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Video of Erie Cop Mocking Homicide Victim Appears on YouTube. Erie PD Launches Investigation. . . To Find Out Who Posted It
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009The video above shows Erie, Pennsylvania police officer James Cousins II mocking a homicide victim and the reaction of the victim’s mother upon her arrival at the crime scene. Cousins was off-duty and drinking at a bar when the video was taken. The video was later posted to YouTube.
It’s pretty tasteless. But to be honest, I’m not sure it’s really much to get upset about. Cops do have stressful jobs, and I’m not about to begrudge them the right to blow off steam around friends when they’re off-duty, though Cousins’ boasting about punching and Tasering a suspect in another case, also depicted in the video, is more problematic.
That said, it was pretty dumb of him to go as he did on while he was being recorded. And like anyone else who gets caught saying something stupid on camera, he should have to pay the personal and professional consequences for what he said.
But Cousins is a police officer, and he and his colleagues have the power to intimidate people who expose their mistakes. The real outrage in this story is what happened next.
Once the video was posted to YouTube, internal affairs investigator Jim DeDionisio went to confront the man who posted the video, and brought Cousins with him. Thinking they had found the man, they confronted him at his job on a construction site (it turns out that the guy’s brother actually posted the video). The man says DeDionisio then threatened to prosecute him for violating federal wiretapping laws. If true, that’s a preposterous attempt at intimidation. Erie police officials then apparently tried to get the local district attorney to order YouTube to remove the video. To the prosecutor’s credit, he refused.
So you have a police officer making inappropriate, insensitive comments about a murder victim and his mother in a video that eventually gets posted to YouTube. The immediate reaction from the Erie Police Department is to launch an investigation, but not into the officer’s conduct, but to find the identity of the person who posted the video. Their next step is to bring the officer depicted in the video to intimidate the man they believe posted it. And they top it off with a bogus threat and failed effort to have the video removed from the Internet.
Pretty deplorable behavior all around.
Pretty
deplorablenormal behavior all around.Fixed that, as sad as it is.
A lot of us who work in the criminal law field develop a very “dark” sense of humor. It is called “gallows humor” after all. The thing about this guy’s “jokes” was that they weren’t funny at all, just contemptuous.
Radley’s right tho’, the official conduct of the police is the real problem here. It was incredibly stupid too. A USC Section 1983 suit should follow.
its a real sad state of affairs. 99% of police give the rest a bad name.
@Chris K.: Hah, nice. You gotta love the “few bad apples” argument.
Like Radley said, there’s nothing particularly insidious about this guy joking about his work; it can be a gruesome job, and desensitization is often the only way to get through it. If you want to hear some really ugly jokes, try visiting a medical examiner or undertaker.
Of course, that makes the intimidation and attempted cover-up all the more ridiculous. The disheartening thing is that this is far from surprising; this kind of behavior has just about reached cliche status.
“It leaves a lot of questions unanswered why you’d film someone apparently intoxicated in a bar, and not only film it but send it to YouTube for posting,” (the police chief) said. “It’s out of the ordinary to go up and film someone and send it to YouTube, of all places.”
Yeah, that never happens.
Agreed, TomMil. Several years of working in healthcare security at a large trauma center has convinced me that gallows humor simply comes with the territory. If I broke down and cried over every dead or severely injured person I see at work, I would quickly lose the ability to do my job. Do I want burnout, or do I de-compress? I choose to use humor sometimes, and if that’s insensitive, so be it. Most people have a limited understanding of the side of life that public safety and healthcare personnel witness, so it’s hard to explain. If I must be your ogre, I can live with that.
Professional distance is not only necessary, it is inevitable. I usually don’t know the victims I see. Without a personal relationship, I’m not going to feel the same pain as the victim’s family, friends, co-workers, etc.. Also, many victims of trauma (car crashes, shootings, stabbings, bludgeonings, etc.) played a major part in their own misfortune, and have a habit of treating us (people who are trying to help) like shit. Hence, they become less sympathetic figures. Today’s victim was yesterday’s suspect. So it goes…
All that said, the attempt to hunt the videographer down was pretty shitty. If the taping was covert, then the guy is a complete douchebag, but not a criminal. If the taping was overt, then the officer should consider that in the future before he gets drunk and starts running his mouth. Youtube boy is still a dick, in my book, but still NOT A CRIMINAL. Hey, you have to be careful these days. Little brother is everywhere!
