Posted on 07/29/2006 1:28:31 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
Lt. Steve Smith, in charge of the detective bureau for the Malibu/Lost Hills station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, confirmed to me just now that "the contents seem to be similar" between the official reports and the four pages posted by TMZ.com on the Internet alleging Mel Gibson made anti-Semitic slurs -- "fucking Jews" and "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" and asking the arresting deputy "Are you a Jew?" -- during his DUI arrest early Friday morning. Smith denied TMZ.com's charge that the sheriff's department was involved in a "cover-up" of Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic tirade detailed in deputy Jim Mee's first arrest report. "TMZ has learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department had the initial report doctored to keep the real story under wraps," the website claims. But Smith told me emphatically, "There's no whitewash. I've seen the first report, and the supplemental report, and it looks to be the same thing as what's on the Internet. The contents that are on the Internet are covered in both those reports." That is the first official confirmation from the Sheriff's station that Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic rants are included in the official reports about his DUI arrest.
Lt. Smith told me that it is the station's normal procedure not to release the arrest report until it's submitted to the District Attorney's office for possible action. Also, according to porocedure, Deputy Mee's report, he said, was reviewed by the filing detective "to see if there's maybe corrections or additions or elements of the crime that should have been included, or just additional information that wasn't known at the time of the report. And then a supplementary report is generated because that's the proper way to add information to the first report. In this case, the original report had a lot of this nuance in it: how Mr. Gibson was conducting himself and behaving. Traditionally, in a drunk-driving arrest, or any type of arrest, the deputy wants to paint a picture of what he's dealing with at the time. And, the reason for that is it helps the detective or the D.A. to put the contact into some sort of context. The other purpose for describing the context is that it assists the deputy in remembering the incident when the court case can be four, or six, or eight months down the road."
As soon as TMZ's Internet pages surfaced about Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic slurs, Hollywood's entertainment leaders began phoning one another asking if could possibly be true. (Already this morning, I personally spoke with several prominent players wanting to know more.) Now, with my confirmation from Lt. Smith that those pages are similar to the official Sheriff's reports, showbiz moguls are certain to be shocked and angry. Still, to be fair, whether any person should be held responsible for what may have been allegedly under-the-influence ramblings is certainly debatable. But Gibson is a special case because his worldwide mega-hit The Passion of the Christ was criticized by some Jewish leaders as anti-Semitic, and Gibson's father, a local religious leader, has said that the Holocaust did not happen. Hutton Gibson in statements has decried the Holocaust as "fiction" and claimed there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before. The younger Gibson, however, has repeatedly denied his movie was anti-Semitic. But the actor/director's views about his father's Holocaust denial have been under scrutiny. When asked by an interviewer in early 2004 whether the Holocaust happened, the actor / director / producer responded that some of his best friends ''have numbers on their arms,'' then added: ''Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps.'' But in the same interview, Gibson said his father, Hutton Gibson, had ''never lied to me in his life,'' and Holocaust scholars have cited those and other statements as evidence that he has failed to disassociate himself clearly from his father's views. Perhaps to counter that, Gibson late last year announced he was developing a nonfiction mini-series about the Holocaust for ABC. His TV production company will base the four-hour miniseries for ABC on the self-published memoir of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose gentile neighbors hid her from the Nazis but who lost several relatives in concentration camps. Gibson was not expected to act in the mini-series, nor was it certain that his name, rather than his company's, will be publicly attached to the final product, according to The New York Times. But Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president for movies for television, told the paper at the time that the attention-getting value of having Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor. ''Controversy's publicity, and vice versa,'' Taylor was quoted as saying. Now it remains to be seen whether the contents of these LA County Sheriff's Department arrest reports will make Gibson's Holocaust project too hot to handle for the network.
ABC's parent company, Disney is distributing Gibson's latest Hollywood movie project, Apocalypto, through its Buena Vista Pictures Distribution arm. The action epic set before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America about the bloody decline of the ancient Mayan civilization (filmed in their language) wrapped production earlier this year and planned for a Dec. 8 opening. In his most recent act of controversy, Gibson recently compared the fearmongering and human sacrifice of the Mayans to President George W. Bush's political actions. Previously, the Bush administration, Christian religious leaders, and conservative politicos had embraced Gibson for making The Passion of the Christ despite the overwhelmingly negative response to the film inside Jewish circles.
Hollywood, especially its Jewish moguls, has simultaneously rejected and embraced Gibson before, during and after Passion. Right before the movie was released, several top Hollywood Jewish executives saw an anti-Semitic subtext in the religious movie and pledged privately never to work with Gibson because of it. But once Passion became a surprise hit at the box office, and rang up humongous theatrical grosses worldwide , much of the heated criticism of Gibson began to cool inside Hollywood circles. And, in some quarters, the actor / director / producer began to be hailed as a genius for tapping into the zeitgest of those spiritual moviegoers often ignored by Hollywood moviemakers.
Given today's confirmation by the Sheriff's Office that Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic tirade is in his DUI arrest reports, the debate will rage anew in Hollywood and Jewish circles about Gibson's true feelings about Jews. The actor / director / producer works closely with many Jewish VIPs in the entertainment business at talent agencies, in law firms, and at the studios. Of course, we haven't heard from Gibson himself yet. But there can be no doubt this official confirmation is very, very damaging to his career.
Yeah, but Mel's cuter so it's okay. And he made a Christian movie. (/sarcasm)
Wow. wow.
When I learn something like this about someone it changes the way I see them. I don't follow Hollywood stars offscreen lives but I've enjoyed many of Gibson's films.
