courtesy ocregister.com

“One minute, Jose Arreola was buying a pack of Mentos at an Orange County service station. The next minute, he was at the business end of a gun drawn by an off-duty Buena Park police officer who thought Arreola had stolen the $1.19 roll of mints.” Either the un-named Buena Park police officer really wanted that last pack of Mentos or he needlessly jumped the gun after walking in on the middle of a standard gas station convenience store transaction and misunderstood what was happening.

The security camera footage also recorded audio, which pretty much tells the story.

“It’s been a month and I still can’t shake it,” Arreola said. “It was traumatic, the whole incident. (And) I grew up in Santa Ana. I’ve been shot at before.”

Then the cop asked the cashier if Arreola had paid for the mints.

Yes, says the cashier.

“Are you sure?” the officer asks.

Again, the cashier says yes.

“My apologies,” the officer tells a visibly shaken Arreola.

Sorry isn’t enough, Arreola said in an interview. He has retained an attorney and requested financial damages from the Buena Park department.

“Are you seriously pulling a gun out over a pack of Mentos?” he asks.

Not an unreasonable question. Buena Park’s chief of police doesn’t appear to be happy about the indecent.

The encounter, which Buena Park Police Chief Corey Sianez called “disturbing,” had already triggered an administrative investigation, he said in a Facebook statement posted Friday.

“I can definitely assure you that our investigation will be thorough, and if the officer is found to be in violation of any policies and procedures, he will be held accountable,” Sianez said.

 

114 COMMENTS

    • Sorry isn’t enough, Arreola said in an interview. He has retained an attorney and requested financial damages from the Buena Park department.

      Financial damages?

      What was damaged again?

      • “What was damaged again?”

        Only almost his life, genius.

        In a fair unicorn-verse that govt terrorist cunt FLaggot would be rightfully charged with attempted manslaughter or 2nd degree murder… or at the least making terroristic threats while illegally brandishing.

        But alas: copfuckers, yay! xD

  1. Without video, that cop would have sworn up and down the customer reached for a gun as well as stealing the Mentos. The cashier would have been threatened int silence by his blue wall buddies and the cop union.

    • And you left out the part where the cop plants a throw down gun on the dead body and tells the clerk if she says anything she will be next or maybe just to be safe cop then shoots the clerk and plants another throw down gun on her too. Now that ones fool proof if there is no video camera. After all cops never lie they will tell you so.

      • And yet you want to give trump and the cops the final say in who owns a gun. You are a very conflicted individual. How many meds are you on daily?

        • We defenders of the 2A remind our fellow citizens that guns in civilian hands protect the People against a tyranny.

          When talking to a Republican, we would invite him to recall how he felt under the administrations of Obama or Clinton. The Republican would realize that he felt tyrannized by these Democrat presidents.

          References to Obama or Clinton wouldn’t register as tyranny when talking to a Democrat. The only way to get a Democrat or other Progressive to recognize the risk of tyranny is to remind him that there really have been Republicans in the White House. In fact, there is a Republican – of a remarkable stripe – in the White House today!

          The point is NOT that Trump, nor Obama, nor Bush, nor any other occupant of the White House is/was a tyrant. That judgement is very much in the eye of the beholder. Rather, the point is to get the audience to recognize that he has no rational basis to assume that the White House will always be occupied by someone of his own political persuasion.

        • Great Unknown. comrade cisco is on record as supporting federal ubc’s on all gun transfers. All. He’s also on record as supporting federal safe storage laws.

          And he compares trump to hitler. Yet he wants trumps .gov to have the final say in who owns a gun.

          comrade cisco loves some one world .gov commifascism.

  2. The only humans who have the necessary training to be entrusted with a gun.
    🤠

    • Cops are angels and guns are the devil. That’s why people rather rely on 9-1-1 than own a gun.

    • That’s what I was thinking. Struggle struggle struggle, rack the slide, point at Mint Boy ™. If this were a real gun fight, the cop would be perforated.

      My mother draws faster than that, and she’s been dead for 5 years.

  3. what a dipshit cop. not only can he not tell a legal transaction from an illegal one, he can even unholster his fucking service weapon properly. this idiot needs to be fired.