Of course they went after the guy who posted it. He was a commoner. You can’t have commoners disrespecting the aristocracy like that.
You keep talking as if the cops and us little people are the same. Us little people have to obey the law and the law enforcers. Law enforcers only have to obey the rule of not getting caught on camera. If it’s not on camera, it never happened. Law enforcers feel like they’ve been conned when someone catches them on video. It’s as if their friend, the blue wall of silence, has suddenly abandoned them. They’ve never had to worry about that before and shouldn’t have to now. To them it’s just not fair. It makes them want to stomp their feet and throw a temper tantrum or maybe tase someone or shove a nightstick up their ass. But now they have to check for cameras before they do stuff like that. Life has become sour grapes.
I wish I would have been drinking in that bar. I would have come up behind him and introduced him to my kershaw.
Not having seen the video since it’s blocked where I work, I doubt that I would see any criminal behavior in it. I think it’s interesting, however, that a teacher can get herself fired for any number of activities on her own time deemed to be unwholesome (though harmless), but a cop is not held to any standard at all on his off hours and often has to be captured on video breaking the law just to get fired (and even then they don’t usually get prosecuted).
Seems like double standard to me.
When I took a film making class, I had to get a written release from any person who could be seen enough to be identified in my film. What ever happened to that? It seems that any moron with a video camera can tape anywhere they please these days. Last time I checked, taping someone without their permission was a crime. I could understand if the officer was in uniform or on duty, but that isn’t the case here.
Last I checked, pointing a camera at someone was a non-violent act that caused no actual harm to the person, which makes it not a crime.
If someone acts like an asshole in public and someone else takes a video of it and posts it on YouTube, I can’t say as I’ve got any sympathy for the guy acting like an asshole, cop or not. That’s just life in a free society…there’s no moral requirement that the rest of the society isn’t allowed to treat you like a jerk when you’re acting like a jerk. Privacy laws are supposed to be about limiting the government’s right to film private citizens in public and pass judgment on their behavior…not other citizens’.
Jim Collins,
What did you “check” to learn that taping somebody without permission is a crime?
Jim Collins:
“Last time I checked, taping someone without their permission was a crime.”
…When one profits monetarily from said video.
You do understand the difference?
You see this bit from the article?
“”If there’s more to (the video) then we need to see that,” Franklin said. “We all know there’s people who would retaliate against a police officer.”
What now the police need to be protected from citizens? LMAO
Quote from the article:
“He was hanging out and blowing off steam,” Lehman said. “It was just a night out with friends that someone blew out of context causing a lot of trouble for someone who puts their lives on the line for us every day.”"
Classic cop excuse line: “They put their lives on the line for us every day.” What a load of crap. It’s a job they get paid for, and most of the reasons they do it have nothing to do with self sacrifice and service. Lots of people put their lives on the line everyday to do their jobs. Lots of people work in dangerous service industries. That does not excuse behaviour, especially intimidating citizens with the power that comes with the badge that we give to them.
I’ve been an EMT and trained as a nurse in the ER. You see some crazy, sad and scary ass shit in this type of environment. Most people get callous about it and form a wall just to stay sane. But if you talk like that about it in public, you are gonna get called on it from time to time. Man up! Don’t be a pussy that goes around bullying people that show the world who you are. Take your lumps and get on with life.
I’m disgusted with the time and effort that all the police in this article put into investigating this incident for the wrong reasons. I do applaud the attitude of the DA in this instance. Usually they are part of the wall, this time they are thinking like the educated people they are.
My sympathy is mostly with the cop on this one. He’s drunk and playing the fool. I’d be pissed if I was drunk at a bar and some asshole posted it on YouTube.
I’m all for taping cops on the job, or actually any government employee on the job. But shouldn’t you be allowed some expectation of privacy in a public place? I’d like to think I could go get drunk at a bar and not have it splashed all over the effing net without my permission. I object to this for many of the same reasons I object to government cameras for “crime prevention”. It all comes down to a loss of privacy. I’m not sure what the answer is in our video age, but in this case I’m not going to cry for the guy who taped the episode. Fuck him and his brother who posted it.
