Schmuck Alert - videos of people interfering with media

Shmuck Alert is a blog that reports on accounts of people hassling reporters.

Above: Officer Friendly from the Oakland School District Police threatens to "stuff" Oakland Tribune photojournalist Jane Tyska into his cruiser and jail her. If you don't like profanity, cover your ears.

Remind us to watch our elbows next time we're in Oakland! That seems to be all it takes to make the local School District Police Chief go postal! The cop in question is seen hurling invectives and otherwise being a total ass to Oakland Tribune photojournalist Jane Tyska. According to him, the female photog struck his patrol car with her elbow, setting off an on-camera tirade in which he curses her up (and down!), threatens to 'stuff her' in the back of his (fatally-crippled) cruiser and accuses her of trying to incite a riot. Hey occifer, how about a steaming hot cup of 'CHILL THE #&$@% OUT!'? I've seen calmer reactions at school bus collisions...

Schmuck Alert - Potty Mouth Cop (Thanks, Michael!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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bigglassjar

It takes a real man to bully a female journalist in front of a bunch of cops.
anomaly69

What a jackass. Is it any wonder why they get no respect?
minTphresh

and this is the head cop! he is setting the example for his men ( and women) to follow. the blue line against the ‘perps’. perhaps, out of his uniform and after a few PBR’s, he is just a big huggy-bear, but i’m guessing he is an all around a-hole.
Cupcake Faerie

Sadly, the number of folks who truly hear the call to “serve and protect” are far fewer than those who just get a visceral power boner from swinging a billy club – or nowadays a taser.
Takuan

well, perhaps one day something will happen to him.
kobrakai

So to those of you who say there must be some reason we don’t know about for the police to detain this woman, why does the officer keep changing what he’s going to charge her with? Surely if she had committed some arrestable offense, they’d have arrested her and we’d know the charges.
David Carroll

Wow. The next time I think I am having a bad day, I will indulge in a little schadenfreude and go to this site.

I never did ENG/EFP hard news, just politics and human interest stuff. Most of the time people were very happy to see me.
FoetusNail

Douche Bag, but the problem is the enablers behind him allowing him to continue to act against their own best interests. Sounds like he hit her with his car, possibly intentionally, and is now trying to turn this around into her doing. He is desperately acting out of the very real fear she may file a complaint.
caipirina

as crazy as this is .. I would like to hear the other side / know more facts .. before I form an opinion …

Who knows what was really going on there?
ph0b

I know the term “son of a bitch” is a well known phrase but this guy is just a jerk. Cant she complain that he called her a man and then fired attacks at her Mum calling her a bitch? Wonder what would have happened if she turned round and said “Your mum must have been a bitch too”?
Takuan

think you can find justification for what you saw?
darkbhudda

Both cops and reports are equally arrogant people who believe they have the authority to do whatever they want. He’s a jackass and she’s a blatant liar.

Where is the footage from her hitting the car/being struck by the car? News camera people and reporters don’t look where they are going because they are too busy on getting the money shot. I’ve seen them stand right behind cars when people are trying to back up that tiny bit they need to pull out of their parking spot.

I have no sympathy for the press, but I can’t stand bullying cops. It’s like deciding who’s a bigger liar: politicians or used car salesmen.
hlehmann2

Jst rmmbr kds…
- Nvr tlk t cp, fr ny rsn. Nthng gd cn vr cm f t.
- lwys spt n thr fd f y hv th chnc.
Red Leatherman

Don’t they still call that sorta thing an “isolated incident“. At least it’s what I’ve been hearing them say over and over and over.
Justin France

Even if she was trying to incite the crowd in any way… can you see the amount of cop cars just in that shot?

The fact that this guy is in charge and was willing and quite happy to behave that way in front of so many other officers is truly disturbing. This is the sort of behaviour i’d expect, at worst, when it’s a one-on-one situation.
pseudonym

As someone who has worked in the criminal justice field, I can say there is no justification for crap like this. Officers are given a little leeway about their professional demeanor in a dangerous situation, physical confrontaion, etc. I believe that more people should wear body cameras and record their interaction with police. Cameras are covert these days, and if officers keep getting busted for being dicks you will see them straighten up. PROTECT AND SERVE, not harrass and insult.
Secret_Life_of_Plants

I used to live in Oakland. This doesn’t surprise me.
OM

…As I’ve posted before, studies have shown that some 60% of the nation’s police force were the school bullies when they were growing up. What needs to happen is that communities need to set up watchdog agencies to “watch the watchmen”, and city governments need to not only give those watchdogs the power to fire cops for abuse of power, but prevent the forming of unions that serve only to protect abusive cops.
dragonfrog

Moderators – please consider re-emvowelling at least the first part of Hlehmann2′s post @31.