  4. He did that off duty which means no protection from the department on a civil suit. Say goodbye to your house bro!

    • That is a definite maybe. If the department requires him to carry while off duty and to intervene in any criminal activity, then the fact that he was off the clock won’t matter; he was still exercising his authority as a police officer.
      However, it should be noted that there is no “respondeat superior” liability under 42 USC section 1982, i.e., the employer cannot be held liable for the employees violations of civil rights. Instead, the department is held liable when the incident demonstrates inadequate training and supervision or a policy or procedure of the department.

      • Can’t say how it is there, but my department doesn’t require us to carry off duty and we’re only allowed to intervene in violent felonies while off duty. We can jump in if it’s an assault, robbery ect. But no intervening in shoplifting and other petty stuff. And drawing your gun on a shoplifter, even on duty, would likely get you fired.

  5. “I can definitely assure you that our investigation will be thorough, and if the officer is found to be in violation of any policies and procedures, he will be held accountable,” Sianez said.

    You forgot a step. If this guy did NOT violate them they should change!

    • But that would mean the police chief is at fault for the conduct of his officers.

    • Accountable? Does that mean he will get a reprimand in his employee record or will he go to jail for brandishing? This is California, so I suspect the former… and the reprimand will disappear after the hipe dies down.

  6. Perhaps more time on the range doing Q target drills at close quarters would help this LEO. His draw could have been his death warrant if this situation was truly a robbery in progress.

    FYI; in close quarter engagement, weapon remains at your side without arm extension and tilted slightly away from the body.
    But your department should be teaching you this.

    • It didn’t become a robbery in progress until he pulled that gun out of his pocket.

      • Petty theft or shoplifting.

        Not sure what the police department’s policy is regarding using your gun for petty theft or shoplifting. Since it’s California — a place where it’s okay for cops to shoot a teen in the back when he is running away — it’s hard to guess. I think there was a case where LAPD shot and killed a fully naked unarmed man running away from them yet the cops didn’t get in trouble. So rules don’t matter if you work for the government.

    • That isn’t an overstatement.

      You are forced to “give” at least half your property to the politicians. When you buy land you have to pay a reoccurring fee for it regardless if you don’t have an income. You have to register your car and pay a reoccurring fee to use it on roads you constantly pay to maintain. You are forced to put your kids in a government school, but before they go you have to give them a set of shots that could have negative consequences. You are forced to have a number assigned to you at birth that the government will use to track you and require you to use in order to get a job. The license you are required to have in order to drive is actually a national ID card and it is increasingly being required that you show it on demand. The government has been installing cameras on traffic signals to use for live surveillance. Cop cars are getting active scanners to illegally search your license plate automatically to see if you have an tickets or warrants. Companies’ DNA ancestry databases are being used to get DNA profiles of people, similar to how the government uses social media sites to build a dossier of you. Defense of yourself, your family and property has become much more difficult because the government doesn’t want you to be independent and capable. They created “hate crimes” in order to legally punish you for your thoughts, to use it as a way to put you in prison for longer than your actual crime warrants or to simply control your behaviors/expression/thoughts. The so called U.S. dollar is actually a Federal Reserve note that is made by a private business and those bankers manipulate the value of that “money.” The government uses the Federal Reserve to stealthy steal Americans’ wealth to fund their government programs and what they now redefined as “conflicts” (it’s not a war because war requires a legal process in order to start) without having to raise taxes.

      Don’t worry none of that breeds corruption, thereby degrading American society, thus making Americans turn on each other. No platforming “hate speech” and cultural appropriation restrictions are genuine societal movements that are by no means trying to control freedom of thought and human unity in America; it’s just natural human evolution.

      • “When you buy land you have to pay a reoccurring fee for it regardless if you don’t have an income.”

        Not in Florida if the value of the property is under the ‘Homestead Exemption’ limit of $50,000.