“When I took a film making class, I had to get a written release from any person who could be seen enough to be identified in my film. What ever happened to that?”
nothing, it is still considered the standard for making films, but that’s a self imposed standard by filmmakers and has nothing to do with the law and covers all kinds of circumstances not present here, and is polite to boot. Although there are efforts to change this, at this point in time simple rudeness and poor manners are still not crimes. Civil liability is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish, but still is not a crime (which is no doubt part of why you were required to get releases).
FROM the point of view of federal law (with exceptions), if you do or say anything in front of someone that person can make of record it and release it at will, don’t want something embarrassing about yourself to be revealed then don’t go around revealing it to people. FROM the point of view of Penn. law, it is illegal to record without the consent of all parties IF there is an expectation of privacy, ie not shooting your mouth off in front of strangers in a bar.
“Last time I checked, taping someone without their permission was a crime.”
But this happened in the United States, not where ever you’re from. The laws are different here.
I’ve been in bars a few times and had to endure loud-mouthed douchebag cops trying to impress the chics with their war stories.
this is kinda poetic- who hasn’t wished ill on these idiots screwing up a nice bar?
the response of the dept to intimidate the guys posting it is criminal.
Downloading, backing up, and reposting the video soon. I would recommend everyone here do the same.
I think that’s a legitimate question. I get model releases from everyone I shoot. They don’t get to even get in front of the camera until I have a signed release. I don’t know all of the law associated with that, but I know that the release saves me from the potential for a lot of crap if the model later says she doesn’t want her picture used in a certain way.
I’m pretty sure there is no need to get a release from someone in a public place where they don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy (or something like that), but you would be asking for trouble the moment you use someone else’s likeness to make money. They are also rules about using someone’s picture in a disparaging way.
I don’t know that this guy has much recourse given that he was in a bar. He could just as easily been recorded by a security camera. Maybe if the guy was selling the video or using it for blackmail, the cop would have a case, but just posting it on youtube may not be enough. He may have a case for having youtube remove it, but the cat’s out of the bag. It’s never going away.
Anyway, I’m just speculating, but what you’re saying isn’t untrue when it comes to commercial use of photographs of someone. On the other hand, news photographers use footage of people against their wishes all the time without getting into trouble. This probably falls more into that realm than commercial movie making.
So is witness intimidation a misdemeanour or a felony?
Is seems to me this would be felonious, but truly I am not sure.
The only thing I could find was a WIKI that stated in Kansas it was a misdemeanour unless aggravated then it was a felony.
#9, Dave Krueger–
Really? Because from what I understand, it’s also pretty damn near impossible to fire a teacher.
The cop is a dildo, deserves a reprimand (maybe even suspended with pay), and I was wondering if the department had the apples to go after the poster (yup, they did). Douchebag cops are a menace to society–that should be the department’s response.
I’m a pretty insensitive guy, so I went into computer programming. That way if I am rude and mock the victim of a homicide, I’m just a jackass with no real community obligation (no one calling me a hero).
However; when the fuck are we going to remind cops they are in a job with community service as a big part? If cops don’t like it, go work for Black Water or the DMV. We sure have no problem reminding the tall guy from the projects that can jump real high in the NBA that he better be signing all autographs with a smile.
It’s like a friend of mine once defended Catholic priests by saying a lot of pedophiles are salesmen, too. Yes, no reason to hold priests to a higher standard or anything. Not like they’re supposed to be god’s reps or anything.
Umm looks like my post with links did not run through.
Any ways it looks like the cop was suspended 10 days no pay, the internal investigator reassigned.
You can find a link on twitter /Injust_Seattle.
“Without a personal relationship, I’m not going to feel the same pain as the victim’s family…”
Which is the explanation for a whole lot of history’s torture, police brutality, and war crimes.
Yeah, we get it. ALL work desensitizes you eventually. But part of the responsibility of the job is to remember why you’re there. If not up for the responsibility, get into another line of work.
“Don’t be a pussy…”
Exactly, azguy, exactly.
I think that’s true only if they’re incompetent. If they pose in a bathing suit with a motorcycle they can be fired. If they pose nude, I think they can be summarily shot.
