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BY JENNIFER MECKLES

You're watching multisource U.S. news analysis from Newsy.

Is it illegal to record video of police arresting somebody?

What if you’re standing-- on your own property?

POLICE: “You guys need something?”
EMILY GOOD: “I’m just -- this is my front yard I’m just recording what you’re doing. It’s my right.”
POLICE: “Actually, not from the sidewalk.”
GOOD: “This is my yard.”

(Video: Youtube)

That conversation escalated -- with Rochester, New York police telling Emily Good they felt threatened by her filming. They asked her to go inside but she insisted it was her right to stand in her yard and continue to record. Until --

OFFICER: “Listen, I’m not going to explain myself to you -- what you’re going to ending up doing is you’re going to go to jail. I’m trying to give you a warning, ok?”
GOOD: “I’m going to back up.”
OFFICER: “You know what -- you’re going to go to jail. This is… not... right.”
GOOD: “I’m sorry -- I’m, I’m... asking them.. I’m observing what they’re doing and they’re arresting me! I don’t understand whats going on!”

Now the video has gone viral, raising the question -- was she within her rights? On CNN, a very confused Don Lemon tries to make sense of it all:

DON LEMON: “But I want to get this straight -- did you have something in your free hand that police may have been worried you were carrying a weapon?”
EMILY GOOD: “No, I was carrying nothing. I was in bare feet... and pajamas.”
LEMON: “Ok, so.... uh... I don’t understand this...”

But the local NBC affiliate spoke to Rochester Police Union President Mike Mazzeo -- who explains why that officer was so persistent in trying to get Good out of the way.

REPORTER: “Mazzeo says what can’t be ignored is the dangers police find themselves in on a daily basis -- and say that the fact that she’s on her property is insignificant."
MAZZEO: “I think, certainly, she was trying to engage the officers, in my opinion, and that's what so dangerous -- because this is a distraction to what these officers are doing.”

The Rochester Police Chief has ordered an internal investigation of the incident. Investigation Discovery interviewed an attorney unrelated to the case who says -- standing in the yard IS LEGAL, and so is taping an officer at work:

“According to the... attorney, Good could argue that the police officer's demand that she go in her house was an unlawful order, as she had a right to stand her ground in her yard, which could put her in a good legal position... On the other hand, police officers do not like to allow any interference in their arrests or turn their backs on anyone.”

So why didn’t Good just go inside? CNN reveals she’s an activist of sorts-- and was recording the activity outside her door to document what she believed was racial profiling. As Chicago Now reports -- she ended up in more trouble than the other guy.

“The irony of Emily Good's story is that the person who was stopped, hand-cuffed and subjected to a police search was released without so much as a ticket. Emily Good who was merely taking a video account of the proceeding did get arrested.”

Good is due in court Monday -- she faces misdemeanor charges for quote “obstructing governmental administration.”

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