Officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested TikTok streamer Karlin Martinez, who is on social media under the handle @itsmztoonz, and an unidentified man who told the police to “honor their oath” on June 12.
When the police walked by Martinez and a man standing next to her, one of the officers sarcastically asked if they wre enoying themselves and had anything better to do. Martinez said she was “covering everything.” The man next to her added, “What about honor your oath, b*tch?”
Martinez told KSNV that she was exercising her First Amendment rights by recording an ICE protest when officers arrested her for unlawful assembly:
When I am doing this, all I see is a bunch of cops, dude, I didn’t even count them, I don’t know how many and they just shove me against the fence. I was cooperative, so what was the reason for so many police officers? For what? To prove a point?
Martinez was booked with her citizenship status listed as unknown, despite being a U.S. citizen:
I am a U.S. Citizen born in the United States, and I believe I have been targeted because I was recording police. That is wrong, that is so wrong completely.
Martinez’s attorney, Stephen Stubbs, said the officers lacked probable cause for the arrest:
They have to have had some evidence, even marginal evidence that it was communicated to her that it was an unlawful assembly that doesn’t exist. When you are classified as unknown, that is an open door for ICE to come; that is a problem.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has since issued an apology, but Stubbs is seeking further action:
We’re not seeking an apology; we would like to see this officer disciplined.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that the Metro Police’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the “incident.”
(Sources: KSVN, Las Vegas Sun)