But, I get your point. They are backed by a pretty powerful union…
If we can be charged for resisting arrest on charge of resisting arrest, cops should be charged for intimidating witnesses of witness intimidation.
I can see that the Erie PD should be criticized for the way they’ve handled this, but I still think this cop is getting a bad rap. He was obviously very drunk in the video. His “intimidation” was tearfully begging the guy to remove the video. For all I know, this cop may be a great guy who had too much to drink and would never speak like this. He’s so drunk I don’t think you can take seriously anything he says.
I don’t think this video serves any positive purpose at all. “Little brother is everywhere”, and that’s really becoming a problem. It’s one thing to do something in public and another to have it taped and posted on a website with the intent to humiliate. I’m no happier about “private” intrusion as government intrusion. And to me that’s what this is. So go ahead with the negative Karma, but try and justify why the real villians here aren’t the people who taped and posted this thing.
If I saw a doctor on YouTube carrying on like that, I would think he was an ass, and I would be glad to hear that he was losing patients left and right, or that the hospital where he had privileges was revoking them. What’s the difference here? That we expect more from doctors because they’re, presumably, more intelligent?
Is this the cop’s excuse — “Hey, I’m not a brain surgeon“?
Big Chief-
The drive by truckers have some great lyrics that say something like
‘the whiskey doesn’t make you do anything, it just lets you’.
as far as being against ‘private intrusion’- I’m with you, but lots of cops don’t seem to know when to clock out. the only way we’re going to get the private intrusions stopped is to keep the video cameras going. eventually, politicians and cops are gonna get tired of the embarrassment and this nonsense will stop. or, we’ll keep making fun of them! either way, it’s a win.
Too bad they didn’t film that drunk cop when he was driving off.
Gallows humour is inevitable.
What is not inevitable is being such a tactless shite that you do it in public.
What is not acceptable is being drunk and/or stupid enough to do it where you’re being recorded.
What is downright wrong is the misconduct afterward.
aside:
Am I the only one who remembers the Morse episode where the coppers and doctor and crime scene guys are discussing over the dead victim the correct term for a group of pathologists? They are all laughing over the suggestion ” a BODY of pathologists” when the victim’s boyfriend comes in.
Note that the cop in the video was in tears begging the supposed uploader to remove it. It was his buddy who was supposed to be heading up an investigation into *him* who was threatening the witness with retaliation.
What a mess. I’m glad the DA was straight enough to stand up to them, but I’d like to see him go a step further and convene a grand jury for this whole sorry mess.
I recognize that not everyone has my belief..that human life is sacred…and…as a person is drawing his last earthly breath…at the moment of death…he is in the presence of God.
So I find it hard to understand…what kind of people…it takes… that would dare to laugh…and be amused…by someone…who is sworn to serve and protect people…as he mimics and mocks a dying man’s last moments…and then goes further…and ridicules the deceased man’s grieving mother.
That said…and also recognizing I am being judgmental…being drunk…stressed…desensitized…exhibiting “gallows humor”…none of it is an excuse for disgraceful behavior…and the patrons who encouraged him…as an audience…for such shameful rantings…are equally disgusting.
And the officer’s only hint of remorse…is when he thinks HE may possibly lose his job as a result of this video?
How about an apology to the man’s family!!
What has happened to decency and respect…where is our moral conscience?
http://www.justiceforsal.com
But shouldn’t you be allowed some expectation of privacy in a public place? I’d like to think I could go get drunk at a bar and not have it splashed all over the effing net without my permission.
In a perfect world some expectation of privacy in a public place would be nice, but our justice system has deemed otherwise. Other professionals have to deal with their extracurricular activities affecting their careers, why shouldn’t police officers?
For me, this would be a non-story except for the officers’ behavior after the video taping. If IA wanted to investigate, no problem. Bringing along the officer involved? No way. It smacks of intimidation.
Blowing off steam is fine. It may even be offensive to some people. A simple apology would have gone a long way. In a world of sousveillance the people with power need to worry too.
Well if this guy was so drunk why wasn’t he arrested for Drunk…in…Public? I wonder if he had a gun in the back of his pants?