His first point is valid, and he is in good company making it. See your own post on the topic:

http://boingboing.net/2008/07/28/law-prof-and-cop-agr.html
Antinous

Your link is sufficient to make that point. His comment was hate speech.
Jane Kansas

Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to. I hope this officer is reprimanded.
CosmicTap

Look I’ll start by saying: there are a LOT of good, hardworking cops.

Having gotten that out of the way, there are a LOT of assholes like this one. And they’re angry, and they’re armed, and that’s dangerous for everyone – the citizenry and the good cops.

I’ve been in several situations where the police were far and away the most aggravating factor in the scene. The above is a perfect example – while she’s clearly agitated and nervous, she’s the one trying to have a normal, rational conversation human-to-human. He just wants to yell, scream, berate, and shout. This is not public service and someone like this should be removed from the force for the good of cops and citizens alike.

While I’ve been in many more situations where the police were calm and respectful and problem-solvers, I’ve been in a couple where *I* was calm and respectful and rational, while the officer was absolutely enraged, apoplectic, and basically unhinged. It is really scary.
Mike Harris

Hate speech applies to cops?
- Antinous
  
  In the case of that comment, yes.
Anonymous

How much would the US would improve if news agencies made sandwiches for the homeless instead of take pictures of calamities?
Mike Harris

You do realize that they were making an allusion to an earlier cop-gone-wild incident covered on BoingBoing, in which the officer stormed in and arrested a woman claiming she spit in his food?
Red Leatherman

Sounds like he hit her with his car, possibly intentionally, and is now trying to turn this around into her doing. He is desperately acting out of the very real fear she may file a complaint

Foetusnail, Your post makes perfect sense. But watch this hocus pocus, cop in route to do cop stuff + causes damage to innocent bystanders = immunity. So the question of why the cop is behaving like an asshole should require a deeper probe into his aforementioned behavior.
Mike Harris

I retract the above. I was certain of my memory of that incident, but finally finding the video, it was not spitting but change that inspired the arrest.
- Antinous
  
  Even if it were the case, the reference would have to be linked so that readers could understand the context. Feel free to abuse the cop in this video. Inciting hatred against all cops is a problem.
Takuan

actually I am aware of a number of such incidents covered in the media. Allusion or no, the context instance incites. We are front-stabbers here.
Mike Harris

Front-stabbers? I’m not parsing your meaning.
hallpass

As a former cops and courts reporter for a mid-sized daily paper, I’ve had this experience all too often. In this case, it seems completely irrational — she hit his car with her elbow(?!) In some of the circumstances I experienced, I could see how the cop thought he was doing the right thing.

In the example that springs immediately to mind, I was sent out to a suburban subdivision where we had heard over the police radio scanner that a body had been found. Could be a murder, could be an elderly man who passed away alone at home. From the response from police and other responders, we guessed it was somewhere in between.

It turned out to be a middle-aged man who drowned swimming in his own pool. Tragic and newsworthy, so I decided to knock on some doors to see if any of the neighbors knew the guy. After a while I went back to the house where the drowning occurred to see if I could catch a police officer for some information. As I stood at the bottom of the driveway, a cop walked up and told me I couldn’t stand there.

“What, on the sidewalk? Sure I can.”

“No you can’t. Get in your car and leave.”

And so it escalated to the point that he threatened to arrest me for standing on the sidewalk. He backed down when I invited him to do so. I might also have said something about wearing his badge for Halloween if he did.

I believe that cop was trying to protect the family of the man who died from my repulsive, scavenging (23-year-old) visage. Was he well intentioned? Maybe. Was he right? Most certainly not.

