Say Anything Blog

I agree.  Law Enforcement is a hard job - dangerous, stressful, and not appreciated much of the time.  This kind of behavior is what gives all cops a bad name and makes the job that much harder for good officers (of which there are many - most officers are just trying to do their best).

to some extent, i agree.  especially with that first cop, who completely overreacted.  there were some others in there too that weren’t acting appropriately.  but on several of them, it was just a lack of forms.  the people seemed fairly polite… just no forms.  but since the undercover guy didn’t have an actual complaint, it seems to me that he was wasting the time of a lot of people.  and couldn’t you just mail something in?  saying hey, officer so-and-so did something the other day, and i’d like to complain about it.

You make a good point, Daniel.  They had a strong story and some pretty harsh images without getting into the repetition showing all the precincts without some other kind of form.  Hell, do you have any idea how many forms police departments already carry? 

Most of the non-abusive shots were just somebody saying, "no form, dude." 

Don’t you suppose that if there was a form then they’d have to keep those forms. 

There would be a paper trail that could be used against him.

I would imagine that most complaints are bogus so they don’t want them in their file. 

So I can understand that they’d prefer to counsel the person informally first.

That doesn’t excuse the intimidation that was used by some of these officers. 

I had another thought.  Do you suppose that if one of those "cops" who were trying to be helpful (or at least seemed to); said "tell me or write a letter to the Chief" the TV station would have included it?

"Unbelievable"?  Come on Rob!  This is a TV station cherry picking clips for the greatest shock value…  Most of those officers that "over reacted" I’m sure were just tired of being haggled and after several minutes of dealing with someone that would not cooperate, they got tired of it and just tried to get the guy out of their station.  The TV station plays the last 30-second clip of the officer telling the reporter to buzz off cause he’s not doing anything but badgering and it’s out of line?  These people deal with crazies, druggies, all the time!  At some point, if you’re acting like an idiot "Where’s a form? Where’s a form? Where’s a form?"  You’re gonna get treated like a crazy person and told to buzz off.  Deal with it.

personally i would prefer if the "UNDERCOVER TEAM" spent more of their time UNCOVERRING something instead of annoying people at work! like guys who earn 40 grand a year risking their lives and having animals spit on them have time to play WHATS MY LINE with the press. i have a great assigment for the undercover team. next time maybe they can cook a couple steaks and tie them around their necks. then take a ride down to the miami zoo and hop in the lions den and see if the lions respect their CIVIL LIBERTIES! you gotta be kidding me that this is what they do with their free time. funny thing is THESE ARE THE VERY SAME asswipes who once someone gives them the slightest problem the will run to the phone like a little bitch to call the police for help. SPARE ME!

Wow, there’s some enlightened comments.  Excusing that behavior.  Real nice.  Bet you’d change your mind in a REAL hurry when you’re on the receiving end of that kind of crap.

As for the "Just no forms" clips - Imagine how easy it is to ignore "verbal" complaints.

I don’t think I need to be lectured by anyone here about how hard a cop’s job is.  I grew up with a cop in the family.  Twice while I was growing up we had criminals threaten my family in order to intimidate my dad.  He put his life on the line just about every day, and we all knew it.

But even with all that as a fact, there is no excusing the behavior exemplified above.  I don’t care how harrassed a cop feels, "Take another step at me and see what happens" is an inexcusable thing to say after you chase a citizen who has annoyed you onto the street.

If you guys don’t think that’s "unbelievable" you’re fools. 

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Cops really do have a difficult and most usually emotional job. The stress involved with being a police must be unreal. I would imagine a cop sees things that the average person can’t concieve. That doesn’t exuse that behavior but it might explain how they get to that point? However, Cops really need to take advantage of the emotional and mental services most police departments offer!

  Let me say right off the bat that my big brother is a cop, so I am REALLY protective of these guys. They risk their lives and put up with crap on a daily basis that no person should ever have to endure, and more often than not, when they are forced to defend themselves they have some doorknob flopping the race card no matter how bad the perp’s actions were.

