Las Vegas Police Arrest TikTok Livestreamers and Tell Them 'You Should've Shut Your Mouth'
"You need to learn the rules," an officer says. "You run your mouth at me. Now you're on your face."
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) has launched an internal affairs investigation after officers arrested two livestreamers last Thursday in an apparent retaliatory arrest.
LMPD officers arrested TikTok streamer Karlin Martinez and another man in the early hours of Thursday morning for failing to disperse after police declared an unlawful assembly several hours prior in response to a large protest. However, a video shows that the group of officers marching by Martinez and the other man were largely ignoring the duo—except for some mocking comments from the officers—and walking away until the man shouted back, "How about honor your oath, bitch?"
At that point, the group of officers turned back around and violently arrested Martinez and the other man, making comments like "Don't run your mouth at me" and "This ain't fucking L.A."
Recording the police and cursing at the police are both firmly protected free speech under the First Amendment, but despite that, police illegally arrest people for doing both with disturbing frequency.
Watch the video below:
@mikiewatsofficial2 The police walked by with 1 officer getting agitated and even admitting that @itsmztoonz put a camera in his face which is not grounds for an arrest. The other person with her did make a comment responding to the officer instigating it which is still not grounds for arrest. No warnings were given just aresst him. @LVMPD RELEASE THEM!!!!! #lasvegas #viral #news #breakingnews #trumpprotest #kingsday2025 #protest #unlawfularrest #releasefromcustody #lasvegasmetropolitanpolice #lvmpd #freedomofspeech #laprotest #righttoprotest
"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," Martinez told Las Vegas TV news outlet KSNV. "I was cooperative, so what was the reason for so many police officers? For what? To prove a point?"
A LVMPD spokesperson said in a statement to Reason that the incident is being investigated by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau but did not provide the names of the officers involved or any other information.
Martinez's attorney, Stephen Stubbs, tells Reason that Martinez is a TikTok streamer who regularly films the late-night chaos on Fremont Street in Las Vegas. On Thursday night, she had been out filming the large anti-Trump protests, which had led LVMPD to declare an unlawful assembly and order protesters to disperse.
However, Stubbs says police lacked probable cause for the arrest and charge. He says Martinez was 300 feet away from the farthest edge of the dispersal order, and that she had never heard the order to begin with, meaning she never had intent to violate it, which is required under the Nevada statute.
"At no time on my client's video was there ever a dispersal order given by police that was picked up by her camera," Stubbs says. "No time whatsoever."
Furthermore, the streets were almost entirely clear at the time of her arrest. The group of more than a dozen officers marching by had their riot gear packed up and slung over their backs.
"This was literally in the bag, if you look at their backs," Stubbs says.
What's clear in the footage is that the officers had no intention of enforcing the dispersal order against the two livestreamers until they were criticized, and the video shows that the incident started when one officer made unprofessional comments to the streamers.
"Enjoying yourself?" one officer asked as he walked by.
"You know, covering everything," Martinez responded amiably.
"Got nothing better to do?" an officer shot back, unimpressed with her exercising her First Amendment rights.
"Honor your oath," the man filming with Martinez shouted back. "How about honor your oath, bitch?"
The officer, apparently a supervisor, then ordered the rest of the officers to stop, and the entire group returned to arrest the man and Martinez.
"You were supposed to get lost," the officer says, pointing at the man. "He goes to jail."
As they tackle the man, one officer can be heard calling him "big mouth."
"You need to learn the rules," an officer said to the man. "You run your mouth at me. Now you're on your face."
"I'm just watching. I'm watching. I didn't do nothing!" Martinez insists as officers detain and arrest her as well. "I'm going to have a heart attack, you're pushing me! I'm not resisting! I swear I'm not resisting."
"You guys didn't even tell me to leave or anything," she said.
"We told everybody to leave three hours ago," an officer responded.
Martinez replied, "Are you serious? I didn't hear that."
"You enjoy your night?" an officer asked Martinez mockingly.
"I didn't say anything," Martinez repeats.
"You should've shut your mouth too and left hours ago You got a tablet in my face. Shut your mouth and walk. Shut your mouth and walk. Go back to L.A., dumbass. This ain't fucking LA."
"The page is still live," one of the officers noted, referring to Martinez's ongoing livestream. "Somebody needs to end it."
The investigators at the LVMPD's internal affairs bureau won't have to be ace detectives to crack this case. The evidence is right on video: They employ thin-skinned bullies who neither understand nor respect the civil liberties of those they police.