        For a home valued at $150,000, the taxable value is $100,000…

      • Well, yeah. But only if you want to be ugly about it. That said, you have a point. Are any of us truly free? 🤔

  7. Ok, serious question here: is there even a standard that exists for cops pointing their weapons at people? I’m not talking about a standard that’s enforced (in theory they have the same standards we do when it comes to firing, and we all know how that really works) but literally anything that says “here is when you may draw?” Given the atrocious handling of firearms we routinely see from cops and absurd level of jumpiness, well…. they seem to treat drawing on someone with an extremely cavalier attitude, while the rest of us (once again!) have to be mindful of living by very different rules

    • A few departments have good policies for deescalation and proper use of force. Even fewer actually enforce those rules. Most of the time it appears they rely on the academy to teach you about when and how to use your tools. Of course after something bad happens, and they get in trouble with the citizens, they might have a little talk and possibly institute some new rules so they won’t get sued.

      But who really follows the rules? Especially when the leadership doesn’t care and rather do things his/her way. They will try to get you out of trouble as long as you didn’t get caught on video doing something indefensible. I’ll do you a favor, you’ll do a favor for me. Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. We’re a team, a brotherhood.

      People say that concealed carriers are better trained and conduct themselves much better in society. If that’s true, I think that is because they don’t have the law on their side to protect them, rather the law is out to kill or cage them because they don’t want non government to have any fire(power).

      • All true, unfortunately. And that’s not just something people say, but something our friend John Lott discovered during his exhaustive data compilation. On average, CHL holders do better with every conceivable metric than cops when it comes to engaging hostiles. They excercise more discretion, have better accuracy, lower rates of collateral damage, etc. and it’s not even close. Without a doubt, the high degree of accountability any private citizen faces plays a role, but so does overall weapon handling. Plenty of cops are not gun people, but any private citizen who carries is, pretty well by definition. They’re likely to be better trained, better practiced, and more familiar with their weapons

        • Sounds like the data supports the idea that America should have more citizens carrying concealed weapons and less cops. Cheaper, safer and more accountability. I guess Black Lives Matters would agree with that. You can’t have out of control institutional racism if you don’t really have much of an institution.

          Can we get some t-shirts and bumper stickers with “more CCWs, less cops”?

    • My department is pretty strict on drawing your weapon. You can’t just be drawing for frivolous reasons. And everytime you draw requires a use of force report. If it looks like you’re going to the gun too frequently, you can bet there will be an internal investigation.

  8. Or they could just charge him with brandishing like they would with a concealed carrier who isn’t a cop.

    • I was thinking Armed Robbery.
      He wasn’t making an arrest, he was demanding that a man hand over the contents of his pocket and leave, and demanding it at gunpoint.

      In a shall issue state, I think we call such a person a bullet magnet.

  9. Geez pulling a gun for freakin’ Mentos. I hope he loses everything…😡

    • He is one of those types of cops who is waiting for an opportunity to put bullets into someone or get into a car chase.

  10. This guy doesn’t seem to have the situational awareness or concern for safety to be a cop. Definitely NOT someone I’d want responding to a call to my house! Pulling your weapon out in public is always dangerous. This seems like the kind of guy who would enjoy arresting a 6 year old for chewing a poptart into a gun shape. There was no reason for this level of force. WOW, I just noticed the nice straight line connecting cop, suspect and cashier….

  11. I guess Arreola is just lucky he didn’t have any family pets with him or they may have been shot. What a douchebag.

    • Just watched the video. So not only did this idiot pull a gun on someone without understanding the situation he then instructed Arreola to take the mentos out of his pocket. So, you think someone is shoplifting and you tell them to reach into their pocket without first checking them for weapons while you hold a gun on them?

      • True.

        Cops tend to shoot people who reach into their pockets. Some cops have ordered people to reach somewhere and when they do the cop shoots them, then the cop says he shot him because he was “reaching.”

        So why would this cop think it’s a good idea to order a criminal to reach into his pocket? Pulling a gun when you don’t know the circumstances of a situation: bad idea. Asking what you think is a criminal to reach for his waistband: bad idea. This guy shouldn’t be a cop either way you look at it; for his safety and the safety of America.

        • The only real take-a-way from this is how the douchbag struggled to draw his pistol. You should never pocket carry in a loose jacket because when you go to draw the pistol the jacket will follow your hand like it did for the over-eager-to-kill-someon keystone cop.

  12. Until a few years ago in commifornia it took more hours of training to become a beautician than to be a cop. That was changed to now requiring 1 year service before you get your basic certificate…..