We had a local cop who was in a bar off duty and got in an altercation. The guy he was tussling with felt the gun in his back, freaked out and smacked him in the temple with a shot glass-knocking him out. They prosecuted him for aggravated assault but his first trial was a hung jury.
#10 Jim Collins,
You should have taken a photojournalism class instead, because that’s where you learn the actual laws that would apply in this case. In short: anything any member of the public can see from anywhere they have a right to be, is fair game to photograph or videotape. No releases are needed at all.
It’s called the “man on the street” rule: if you can see it without using mechanical advantage (such as a ladder to see over a fence) or other advantage (such as a zoom lens to see what can’t be seen with the naked eye), you can record it. There is the “hospital rule” privacy exception: once the ambulance or hospital doors swing closed, you cannot record.
As a LEO who has close interactions with EMTs, paramedics, nurses, firefighters, etc., I can tell you that all of us have told similar stories and worse. We are mostly guarded and only do so when in the company of those who understand, but there are those (like this guy) who show out. I imagine even he thought he was speaking in relative privacy, but that’s not an excuse: it wasn’t private, it was in a public bar where anyone could walk in and hear what he was saying.
I haven’t read the story MacK referred to, but I hope the cop and the investigator were punished for the intimidation, not the dark humor.
Color me unsurprised
#30 said – His “intimidation” was tearfully begging the guy to remove the video.
Did you even read the article. The intimidation was threatening both the mother and brother with prosecution, having a police officer come interogate you at work is bordering on harassement if you are not suspected of a crime. You can defend this all you want, but the moment they tried to intimidate was the moment they lost all sympathy from me.
I’ve been giving this one some thought, over and above what I’ve already opined about elsewhere.
First, I agree that the actions taken in response to the video’s release are far more worrisome on the face of it than the contents of the video itself… except when we try to make sense of what goes on in the mind of someone making these kinds of remarks.
A lot of people are using the term “gallows humor” to describe the mindset, but that doesn’t fit since gallows humor is the act of making light of one’s own mortal predicament, as one would when faced with the hangman’s noose around one’s own neck, not someone else’s.
Dark humor may suffice, but I don’t think that’s close…
I think I would equate it more to the way soldiers talk amongst themselves about the dead among their enemies. Typically, they don’t make light of their own dead, nor the dead of the civilian numbers on their own side in such traumatic times, but they do make light of the suffering they inflict on others in order to compartmentalize it, to enable them to do it again.
…which brings me to what I’ve been contemplating about this video. It gives us an idea of how police officers develop an “Us vs Them” mentality which crosses over into an “everyone who isn’t a cop is my enemy” mentality that is justified in one’s own mind through a process of dehumanizing the public.
Sure, it might be a reasonable response to that kind of occupation… but is it safe for the public for officers to maintain that kind of mindset?
I wonder… just as soldiers get leave and are cycled away from the battlefield from time to time in order to decompress. I wonder if, maybe, police officers need to be cycled from the confrontational aspects of law enforcement to the productive aspects on a regular basis.
Such as mandating that beat cops transfer to divisions that do more public service work on a regular basis, to force them to interact with “the enemy” in human terms instead of constant adversarial terms.
No, I don’t think that’s the whole answer to the problem of police misconduct… it’s just a thought to chew on, I suppose.
Packratt #42 “…which brings me to what I’ve been contemplating about this video. It gives us an idea of how police officers develop an “Us vs Them” mentality which crosses over into an “everyone who isn’t a cop is my enemy” mentality that is justified in one’s own mind through a process of dehumanizing the public.”
Bingo! One of the best posts I’ve ever read on this blog! This is scary and of course, our legislators and media won’t even bring up the possibility that this is happening.
azguy – You didn’t read the article. The guy in the video wasn’t the one who threatened the supposed videographer – it was his buddy in IA who made the threats. I still think he took the guy in the video along for intimidation purposes, but instead it sounds like he broke down crying over the fact that he might lose his job.
Isn’t threatening someone with baseless prosecution a crime in and of itself, like barratry?
#16: How can one have an expectation of privacy in a public place? A public place is exactly that…PUBLIC. If the guy was talking trash in his own home, that’s one thing. In a public bar…is quite another.
Cops have no problem watching us in public, with all the surveillance. Why are they upset when the shoe is on the other foot?