However, the cops in those clips could use some time in the unemployment line. 

i didnt see anything written above by anyone that was EXCUSING any behavior…...i was simply curious as to what compels someone to go into a police station and phukk around with someone who apparently doesn’t have a lot of time for CANDID CAMERA! but no problem ill simply keep my eyes open on here for the next ASS-IGNMENT the UNDERCOVER BOYS go on! perhaps up next will be a trip down to the FLA NATION OF ISLAM chapter with a hidden mic and cam and they can ask questions about how the "government blew up the levees because they wanted to perform genocide on black folks living in La." maybe they can ask them to produce the proof of such a "valid" claim. then of course after they get their faces smashed in and their equipment destroyed they can report back to us. or better yet maybe a trip down biscayne blvd to CUBAN IMMIGRATION SRVCS located in south miami and they can ask them for some forms and how come the immigration dept blatantly ignores all the FLA state guidelines for entry into our country.oh wait that wont work either as they are probably the same folks who are opening their homes to the "immigrants". some police officers are bad cops…..and or have bad attitudes and been caught in bad behavior? answer=YES,but my guess would be that it is probbaly 1.5 or 2%. now lets look around the rest of our citizens…...hhmmmmmmmm lets see do ya think only 2% of politicians are scumbags? UNLIKELY!(that figure,if we knew it,would be HUGE) how bout our lovley athletes and entertainers? gotta think that figure would roar up into the mid 40% range if not higher. how bout our teachers and school board members,only 2%? good joke,probably close to 25% if not higher. spare me the POLICE ARE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD reply,because that is OBVIOUS,however what is also obvious is that they are a "SAFE GIG to phukk with" because you they are limited as to how they can respond to clowns and jokers. why not go into liberty city and buy drugs with your little walmart cameras and hidden mics? oh wait once again thats not SAFE,but going into a station and doing something you "know you will get away with" is JOURNALISM! LOL

tsk tsk ROB now thats not very nice name calling (FOOLS) "simply because someone has a different view than you".....i thought you said in one of your earlier posts that was something "lefties" are known for…..you arent switching sides already are you?

oh sorry about the grammar,punctuation and RUNON sentences… (remember me—i come from bad parenting.) hang in there bro ya still have 8 months and 9 more days before ya have to consider THE SWITCH…..but just between us ,i really hope ya stay OVER THERE…oops i meant OUT THERE lol

Hugh:

1. Police officers acting like arrogant jackasses in the face of reasonable requests is hardly equivalent to conspiracy theories about levies in New Orleans.
2. Find an English teacher and take some spelling/grammar lessons.  Please.
   

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Indeed, Rob. The whole fiasco could’ve been avoided with something along this line: Sorry, sir but we do not have a form. I would be happy to take your complaint, or you could write it down with your contact information and I would be happy to forward it to the proper person. If not, I can give you my supervisor’s voice mail.

 The reporter did not walk in there with a confrontational attitude or unreasonable requests.

Sherard—again, back to my last point.  How hard is it to just send a letter to the department?  If the guy just wants a form that he’s probably going to take home anyways, he’ll either have to: a) take it back to the station to drop it off; or b) mail it back to them.

i am…...............i just signed up at a local college for some night classes…...........ill keep you posted on my learning progress…............as long as you promise to keep the rest of us updated on the next UNDERCOVER ASSIGNMENT those "crusaders for justice" undertake…......got any footage from nursing homes in florida?...maybe some teachers behaving badly towards students?....perhaps politicians accepting money under the table from illegal gambling halls and strip clubs?....lots of construction jobs in FLA perhaps they can go undercover and catch all the illegal bidding that goes on for those jobs?......sorry dude…..i forgot those type of assignments arent SAFE and THE CREW could very easily get phukked up….....stick with POLICE OBSESSION is what i would do if i was in charge of the CANDID CAMERA CREW….....at least ya know law enforcement agencies have no recourse but to PUT UP with bullshit and be tolerant of "JACKASS WANNABEES".......johnny knoxville would be so proud of those guys…....(i mean if he wasnt too busy eating a piss snow cone like he did in his movie)

i noticed how ya avoided THE MAIN POINT….........what would make someone wanna go to their local police station and be a dickwadd? NOBODY on here is DEFENDING anyone…....simply curious as to what would create the desire to go and CONCEAL A CAMERA obviously hoping some type of "event" takes place…...answer?.....like the post above stated…......"CHERRY PICKING" yup SPHAGNUM was right on when he labeled it CHERRY PICKING .....well off to college i go,but ill check in every once in a while to see the newly updated JUSTIC CRUSADERS UNDERCOVER VIDEO CLIPS….............surely members of the FILM CREW aren’t ANTI-AUTHORITY SOCIOPATHS so the clips coming our way in the future will cover a broad range of INJUSTICES and not just an officer who apparently was a little pumped up.

