Houston man charged with falsely identifying as police officer speaks out, attorney weighs in on charges

"All I thought I was doing was supporting the police."

HOUSTON - "It wasn't meant to impersonate a police officer, I didn't mean to manipulate anyone, it was all for comedy," said Moore. 

Eric Moore apologizes for making videos where he is now charged with impersonating a police officer. 

"I do want to apologize to the police department to anyone I offended or anyone that I made look bad or if they feel I slandered the police," Moore said," But at the end of the day, all I thought I was doing was supporting the police and promoting the police." 

The backstory:

Moore is charged with false identification of a peace officer after posting videos like this online is what he says was for content creation. 

 "I didn't cuff nobody, stop nobody," Moore said," I wanted to show HPD a guy can come out and change his ways." 

Moore made videos wearing clothes with the HPD logo on it, and in one video he was inside the South Gessner Patrol Station. 

First amendment considerations

Why you should care:

However, in the digital age of creating content on your phone or any device, Chip Babcock, a First Amendment Rights attorney, says you should not break the law, but he adds that in some cases, freedom of speech might be able to protect you. 

RELATED: Social media user who posed as HPD officer charged with false identification of peace officer

"I’ve always said that the underlying principle of the first amendment is that you have to be able to have a sense of humor," said Babcock. "So you have to take the circumstances of the incident and look at whether a reasonable person would believe that this was a police officer." 

Babcock also adds that the State of Texas takes the impersonation of a police officer very seriously. 

"So if this is parody or satire or has some indention or somebody goofing around on the internet, I think the first amendment would protect that kind of speech," Babcock said," If somebody labels their performance as comedic, the first amendment is going to protect a comedian that’s making a performance." 

What's next:

Moore tells Fox 26 he learned a valuable lesson. 

"Just make sure you just do your homework, check the law, ask around, don’t just jump into something head first, because if you jump into something head first you might end up in a position I am in right now which is not a good situation to be in," Moore said. 

Moore makes his first court appearance on Friday, February 7th 

HPD advises the public to obey the law and not impersonate a police officer.