For the most part, the relationships I had with cops as a reporter were professional, if not friendly. Just every once in a while, you run into some jumped up little Hitler who loses sight of his, or her, real role as a police officer. For a cop to become the abuser and run roughshod over the protections we enjoy under the Constitution is to abandon the responsibility with which they’ve been entrusted.
tboot

Hey, Wait a minute — that’s me! Boy am I embarrassed now.
Takuan

front-stabbing is honorable. You must look in their eyes. Food-spitting, however satisfying (and justifiable under military occupation) is beneath us.
Red Leatherman

I meant to stop typing at the word “aforementioned”
@Takuan, I realize that this may be a rear approach to the problem instead of taking a stab at it from the front.
Takuan

yeah, but the reporters can’t beat, shock,choke or shoot you to death because they feel like it.
Mike Harris

So by front-stabbing, you’re referring to a direct attack that they can see coming, as opposed to something done outside their view. “Attack” being used in a loose sense here (not advocating direct physical assault).
- Antinous
  
  And I thought that you were talking about your larvipositor.
Takuan

just so, front, not back. Might I presume the “back-stabber” idiom is not part of your acculturation?
Takuan

that too
Anonymous

That policeman is out of control, he seems to have some sort of severe personality disorder. Seriously, I work with people like that and he’ll probably end up doing something at someone if he hasn’t already.
Takuan

no, that would be “backal”, possibly in the bumnal region.
Pipenta

“How much would the US would improve if news agencies made sandwiches for the homeless instead of take pictures of calamities?”

#15, you’re more than a little brain dead.
minTphresh

i wonder if anything ever happened to the tallahassee police chief who sent the little 20-something deadhead girl ( busted for a modicum of herb and x) off to make an undercover cocaine/gun buy/trade and was unseen until they found her body 50 miles away 3 days later. during a press conference in which they were busy accusing her of being an accomplice. it happened a few month ago, and i haven’t heard anything about it recently. effin cops.
dragonfrog

Food-spitting, however satisfying (and justifiable under military occupation) is beneath us.

Indeed. Have you ever tried to spit into food that was above you?
Takuan

http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/33704649.html
Takuan

takes practice (and a little english), but doable.
Helps if you crimp your siphon a bit.
Takuan

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20081030/NEWS01/810300332/1010/NEWS01
Anonymous

I hang around a lot of tense events in Dublin, Ireland — taking photos without any press credentials at all. The garda (cops) do restrict movement at protests, incidents, etc, but their attitudes can be genuinely helpful in some circumstances.

In Ireland, there’s very little traditional of Law & Order types, and little deference to police power. This can be a problem, especially with drunks on the street. But I wonder whether there’s a benefit to having a society in which law enforcement officials must earn respect and obedience.
rAMPANTiDIOCY

and this is why we need to keep assault weapons legal
fnc

The great irony being that he’s probably this way -because- he “don’t get no respect” and he is unable to see the negative feedback loop he himself perpetuates.
Takuan

he knows, he doesn’t care, he’ll retire untouched with a full pension. Who is going to pay is that cop on the ground one day that finds no one wants to call for help. Fatso don’t give a shit about that either.
David Carroll

Pipenta (#19)

I concur. Just as an example: I was at the United way charity kick-off breakfast recently. There were about 50 local journalists donating their time hosting and acting as servers. There was also table after table of people like me who work behind the scenes paying $25 or more a plate for pancakes. Actually I didn’t even get any pancakes because I was too busy taking still pictures that I donated to the campaign.

At least in my city, journalists are the biggest charity boosters around. They don’t do it for the publicity, they do it ’cause it feels real good.
Eris Siva

Regardless of whether or not the photojournalist covering a school event “hit” his car intentionally or unintentionally with her elbow – that officer is out of control and clearly has anger issues.

Notice the 3-4 times he tries to change exactly what she’s doing to different charges. Hit the car >> resisting arrest (I’m gonna stuff you in) >> inciting a riot.

Still an abuse of power – and towards a female journalist? Despicable.
Crackity Jones

The worst bit is you can’t call him a son of a bitch.
I say, transfer him to the poor estates of France and see how they like him. All I’m saying is La Haine: “you threw a petrol bomb at my car you son of a bitch” – et oui je le ferai de nouveau.
Anonymous

Terrorist elbow bump. I bet she hurt that car real bad.

I hope they sue that bastard. And I typed that with my elbows.
Duffong

Who calls a girl a “son of a bitch”?
salsaman

Is the reporter being detained or arrested?

What is the officer’s name and badge number?
skatanic

I am with #8 Caipirina on this one. While i do agree that there is no justification for a police officer to act this way, I hardly believe all of that was in response to a woman brushing her elbow against his car. Officers have to do write ups of all there events and in if criminal charges are brought they obviously have to be available to go to court. So again, I can’t believe an experienced officer is going to go through all that trouble and get so worked up because someone touches his car.
- Antinous
  
  For anyone else considering inventing imaginary justifications for the cop, please read the Moderation Policy first.
Takuan

I believe it.