Years ago I knew several Miami cops. They were good guys. I don’t think all cops would act like a jerk when asked for a form? The cop that touched his gun and acted like a jerk could use some time off! No doubt. BUT, a cops job has to mean they see a side of life all to often that is less than desirable? They are called out for all the bad things a community has to offer. They probably reach a point mentally and emotionally where they start not trusting anyone? I am not saying that excuses them from anything But they must have it bad!...

If you think the cops on that video(selectively edited, I’m sure) were bad, just watch five minutes of a White House press briefing sometimes.  Those reporters are far more rude and intimidating to Scott McClellan than any of those cops were to that phony "citizen".

There are complaints and then there are COMPLAINTS. When you go to the police asking fill out a Complaint form you don’t leave the building with it, not in Texas anyway. A legal COMPLAINT in Texas is when someone is trying to get charges brought, not complain about poor service. I wonder why the TV people didn’t make that clear? You can’t file a legal complaint without being interviewed by a cop and in most instances it’s a sargeant or higher, and that would be whether the complaint involved a cop or not. If the cops in the videos are assuming it’s someone wanting to file a legal complaint as in report a crime then they refuse to speak to anyone about it I don’t blame them a bit but that first cop was a jerk from the start. He should be spending the remainder of his career as a meter maid.

If you think the cops on that video(selectively edited, I’m sure) were bad, just watch five minutes of a White House press briefing sometimes.  Those reporters are far more rude and intimidating to Scott McClellan than any of those cops were to that phony "citizen".

What does that have to do with anything?

 The reporter did not walk in there with a confrontational attitude or unreasonable requests.

Actually he did.  He asked for a form.  After being told there was none, he repeatedly asked for a form.  He was acting like an idiot and I don’t think he deserves the time of day.   He showed the last few seconds of every confrontation in which the cops were getting pissed at this idiot and tried to paint it as though this is common behavior.   His undercover work was done just to make cops look bad and he’s a jackass for doing so.

So some stations don’t carry complaint forms, fine.  Do a story on it and show some interviews with people explaining why they don’t and asking why they should.  You don’t have to be a jackass and try to paint cops as arrogant, blow-your-top fools.

This guy deserves a swift kick in the ass for this report, as far as I’m concerned…. 

He was acting like an idiot and I don’t think he deserves the time of day.   He showed the last few seconds of every confrontation in which the cops were getting pissed at this idiot and tried to paint it as though this is common behavior.

Sphagnum, I wonder if we watched the same video.  I saw the cops asked for a form, and then most of the cops demand immediately to know why a form was needed.  They got confrontational, and defensive, immediately and it just wasn’t called for.

Each and every one of those confrontations could have been solved by the officer saying "We don’t have a complaint form, but if you’d like to submit something in writing here’s a piece of paper and a pen…or here’s the address where you can mail a letter."

Good customer service isn’t rocket science.  And cops, for as difficult as their job is, are still charged with "serving" the public just as much with "protecting" it.

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob: Are you saying that was raw footage?  We saw everything in real time?  Not bloody likely.

When I watched that video, I’m looking at certain things like the officers saying "You’re not answering my questions, I’m gonna try one more time".  The reporter is obviously has a one-track line of questioning in asking for that form and obviously has no intent in actually filing a complaint, which is what the officer is trying to get at.  When the officers figure out that this guy is just harassing them, that’s the footage we see when they tell the guy to buzz off.

There are bad apples out there too, and we see some of that, but this report is designed to give the impression that you should be scared to go down to your local police station and file a complaint.  It is designed to make you scared to talk to an officer instead of filling out a form.  And for that, this guy is an idiot and deserves that swift kick in the pants.

If the reporter had gone into the station, announced he was a reporter, and asked for an interview with those same officers asking why they didn’t have forms, we would have had a much better report.  We might have actually learned something. Or if the reporter had actually filed a complaint instead of just continually asking for a form.  It’s not real, it’s fake and designed to rile officers up so they get pissed. 

I used to do tech/secratarial work in a hospital ER, and we would get idiots like the reporter that keep asking over and over for the same thing. As long as the person isn’t rude or yelling, you just have to keep repeating yourself untill they get it. They DO eventually go away.

If I would’ve been caught yelling at a person like that cop, or using intimidation, you can bet I’d be fired on the spot.

People can be idiots, but for the few people who have a legitimate complaint…Yikes! So much for them getting any resolve! Just take the complaint, and if it has no veracity, you can throw it in the round file! 