I won't see his work the same way now- because he made an eloquent apology to the police officers, his family and friends and un-named others yet was unable or perhaps unwilling to stand and offer that same heartfelt apology to Jews, by name.
He said something to cover his ass. Words mean very little when you've driven 40 miles over the speed limit, jeopardized lives by driving drunk, revealed a strain of anti-semitism that many of us were afraid was there but were hoping wasn't, and insulted law enforcement officers who were trying to protect him from himself.
He should do what Eisenhower made George Patton do after he slapped a soldier for complaining of battle fatigue:
Gibson should apologize to every member of the LA Sheriff's Department individually and personally, he should publicly disavow each component of his father's anti-semitism, and he should apologize, publicly and personally, to a representative group of Jewish leaders and Shoah survivors.
He should also make some large donations to designated Jewish causes that fight anti-semitism, and to a law enforcement charity designated by the LA Sheriffs' Department.
I will also wager that his wife has been humiliated by this, but what he has to do to resolve that is up to her.
Was Hitlery drunk when she went on her FJB tirade?
I have no idea.
Oh, and Mel's statements were way worse than calling a Jewish guy "Jew".
Seems he was trying to misrepresent who he was. Wow...what makes folks do that.
Seriously, maybe you can tell us.
Public anti-semitism has been relegated to Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, certain sects within Protestantism, and pockets within Catholicism.
Gibson knows he couldn't get away with his Jew hatred in public, so he suppresses it.
Until he deals with his real feelings and attitudes towards Jews, these expressions may surface again if he gets a few shots under his belt.
I was looking for a more "personal" answer. I'm sure you have some personal insights. I wasn't asking you for advice, as if you were my local deacon or anything like that.
Jane Fonda's biggest films came in the years AFTER she aimed an anti-aircraft gun at US jets. And she took 30 years to apologize. By that precedent, Gibson, who'll be booked for televised apologies starting next week - I bet - has a long life and many movies ahead of him.
I was a correctional officer at a maximum security prison for four years. One of the officers I worked with I'd gone to High School with a decade before & I just remember him as being a pudgy, quiet kid who sat in the back. At the prison, 10 years later he was still pretty much a pudgy, quiet kid--and a neo-nazi. He had the tats, would often spout out something seemingly random about Jews. Most, if not all, of what he said was vicious, hateful--& rather pathetic.
I doubt if he'd even met a Jew, & knew nothing about them beyond what he'd read in skinhead mags & hatesites. He was more a cartoon of a neonazi (& I've worked with plenty of the Real Thing who were on the other side of the bars--& if you want to look into the eyes of pure, utter, soulless evil, look at the modern incarcerated skinhead. With the murderers, the child molesters, the crooks, the dealers, you could see some glimmer of humanity, however diluted--some remorse, some repentance. Not so with the skinhead, the neonazi. Not the ones that I knew.)
(Incidentally, most of the officers I worked with were white & rural, as am I, and the inmates were disproportionately black and hispanic, yet I didn't see much in the way of racism. Almost all of the officers I worked with were professional in dealing with all inmates. I expected racism & was glad to be wrong. Nonetheless, there was a fair amount of anti-Semetic & anti-Islamic talk, which I think may have had something to do with the fact that we worked with blacks & hispanics all day--& night--but there were no Jews or Middle Easterners in the prison. It's easier to hate a group when you see nothing but caricatures & never see the face of an actual human being.)
With the neo-nazi officer, he was pathetic, idiotic, but human, with kids & a couple of failed marriages, his body marked up with the emblems of a failed philosophy built on madness & homicidal scapegoating. I hope he figures out what, indeed he hates.
With Mr. Gibson, I don't know. I've had my battles with the bottle myself, & it tends to bring out the worst. I worked for a few years in the Film Industry in New York & have worked with some pretty big stars--I know it's cliche, but when the camera stops rolling, they're just regular people with regular problems, with the additional problem of constant scrutiny.
It is true that Jews do traditionally vote Democrat (to their own detriment--people do not always act in their own self-interest), though in recent years, statistically, there is a very small, but slow creep in the numbers toward the Republican Party.
Another example where voting history does not make logical sense: It is also true that for decades, Blacks have voted in the 90+ percentile for Democrats, but what have the Democrats done positively for the Black culture?? Very little. Actually, in reality, the Republicans have historically done more for Blacks, and there is some very slight awakening to this fact, but the demonization of the RNC and the ignorance of the truth continues.
You are making the mistake of thinking that decades long voting patterns are all logic-based, but sadly, they are often just not. These voting patterns instead tend to be more of a tradition carried on from one generation to the next, with little current up-to-date hard-nosed analysis ...
Lol...agreed! ;-)
I agree but have to address the size reference. BAC is the measurement of the percentage of alcohol in your blood, hence size has nothing to do with the degree of intoxication between differently sized people with the same BAC. IOW, a 6' 200 lb man is just as drunk at .12 as a 5'4" 150 lb man would be.
That said, yeah, .12 BAC is not usually Out-of-your-mind-'Honey-did-I-ever-tell-you-about-the-time-I-hit- on-your-kid-sister?' drunk. He has to have some other demon's chasing him for this kind of behavior to be so close to the surface.
He hates Jews.
Gibson could also be manic-depressive, given his well-documented mood swings.
What exactly did Gibson say?
Just finished watching Passion of the Christ. I think Gibson should watch his own movie personally. It's the best film I've ever seen.
Why should we care what the LAMEstream media covers - they clearly want to take down our president on a daily basis. And what he said wasn't just bad - it was atrocious. You even pleaded on another thread that Jewish people should join the conservatives because the left hates them. Not so true, is it? You better get your stories straight, ladyinred.
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