Good work, Officer Doughboy. Way to serve and protect, there.
I'd be pissed off if they made me dress like John Belushi in a Killer Bees sketch and then gave me some fruity scooter-with-doors to drive, too, but I think I could refrain from venting my frustration by beating up children.
Nothing personal, but I hope you take a physical ass whuppin' for this, Officer Cupcake.
(H/T to Unc.)
Hear, hear!
ReplyDeletemy pawn and gun shop was near the sheriff's office and was kind of a hangout for deputies and detectives; they were my friends; i sold them guns, jewelry for their wives, and talked about family, politics, etc., and i miss the gun chatter and other bs...
ReplyDeletealso the high school was across the street...some of the kids were punks and very disrespectful, but they tended to respond well to quiet authoritative direction...in 15 years at that location i never resorted to the kind of childish rage displayed in this video.
i'll say this: if that fat bastard metermaid wannabe cop dude treated my son like this, i would make it my personal goal to take his job and then beat his punk ass...and my s.o. buddies, who are real cops and real people, would back me up all the way...jtc
p.s. happy valentine's day, tam, i hope you find happiness, companionship, and fun in your new locale; you should have the place to yourself for a few months as all the indianers are down here in central fl right now (mostly nice midwestern folks; i wish the hell they knew how to drive, though)
I can understand a bit of a chewing out if a kid is violating an ordinance and then gets smart-ass about it, but this guy goes way overboard about something that just needed a short warning not to break the law and then move on.
ReplyDeleteI am in no way condoning what the officer did...but damn, don't you just want to slap the stupid out of some skate punks on a regular basis??
ReplyDelete*breathe* Sorry, had a moment there.
Want some respect, dude? Stop screaming at kids, and lay off the donuts before a button flies off that shirt and hurts somebody.
ReplyDeletePart of my job at the Giant Petroleum Conspiracy was informing skate wanks that they were not to ride their toys in the parking lot.
ReplyDeleteI never had to put any of them in a headlock, nor did I ever have to repeat myself.
The only time I've ever laid hands on a skater punk is when one of them ran over the Jumping Bean. We were coincidentally at the Inner Harbor, and he just bowled right over her. Skinned knees, skinned elbows, bloody chin....he kept going, without so much as a, "Sorry, dude!"
ReplyDeleteWe reported it to Officer Donuthole's clone, and he shrugged.
Two hours later, the skaterpunks came back in our direction, and as they whizzed by, I clotheslined the little bastard.
Ooops. Didn't even feel bad about it.
Probably makes me immature, but, oh well.
Interestingly, a little browsin' around brings me to the information that this incident happened in the summer of 2007. That certainly wasn't winter clothes the kids were wearing, and it takes a man of determination to wear police-shorts in the dead of winter.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the suspension of the officer only happened recently: the Fox News story was dated Feb 12th.
Apparently, the mother of the child reported the incident to the police, but nothing of substance came of it... until the video was put on to YouTube. Now there's some investigation going on.
There was something in the Charles Stross book Accelerando called a Witness. Basically, its a solid state digital video camera with write-once memory, about the size of a broach or shirt-pin. In the book, corporate boards require them to be attached to corporate representatives at any time when they're interacting with non-company people, in order to record and document proper due-diligence activity (or lack thereof). Are we going to get to a point when everyone carries a personal Witness to impartially record any interaction with the police? Cruiser cameras are supposed to provide this, but as we saw from the incident last summer with the guy that had a camera in his own car when a policeman verbally abused him, the cruiser's record has a uncanny tendency to go missing just when you need it.
One of the sheriff's deputies here... he generally carries a tape recorder in his shirt pocket. Any time he's dealing with a "situation", he'll turn it on. From what I understand, that tape recorder has cleared him on several occassions when the sheriff received complaints about the way he handled a confrontation.
ReplyDeleteCameras and tape recorders work both ways.