C-Mom:  I think the point was that he was never going to file a complaint, because he didn’t have one.  Cops are pretty good at judging motives, and the reporter was being dishonest.  I think the cops picked up on that, and didn’t appreciate it.  Their reaction to him was understandable.  The news team was out to get the reaction they got.  I would have liked to be a fly on the wall in the meeting where this project was proposed and planned.

So give him a piece of paper and tell him to write it up if that’s what he wants.

I can certainly understand the reason why they’d want to take the complaint in person.  That way they can maybe head off some bogus complaints.

The smoking gun onetime featured complaints on New York toll booth operators.   I suppose they’d print Police ones if the thought came to them.

Bottom line: No one here is justified in judging these cops without first seeing the full/raw footage provided by the reporter…

Bottom line: The cops didn’t need to chase the reporters out into the street or attempt to intimidate them.  If the reporter didn’t want to answer their questions and they didn’t have a form, they should have said they were sorry they couldn’t help and walk away.

The behavior was uncalled for.  There’s no excusing what was seen. 

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob: It would be inhuman for cops not to respond to malicious provocation.  Until we see the entire raw feed, we will never know if that provocation took place.  They went there to make the cops look bad, not to make them look like regular guys.

I didn’t see any malacious provocation, I saw reporters asking for a form.

Also, even provoked there was no excuse for some of that behavior. 

The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

I didn’t see any malacious provocation, I saw reporters asking for a form.

Of course you didn’t.  That wouldn’t make a very interstig story now would it…

You can’t take this edited footage, which was made to be as outrageous as possible and make this seem as absurd as possible, and run with it.  The reporter has an adgenda to make these offiers seem intimidating and you have fallen for it.  Without hearing the rest of the story, no condemnation is deserved.

Rob: It would have been more credible if they had interviewed citizens who were kept from being able to file an actual complaint, but maybe they couldn’t find any. So, they manufactured their own information by sending in a reporter posing as a regular citizen, asking for a form for a complaint when there was no complaint.  That, in itself, is provocation. 

...asking for a form for a complaint when there was no complaint.  That, in itself, is provocation.

Merely asking for a form is "provocation"? Come on now.

Now you’re doing some cherry-picking of your own Rob.  I only saw one cop "chasing" the reporter out of the building.  And yeah, that was way overboard.  As was the guy wondering about sex with the wife.  But you can’t take one or two cases and project those onto all the other cops.

But you can’t take one or two cases and project those onto all the other cops.

That is not what is going on here. Not by a long shot.

likwid:  That was the whole purpose-to provoke a response that they could cash in on with some sensational coverage.  Do you think it would have aired if everyone had been courteous?  You have no idea how many encounters they edited it out.  It is provocation to ask for something when you really don’t need it.  We don’t even know everything the reporter said; only what they chose to show us.  I guess I don’t trust the TV news.

That was the whole purpose-to provoke a response that they could cash in on with some sensational coverage.

Perhaps. I wouldn’t doubt it. But that is immaterial. The important issue is how a couple of the police officers acted.

Do you think it would have aired if everyone had been courteous?

The video probably wouldn’t have. The story that they have no forms would have.

It is provocation to ask for something when you really don’t need it.

How?

likwid:  Because it’s a lie.  They could have told the truth, and said they were checking to see if forms were available.  Instead, they chose to go undercover, posing as a complainant.  It couldn’t be more obvious that they were engaging in provocation, when they had a clear option not to do so.  If they had only been interested in the availability of a form, they could have done that on the phone. 

Kind of off subject here, but I think its intersesting that the media has engendered this level of mistrust over the last few years.

 Now THERE’S a story you won’t see on the evening news…

No, that’s exactly ON topic.  The fact that this reporter has a very specific adgenda, getting the public as outraged as possible at the police, is not a secret.  His job is to get the most outrageous reaction from officers possible and to make himeself seem like an angel. That’s why you can’t take this seriously!

well it has been a week ...........any updates on what THE UNDERCOVER HERO SQUAD has undertaken for their next project?.......hmmmmmm i didn’t think so…......

WOW i am stunned…...THE UNDERCOVER HERO SQUAD hasnt taken on any more assigments…...so the ONLY assignment they felt compelled to go out on was a police station?...........going on almost a month now and no more UNDERCOVER work?.......see if i can find a word for that…..got it…..TYPICAL…..yup typical fits