so intimidated by a camera. Cops in the Philippines don’t seem to care.

CopBlocker Josh Hotchkin encouraged me to write about my CopBlocking experience. It would really mean a lot to me if you would post my video and story on the CopBlock.org website. Thank you so much.
-Nasty