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San Francisco Suspends Officer [Cohen] Over Video (Newsom calls it racist, sexist and homophobic)
The Associated Press ^ | Dec 8, 2005 | KIM CURTIS

Posted on 12/08/2005 8:24:59 PM PST by Former Military Chick

SAN FRANCISCO - A police officer who produced videos parodying life on the force was suspended Thursday after the mayor and police chief blasted the vignettes as racist, sexist and homophobic.

Officer Andrew Cohen, 39, said he was suspended for posting inappropriate and unauthorized pictures about the department on the Internet.

"I don't know what's going on," Cohen told The Associated Press. "I've never been in trouble before."

Cohen is one of about 20 officers expected to be disciplined for video clips that Police Chief Heather Fong called "egregious, shameful and despicable."

The skits featured uniformed and plainclothes officers making fun of Asians, blacks, women and gay and transgender people, Mayor Gavin Newsom said. He was particularly offended by a scene showing a white officer in a patrol car running over a black homeless woman.

"It is shameful, it is offensive, it is sexist, it is homophobic and it is racist," Newsom said. "We're going to make sure that it ends, it ends immediately."

The video spoofs were shot over more than a year for a Christmas party, Cohen said. Most of the officers involved, including a captain, worked at the Bayview Station in the city's roughest section, an industrial area with a large minority population and high crime rate.

The department's internal affairs division launched an investigation after the videos were discovered on Cohen's Web site, Inside the SFPD. Other city commissions also were assigned to look into the matter.

Cohen said Fong asked him to meet with her Dec. 14 and he will eventually have a hearing before the Police Commission.

The department did not release the names or ranks of the officers.

"I'm sorry they did it, and I'm sure they are sorry they did it, but do not confuse these videos with how these officers perform in the real world," said Gary Delegnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. "These were meant as comic relief, parodies of police work."

Cohen's lawyer, Daniel Horowitz, said his client was slandered by officials who drew attention to the matter and took the videos out of context.

"I think they wanted to be the poster children for the politically correct attitudes in the city and they misrepresented the contents of the tapes," Horowitz said.

He added that the videos, which have been pulled from the Web site, were not insensitive, although some of the content was sophomoric.

Newsom's spokesman, Peter Ragone, disagreed. "Perhaps Mr. Horowitz is the kind of lawyer who thinks that a white police officer running over a black woman is something to laugh at. We think he stands alone."


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: andrewcohen; leo; newsom; police; sanfran; sanfrancisco; sf; sfpd
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To: Former Military Chick
"Newsom calls it racist,sexist and homophobic."

Clint make a new Dirty Harry Flick? Sounds like my kinda movie.

61 posted on 12/09/2005 7:24:45 AM PST by MAWG (In the shadows, on permanent ambush duty.)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

Well whatever it was in that picture I'll assume it was either nasty, funny or both 8>)


62 posted on 12/09/2005 8:40:45 AM PST by Horatio Gates
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To: nsmart

Madness,isn't it?


63 posted on 12/09/2005 9:33:39 AM PST by Mears (The Killer Queen)
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To: Former Military Chick
Heather Fong is Satire.

And Officer Cohen was really dumb.

64 posted on 12/09/2005 10:00:56 AM PST by Kenny Bunk ( Valerie Plame worked under the covers, but was not undercover.)
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To: Bulldaddy
Frickin' liberals are the most humorless people in the world.

True. They're not really "liberal," since that implies tolerance. The irony is that allowing satirical humor like that actually helps defuse tensions in a "diverse" place like SF. If you can't poke fun at the absurdities of life in a multiculti stew, you've got a pretty grim little lefty dystopia.

65 posted on 12/09/2005 10:31:04 AM PST by teawithmisswilliams (Question Diversity)
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To: Former Military Chick

IOWs, don't tell the truth whats out there on the street...butter it over and make it look nice!! Thats the way to do it!!


66 posted on 12/09/2005 10:34:37 AM PST by sit-rep (If you acquire, hit it again to verify...)
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To: writer33

This is an attempt to root out retro-grade culture from the SFPD. Its a kind of liberal Maoism. Soon we will be using Mao Tse Tungs terms:

Example: We are involved in a "peoples war" against "right wing middle roaders" who betray the "revolution" of the people who rise up to overthrow the "authoritarian minority."

Look at the quotes:

Mayor Gavin Newsom: "a series of vignettes, skits, that are some of the most egregious skits I've seen."

Heather Fong and Newsom: "The content ranges from immature and vulgar to sexist, racist and homophobic," ( it was for a retirement party, DUH ?)

This is mythomaniacal language ( egregious?)designed to propagate its own legend of a lock step liberal morality couched in political correctness. This is "the liberal cultural revolution" in action.


Clearly these remarks purposefully take the video out of the context of a retirement party film. Cohen has a pristine service record, apparently. These officers are sacrifices to the minorities who make up SF, and the persecution of these officers is a way to make SF voters think that the
fight against the "counter-revolutionary middle roader"
police officers is unceasing and relentless in pursuit of
a liberal Utopia.(Slime media: How dare these officers make a comedy video while people on the streets of S.F. are dying? BARF!!) Every Utopia fails but the process will ensure Fong will be a Chief for a long time and a wallowing Mayor Newsom gets all those minority votes, not to mention free publicity.