Eric Ogunbase #45 “Cops have no problem watching us in public, with all the surveillance. Why are they upset when the shoe is on the other foot?”
Because they’re hypocrites who expect and even demand a double standard because they are so much more valuable than us.
#45 – I think there is something wrong in this country if you can’t get drunk in a bar without having it posted on YouTube. And even worse is having that video used against you in your job. It’s bad enough that in most places in this country you can’t smoke in bars. A few more incidents like this and you won’t be able to drink in them either.
Honestly, I am disappointed that Radley mentioned the whole “blowing off steam” excuse. I agree that this is probably not THAT big a deal ( and no one seems to make a big deal when cops actually do something much worse). But this whole “cops are special and need to blow off steam because they are cops” is the same exact thing you will hear every cop-defender say ( I heard at least 2 people say it on CNN last night) at every opportunity to excuse ANYTHING a cop ever does. “Oh, he’s a COPPPPPP! He has such a special and dangerous job and serves and blah blah blah. He needs to let off some steam.” Whatever the fuck that means.
[...] The Agitator » Blog Archive » Video of Erie Cop Mocking Homicide … [...]
So two cops go to talk to the guy: the IA guy and Cousins. The IA guy openly threatens the guy, but you excuse Cousins from this action. Cousins is a cop too, he is there when the intimidation happens from the guy he is with. He’s a co-conspirator in my book. Even if he did break down and beg and cry when the guy refused to give in.
Unless he turned in the guy doing the intimidation, he is just as guilty. They did all this under color of law, which is the definition of tyranny. Even the expert they interviewed said this:
But for that officer to approach a witness, on his own, without permission, is an attempt to influence” the internal-affairs probe, Rothlein said. “That would be unusual. It generally would not fall under the generally acceptable standards of conduct for an internal-affairs investigation.”
Under typical procedures, Rothlein said, “the person under investigation is told to stay uninvolved in the investigation. You wouldn’t want that person intimidating witnesses.”
You don’t think its intimidating for the police officer accusing you of wrongdoing against him shows up at your work while on duty? Are you guys nuts, thats a planned strategy to get people to give in.
There is way more to this thing too. How did they get the IP address of the guy? How did they get his name, address and place of employment? Did they get a court order for that information from the ISP?
Greg C — The phrase I usually hear used to excuse the bad behavior of cops is “You need to walk a mile in their shoes.” I find it ironic that this is basically the same sentiment expressed by apologists for criminals: after all, the poor dears have their “environment” to blame for their behavior.
It’s a double irony that I would bet most cops wouldn’t accept that reasoning to excuse the behavior of those they lock up on a daily basis.
I went back and checked my information and want to clarify my previous statement. The moron taking the video didn’t violate any criminal laws, but he left himself open for one hell of a lawsuit in a Civil Court.
By the way, a bar isn’t a Public place, it is a PRIVATE business establishment. If the guy with the camera didn’t have permission from the owner to be taping he has no protection from a lawsuit.
I hope the cop gets a lawyer and sues. I wouldn’t mind being on the Jury for that one, and there is a slim possibility that I might since I live in the area where this happened.
If the cop was on duty or in uniform, my outlook on this would be totally different, I would agree with the guy with the camera.
When a private business opens its doors to anyone who wants to come in, it becomes a “public place” for purposes of videotaping. The owner of the bar can’t sue him for videotaping – there is no civil action that would allow it (if there were, we wouldn’t have “Girls Gone Wild”).
There is no privacy unless you individually have a reasonable expectation of it. “Spouting off to anyone who will listen” displays a clear expectation that your comments are public.
The guy who filmed should suffer no consequences other than being called a douche by people who like to go out, get drunk, say things they regret the next day, and not want to see them on youtube.
Three words:
The Ugly American.
Susan, the Girls Gone Wild people have the permission of the owners of the bars that they film in. As a matter of fact, the bars advertise their taping to lure the guys in, they same way that they use “Ladies Night”.
I never said that the bar should sue the guy who shot the video, I said that the Cop in the video should sue.
Pennsylvania common law allows four separate civil actions for torts falling under the umbrella of invasion of privacy. These civil actions are: (1) intrusion upon seclusion, (2) appropriation of name or likeness, (3) publicity given to private life, and (4) publicity placing a person in a false light. An individual who succeeds in proving any of these claims may be entitled to an award of compensatory damages, and if the misconduct is willful and outrageous, punitive damages as well.
