Cop gets in trouble for arresting actor

www.thewrap.com...

If this isn't the right forum, please move it mods

What do you think ATS? Do you think the cop was justified in trying to defend himself?
Is American treatment of celebrities gone overboard?

Why is it that if I would have gotten caught conducting some lewd behavior in public, I would've gotten a fine and charges immediately?
And why did the race card have to be pulled for no reason?

I think this culture of worshiping popular people has gotten too extreme. I've seen too many cases of DUIs and the like being dropped or lessened for no reason other than that person starred on TV or on the big screen. DUIs are no laughing matter because that means it wasn't a beer or two, it was enough to make them unable to drive properly. DWIs come from checkpoints and the like. DUIs come from the officer seeing that you can't drive right. It's only a matter of time before one of these celebs kill someone from drunk driving and their family freaks out because they got off with rehab. Screw that, they're in the limelight, an example needs to be made of them. They know that they influence others, therefore they should get punished for abusing that influence.

I don't see it happening anytime soon however

They routinely beat people, harass witnesses and it's only heard of if the media reports it. For this? No she's not special. If it weren't for the fact that she wears makeup for a living and recites words she'd realize what true struggles Americans go through. S + F she is a total fool.

a reply to: thisguy27

sounds like 1 side of the story...

judging by what she said, I think there might have been previous instances of frivolous calls to police for alleged "lewd conduct". Really it sounds like a woman fed-up with police harassment...

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

you are aware not all film/television actors are big-money making celebrities... and with the cost of real-estate in that particular part of the country... well.. disposable income might not be as clear cut.

a reply to: NonsensicalUserName

He seemed polite and courteous from the audio and was well within his rights to ask for ID.
He got called there about two people performing a lewd act. He didn't say anything else besides asking for ID. He wanted to establish who was there and why. I know ATS thinks they're all pigs but in this case he was actually investigating what occurred and wanted to know who he was investigating.

She's the one that said that she was being targeted and that she didn't have to show ID and brings up her publicist. And after she got lawfully detained, she goes on Facebook claiming to have been harassed when the audio clearly disproves that.

Who cares who you know? The law is the law. Making out in a car would not be enough for cops to respond, I'm thinking they were doing some hanky panky and expected to be let off with a warning because of their fame.

As to the corruption/bad image of the LAPD, I have no opinion because they deal with the craziest of the crazies while being in a hotbed of drugs, easy money, and a reputation of looking the other way for some situations. I would not want to be an LAPD officer, not for a 100 grand a year

Well, the article states that the actress wasn't doing anything lewd. The cop is in trouble for selling his recording of his interaction with the couple to tmz. Then he gave an interview after he was explicitly told not too. So i don't see how her fame has anything to do with it other than he would not have been offerred any money for the recording otherwise. Looks like the cop was out of line and dug his own hole.


a reply to: thisguy27

a reply to: NonsensicalUserName

Of course but that doesn't excuse her from the fact that she's using this as a pedestal for fame and exposure while crying racism. Hollywood is talentless these days.

a reply to: thisguy27

He ran into trouble when he leaked the audio recording of the incident. Granted he was trying to protect himself since the LAPD has a bad habit of failing to do so based on public opinion.

While I agree with his outrage I cant condone leaking the audio.

Since the LAPA filed charges against the 2 it does make one question what the 2 were doing in the car. Generally speaking a call like that will require a witness or for the 2 people involved to make incriminating comments. Since they both deny lewd conduct something tells me the people who called 911 are listed as witnesses to the act. Otherwise I don't really see, based on the info present, how charges could go forward.

Maybe I missed it but the officer in question didn't arrest the actor.

a reply to: thisguy27

Misleading title. The cop got in trouble for leaking confidential police records, and for disobeying a direct order to not have contact with media about the case.

Thats what it takes to get a cop fired, and people think everything is just fine in our country.

a reply to: JHumm

Not letting the "technicalities" distract me. If she wasn't a celebrity and known this would've never hit the media.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

Exactly. If she wasn't famous she'd have been arrested and jailed. Just another statistic.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Would you have sat there and taken it sitting down?
He got falsely accused and didn't want the actor in question to have the last word. Seeing how she lied and disobeyed a lawfully given order to show her ID.

He disobeyed orders to expose the truth.

Weren't the Nuremberg trials all about not following orders if it goes against your personal convictions?

And no the officer in question was not the arresting officer, two female officers were. Notice how the two female cops weren't in her facebook photos? And he was?

Bottom line, don't act like a pig in public and no one will call the police on you. The whole thing could have been avoided with mature behavior and after the fact by cooperating.

a reply to: thisguy27

Well, if the officer had no evidence that the two were engaged in a lewd act (i.e. unless he rolled up on them to find the two of them partly or entirely naked, and rocking the suspension of the car they were in to the point of causing fractures to the suspension brackets), then any arrest he was attempting to make would have been invalid, unless of course he could prove that the two of them had been engaging in lewd behaviour previously, with CCTV evidence, or by discovering a recently used condom or other paraphernalia relating to sexual conduct in the car.

If he had enough for an arrest at the time of the arrest, then he did. If he did not, then it is a case of bad policing at best, and racial profiling at worst. Seems pretty cut and dried to me.

Seems the complaint was from workers with a view.

www.tmz.com...

a reply to: thisguy27

So he is in trouble for leaking the tape, not for the arrest...
Maybe your title should reflect what the article headline is.

I am all for calling out the way celebs are treated unfairly, but this is somewhat of a misleading thread.

a reply to: Xcathdra

You know what's strange though about the wrap article? It says that they were charged but according to articles at the time of the incident, they were not charged and only "detained" and released. LAPD did not even have a report on the incident according to the following two sources:

www.buzzfeed.com...
www.huffingtonpost.com...

However, a month later, LAPD decided to file charges against them for both (Watts and Lucas) without explanation as to why but also stated that the police officer that cuffed Watts did the appropriate thing:
www.reuters.com...
abcnews.go.com...

Where the officer in the wrap article went wrong was in the leak of that audio recording to TMZ:

"I had to make a decision. We were facing another racial, tumultuous incident in L.A.," Parker said. "I said, 'This has to stop right away.' I drove to my station, grabbed the recording and called TMZ. It stopped the next day."

The LAPD generally prohibits officers from publicly releasing confidential records, including audio recordings.

www.latimes.com...

There's also a Washington Post article citing the same thing--leaking the tape and talking to the media--as being the source of Parker's penalty box. He went against orders of his superiors on several counts in talking with the media and yet, is doing it again? Is he going for being fired? Who gets penalized because of going against orders of talking to the media and leaking an audio recording and then, talks to the media about getting penalized for it? Somebody who apparently wants a new job.

Whole thing is just weird from top to bottom at this point.

The cop should have just killed 'em. No crime in doing that.

When was the last time a KC or entire gang of them, got anything but a paid vacation, for laying out an innocent person, putting boots on the victim's neck, and handcuffing the fresh corpse?

Yes. We only get the 'police' that we deserve, isn't that right?

I want to know who wrote the job description, such that it includes gunning down innocent persons in their bed, based on an anonymous tip that said he might be breaking some law...

# 307

a reply to: thisguy27

I'm sorry but you said this in your first post,

Who cares who you know? The law is the law.

So why are you now backing away from that and saying it was ok for the cop to go against that?
Two wrongs don't make a right.
If nothing wrong happened then stick you to your convictions and let the process complete it's self.

You know, "If you didn't do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about"