They may work both ways, but try recording a traffic stop as non-cop side of the stop.
ReplyDeleteBetcha Officer Friendly's reaction will be anything but friendly and receptive.
Ever since summer three years back, when I was having an "interesting" time with armed cops in London, I've taken to carrying digital recorders everywhere I go. At the minimum, it's an unobtrusive slide-and-tap to get audio recording. Wish I could embed a fisheye in my glasses, to be honest.
ReplyDeleteWhen one cop attempting to X-Ray your brand-new $4,000 laptop drops it on concrete, and his colleague stuffs an MP5 muzzle in your face for trying to catch it, you know you need digital backup. I'd give good money for a Witness, 'cause the way this world is - not is going, just IS, we need 'em.
Happy Valentines Day, Tamara. Big hugs. Anatomically correct chocolate hearts.
PS to other blog respondants: Not bragging, I'm a 3D animator, I use expensive kit.
Addendum to last comment. It's no surprise that the suspension only happenned after the YouTube upload that the kid was too shit-scared to perform for a year and a half. The truth the is only weapon against the back-room beating. Us civs have got the tech to bring the truth to the public eye, which is the only time we get a fair crack of the whip - when we embarass 'em. Use it. Use it for all it's worth. Record everything, capture and upload - if you can stream from your person to a secure, 'crypted source, so much the better. Give the crypto keys to your nearest and dearest. You never know. After all, it's just like strapping on a gun - you hope you'll never need it, but if you do, you'll feel darn awful (or worse) if you do need it, and don't have it.
ReplyDeleteName and Shame, baby.
There. I had to watch it again. It's rather delicious the way he clearly identifies himself as Officer Rivieri, as that will be a hard one to wiggle out of at the inquest. Then there's the golden bit at the end where he says "you got that camera on? If I find myself on-"
ReplyDeleteLet's all say it together: "YouTube."
Nice.
"Then there's the golden bit at the end where he says "you got that camera on? If I find myself on-"
ReplyDeleteLet's all say it together: "YouTube.""
Which, as he found out the hard way, rhymes with "You boob."
Snicker!
Am I the only one who heard the near-close near-front rounded vowel preceeding "ootube" when the recording was shut down?
ReplyDeleteGuns are not the only weapons. They're the best in many cases. But even surprise is only ever the second-best weapon to information.
Just day before yesterday I was training new officers at the police academy. I gave my usual froth at the mouth missionary speech about recorders- carry them, use them constantly. They are a great self protection tool and also it's goood to get into the habit of watching one's own performance. A great self trainer.
ReplyDeleteA day is coming when every minute of a police officer's every shift is recorded. They should get used to it.
And his department bears much responsibility- stuff your officers into lycra clown suits and you're asking for problems.
Yesterday was a bad day for cops,with that video and the one of the Florida cops tipping the guy out of his wheelchair.Shouting stand up at a crippled guy only works for Benny Chinn.
ReplyDeleteGlenn
Are we going to get to a point when everyone carries a personal Witness to impartially record any interaction with the police?
ReplyDeleteI used to joke with friends that eventually, videotaping your sex life will no longer be something you do to be kinky, but something you do to counter accusations of date rape.
Happy Valentine's Day.
I had an idea a while back about a device which would use a cellular telephone connection to transmit audio and video to a remote location. I figured I'd build it into a hand's free set, so if you were wearing it, you'd just look like the sort of dork that wears a hand's free set all the time.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the "trigger" should be on the cable leading from the earpiece to the phone, because if some cop is coming up on you, reaching into your pocket to start sending is probably a bad idea.
At the time, research indicated that the available bandwidth on a digital cell connection just wasn't good enough for anything approaching a reasonable framerate for video.
I should look into it again. Obviously, the point of the transmission was so the cop can't just take your recording device and "lose" it.
More video of Officer Buzz having a conniption fit.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc2news.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=8229@wmar.dayport.com