I think the cop has a good shot at proving 3 and possibly 4.
“I think the cop has a good shot at proving 3 and possibly 4.”
Sounds like crap.
3) There is no expectation of privacy in a bar.
4) There is nothing false about the light.
The guy was acting like an ass
and he looks like an ass in the video
Where’s the deception?
#52 Jim Collins: “By the way, a bar isn’t a Public place, it is a PRIVATE business establishment. If the guy with the camera didn’t have permission from the owner to be taping he has no protection from a lawsuit.”
It’s public in the sense that it’s open to the public, which means there’s no expectation of privacy. And I don’t see how he needs permission from the owner to do anything. He had permission to be in the bar, and there’s no reason to think he was told not to videotape.
“It leaves a lot of questions unanswered why you’d film someone apparently intoxicated in a bar, and not only film it but send it to YouTube for posting,” (the police chief) said. “It’s out of the ordinary to go up and film someone and send it to YouTube, of all places.”
And, of course, the police would never allow themselves to be filmed on a reality TV show called “Cops” or something like that, and would never ever put out photos or video of suspects until they had been convicted.
a bar isn’t a Public place
Sometimes, the bar is called the “pub” which is short for what?
Just another wanker “victim”.
@#30 Big Chief
“So go ahead with the negative Karma, but try and justify why the real villians(sic) here aren’t the people who taped and posted this thing.”
Because the people who posted the video were in the bar were there trying to have a good time too Chief. Of course you will argue, well hey, they could have asked him to tone it down if it bothered them that much.
And of course what would have happened is the drunken idiot trouble maker would have turned big bad cop and violence would have ensued I’m sure.
If you want to get drunk to the point where you can’t control your asshole behavior do it at home.
I can relate to the ‘gallows humor’ since I was a paramedic for nearly 8 years. However we kept our ‘humorous’ remarks amongst ourselves since we KNEW the average citizen ‘not get it’.
A bar IS a public place unless the ‘bar’ is in a private home. This guy should have exercised a bit more self-control or discretion.
What is very clear to me is that the shooting incident truly has affected this guy psychologically even though it appears not.
He is is using ‘humor’ to mask the pain he probably feels. In all honesty, it would behoove his superiors to get this guy some serious counseling ASAP.
Been there, done that.
#52
Dammit Jim, I hope you’re not a doctor! And I hope if you ever make it on a jury pool you get thrown off.
The “blowing off steam” thing doesn’t wash since it was mentioned the guy was lieing about his participation… And the “Gallows Humor” crap is just that, this guy took an oath. This oath and the law means very little to police it seems. I mean, it has now become the obvious. How do anyone of you feel instantly when you even see a marked car? Be honest, even if you are doing nothing wrong. I AM FOR HIGHER TESTING/VETTING TO BECOME AN OFFICER OF THE LAW.
So what we have here is someone who is a liar, and has no honor to the code and oath he took. Fired, end of story.
This cop did nothing wrong. Just what is everybody so “shocked” about?
When I was a cop, I joked about murder victims. Of course you joke about murder victims. I mean, you do try and wait till you’re away from from the murder scene before joking about murder victims (though I didn’t even always pass that test).
So after work–after seeing another person take his last earthly breath, after looking at a dead criminal’s brain spatter all about, after seeing the bastard’s family break down over the death of their “baby,” after hearing witness after witness say they “didn’t see nothin’”, after sorting through the guy’s bloody and dirty clothes for evidence collection–after all that you go have a few beers with your buddies and you tell stories. You laugh. You try and make sense out of world that makes no sense.
This is what police do. And they do it day after day. What are you supposed to do? Buy flowers and the first silk-screened t-shirt in memory of the dead guy?
And for the record, it is funny, even hilarious, to come across a guy shot dead in the head right under a malt-liquor sign that says, “Take it to the head”! Swear to God. Next round is on me.
Peter,
As I said, I’m not terribly upset about what the cop said, though it’s unfortunate for the victim’s family that it was caught on video.
It’s the intimidation of the people they thought posted the video that’s troubling.