    That cop is lucky a CCW holder didn’t come in…he could have ended up perforated.

    • He doesn’t have to worry about that because Californian Sheriffs and police chiefs don’t allow non government people to carry guns. Plus, California has outlawed most handguns that are good to conceal carry, they have very few options for a good CCW gun.

  13. Maybe there bizarre European 70’s style commercials had something to do with it. Mentos kinda freak me out too.

  14. Irresponsible Gun Owner Jackbooted Thug of the Day award? Brain-dead, power-tripping nincompoop of the day?

  15. I didn’t have time to watch the entire video. Did that cop ever get his gun drawn?

  16. Mr. Zimmerman,

    Once again, I ask you to please institute some sort of editing/proofreading process at TTAG. If you aren’t going to hire a real editor, have someone else read these things before you post them. This post has been up for at least four hours with “susptects” in the TITLE. I had to override my phone’s autocorrect to type that word.

    We’re never going to get the truth about guns to the masses if we look like clowns unable to proofread content before posting it.

    • I have to agree. A few errors I can tolerate, but not in the title of the article. Seriously, I’ll have a go at proofreading a few articles for you, just so it doesn’t look like it was typed up on a phone. I don’t mean to be rude, just helpful.

      • This is getting beyond silly. Almost every article that has been published lately is awash with numerous spelling and grammatical errors. It significantly detracts from the professionalism that I have come to expect from this site.

    • It’s a sad state of affairs when we become accustomed to seeing spelling and grammatical errors in print. Come on guys, it’s bad enough that those mistakes made it to print, but it’s even worse that they still haven’t been corrected over 8 hours later. Yay, public school!

      • I guess the way they handle errors like this is to just wait it out. Twenty four hours later the misspelled headline is still on the front page, but after one more post it disappears from the main view. The only problem is that if someone searches for information about this Mentos-protecting cop, the same stupid looking headline will show up forever. The internet is forever. Fail to fix this crap and you look like morons forever.

        I can’t decide what is more disappointing: the fact that TTAG doesn’t even spell check headlines, or that they don’t have the awareness to fix errors.

        Come on TTAG, hold yourselves to a higher standard than the rest of the “news” websites.

    • OMG. I am so glad I’m not the only one this irritates. Mistakes like this are starting to show up in mainstream sites as well. CNN, NBC, Fox to name a few. At least run the text through a spell checker.

      • From mainstream sites, you can expect it: the “writers” aren’t educated enough to have earned a high-school degree fifty years ago. No more so are their “layers of proofreaders and editors”. But from this site, which is written by and for educated and intelligent people, one would hope for better.

  17. The cop should have shot him for reaching into his pocket because he felt like the mentos roll could have been a gun and he felt threatened.

  18. Too bad the clip isn’t available now. I was going to sync it up with the old Mentos jingle.

    “Do do do doooo, do-waaaaaaa….”

  19. What if the guy buying the mentos was armed? If I see a guy not in uniform start getting loud with me and reaching, hes getting a quick half a mag dumped into his chest/face…and apparently even my 75 year old mother would beat him to the draw. So, then what? What kind of charges would they trump up to charge this guy with? I garentee that this guy would have to loose everything defending himself on capitol murder charges. We need WAY less cops in this world. We use more SWAT teams daily in this country that were used in the entire year of 1976, what does that say about a police state. Ollie North sells coke = patriotic hero….you dare smoke a joint or drive more than 20mph over the speed limit = fucked for life. Seems legit.

    • No, we need the police now more than ever, thanks to public school indoctrination centers, affirmative action, and increasingly violent crime. What we need are GOOD cops, ones worthy of respect, not trash like this guy, who aren’t much better than the thugs they are supposed to protect us from.

      • “…we need the police now more than ever, thanks to public school indoctrination centers, affirmative action, and increasingly violent crime. ”
        Really? Police don’t teach in public schools, but they are more than willing to charge a child criminally for as little as skipping school or giving a teacher or classmate the finger, so I fail to see the need there.
        Affirmative action is how we got so many criminally negligent cops who cant shoot straight or think for themselves in the first place.
        Police RESPOND to violent crime, very seldom do they stop one before it happens. Arresting someone for weapons posession does not mean you averted any violence, chances are they’ll be out in a few days. Then get fronted an 8 ball, out to the corner for a hour or two, then back to the dude to pay off and get another CIA funded Ollie North approved 8 ball and a hi-point.
        So, how are more shitty affirmative action cops gonna help again??