Horowitz is a good attorney for SF, lots of grandstanding for the media, if he is on his best game. It should be interesting to watch the hearings, if they are public.They probably will be closed to the public.


This is not right. It was a problem that could have been solved by simply removing Cohen's site from the web. The situation has been seized to make political hay for the benefit of two mediocre politicians: Newsom and Fong.Now 12 officers carreer's will be ruined, with possibly up to 20 by the end of it all.How many officers will leave? A lot over the next few years. Maybe they will go on strike and Fong and Newsom can go up against the Gangs of San Francisco themselves. ( Oh I hope!)


67 posted on 12/09/2005 3:18:31 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
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To: Candor7
A lot over the next few years. Maybe they will go on strike and Fong and Newsom can go up against the Gangs of San Francisco themselves. ( Oh I hope!)

There's plenty of employment elsewhere. It wouldn't be worth it to me. But that's me.

68 posted on 12/09/2005 5:42:32 PM PST by writer33 (Rush Limbaugh walks in the footsteps of giants: George Washington, Thomas Paine and Ronald Reagan.)
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To: writer33

The mayors office made this whole problem by calling all the news outlets just before 6pm news casts telling them to get down to city hall. They have a important news conference at6 pm. Pete Wilson( not the former Governor, the Abc Newscaster) told everyone this yesterday on kgo Radio.


69 posted on 12/09/2005 7:36:30 PM PST by Deek1969
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To: Deek1969
The mayors office made this whole problem by calling all the news outlets just before 6pm news casts telling them to get down to city hall. They have a important news conference at6 pm. Pete Wilson( not the former Governor, the Abc Newscaster) told everyone this yesterday on kgo Radio.

This really doesn't surprise me.

70 posted on 12/09/2005 8:07:19 PM PST by writer33 (Rush Limbaugh walks in the footsteps of giants: George Washington, Thomas Paine and Ronald Reagan.)
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To: aligncare

I remember people calling Newsom the "conservative" in the SF mayor's race. What a toilet bowl full of sludge that place is.


71 posted on 12/09/2005 8:11:50 PM PST by Luke21 (Political correctness is the insane religion of our rulers.)
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To: Kenny Bunk
I just realized something. Heather Fong. Why not start a cartoon series called: " The Feather Hong Chronicles?" and her faithful companion: "Spavined Knewsome"
72 posted on 12/10/2005 3:48:59 AM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
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To: Former Military Chick

No sense of humor in San Francisco. Who knew.


73 posted on 12/10/2005 3:50:15 AM PST by hershey
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To: Bulldaddy

Many liberals become easily offended and react adversarially, revealing their hidden harbor of intense guilt. Refusing to address them, they lock themselves into their personal prison by attacking others, whose actions cause their guilt to quiver in their conscience.


74 posted on 12/10/2005 3:58:45 AM PST by Cvengr (<;^))
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To: Former Military Chick
It was politically incorrect and funny as hell. But for humorless liberals, that was a NO-NO. You don't satirize, ever - Democratic Party approved victim groups like blacks, women and gays. In San Francisco, do so at your own risk.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

75 posted on 12/10/2005 4:03:01 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Former Military Chick
Do liberals understand humor? You can't laugh at any one cause you'll ending "offending" someone. These people take everything literally. And Andrew Cohen, who I'm sure doesn't have a racist, sexist or homophobic bone in his entire body, fell victim to liberal fetishes about what you can and can't say in our society.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

76 posted on 12/10/2005 4:06:04 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Candor7

They don't make Chinese (oops, I meant "Asian") cops like Charlie Chan anymore.


77 posted on 12/10/2005 7:12:53 AM PST by Kenny Bunk ( Valerie Plame worked under the covers, but was not undercover.)
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To: Kenny Bunk

"They don't make Chinese (oops, I meant "Asian") cops like Charlie Chan anymore."

Heater Fong is not even Charlie Chan lite!

She will leave no stone unturned to censor the speech of her patrol officers in the SFPD. Can you imagine what the radio traffic between the dispatchers and patrols must be like.

Dispatcher: "We have one racial minority person , holding hostage, one racial minority person" [while all the oficers are wondering what the identification characteristics( race, sex) of the perpetrator and victim are]

The patrol officers will have a field day with this politically correct miasma, especially in radio communications. Fong is as good as cooked. I predict she might last for 6 months at the most. She just screwed the pooch by not standing by her officers and handling this behind the scenes by having the internet site taken down. She has just been divorced from the rank and file SFPD officers who will no longer regard her as a leader , or respect her. She violated one of the very basic principles of police force management. Do you think that SFPD officers will risk their lives at the command request of "Feather Hong?" or her sidekick, "Spavined Knewsome?"
They are not leaders from the front, they are buggerers of boys from the rear, known in some circles as REMF 's.


78 posted on 12/10/2005 2:34:17 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
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To: Former Military Chick
The DUmocrats really need to read up on history.

Stop the Republicans (The History of Republican Evil)

79 posted on 12/10/2005 9:23:25 PM PST by RasterMaster ("Bin Laden shows others the road to Paradise, but never offers to go along for the ride." GWB)
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