        • How about I reverse the question. What would you have instead of cops? I agree, they can be heavy handed at times, but they are necessary. Especially with all these young hoods running around with no direction in life. Again, I ask for a better solution, but there are some kids who need a solid ass kicking to be put in line. Even then, they likely just skip out and smoke weed as soon as possible. Also, I never mentioned anything about weapons charges. We need good cops, but also good laws for them to enforce. They enforce the laws, they don’t make them. If we had both, everything would be okay. Unfortunately, we have shit laws that extort money from people, rather than make society safer. I should have mentioned the laws. My apologies.

          Also, there are plenty of cheap guns, such as Cobras, Jennings, and pretty much anything in .25acp.

      • Good luck finding them….Were turning into an Authoritarian Police-State if you noticed….Even my quaint New Engalnd Township has made the local Police Corruptions list by Personal Freedoms news. *(Re: Local town Fuzz quietly roughing up or beating up residents…Doctoring Bodycam, and Dash-cam footage…Using smartphones to copy and re-edit police Bodycam footage..Posting onto the internet…Internal high level cover-ups, etc, etc…..No wonder they don’t like giving out firearms permits to middle and lower class citizens…Who are NOT PART “special friends or connected”…The usual Law Enforcement/ Police Groupie carve-outs…)* Absolute power corrupts Absolutely!

  20. The challenge for the victim is to find an attorney that can be trusted and is not heavily influenced by the police in that town.

  21. The cop’s got a bright future in the Chicago PD.

    After all, Chicago cops pull guns on Starbucks baristas for not giving them free food and try to beat barmaids to death for not serving them liquor when they’re drunk.

  22. I know a lot of you don’t want to hear this, but a lot of what I just read is just plain wrong. First, I do agree, based on what I saw on the video, and I saw it elsewhere a day, or two ago, the guy over reacted. If it had been me I would have presented my credentials, identified myself and explained that I had seen the subject place merchandise in his pocket. Clerk says, “Yeah, he paid for it.” No harm, no foul. After all, most merchandise is placed in a bag, post purchase, with the receipt. Second, most law enforcement are average shots. So are most CCW citizens. There are dedicated individuals that far exceed the average in both groups. I’ve trained more of both than I care to remember. Third most L.E.O.s I know/worked with are pro 2A, they hunt, shoot competitively and are happy to share their knowledge with others. Then again, I live in the deep south. Maybe things are different elsewhere. Last, there are some really shitty L.E.O.s. They don’t last. Not long after I retired I had to go back to federal court to testify against my former Captain. I played no small part in sending him to prison. While it gave me no satisfaction to do so, no one hates a bad cop more than a good one. It is a myth that we close ranks around each other. There was no video of him committing his crime. Just eyewitness testimony from other L.E.O.s. The other side of that coin is there are some asswipes out there that have the us against them mentality. I always believed that law enforcement and the armed citizen complemented each other, or should anyway.

    • Paul. Here in CA they passed a feel good save the environment law. Bags have to be requested and they are charged extra for. Most folks I know, myself included, don’t request the bag in these small transactions.

  23. By the way the L.E.O.s I worked with were multiple agencies to include: F.B.I., A.T.F. (gasp), U.S. Marshalls (I was duel sworn when I was a member of the N. Florida Violent Fugitive Task Force), Florida Dept. Of Law Enforcement (our lead state investigative agency), Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife and all the local agencies including several in Georgia as my jurisdiction shared a border with them. I can honestly say that if any of these guys had anti 2A sentiments, they kept them to themselves.

    • Good to hear, but I’m still wary of cops. I’m respectful, friendly even, and I can understand their position. However, due to an incident in which they beat the shit out of me, then tried to blame everything on me, I can never trust them. I’m over it for the most part, but I still sleep with a gun under my pillow.

      • Gralnok. Don’t doubt your word. Seen a couple of guys step over the line when it came to physical force. It went into my report. Didn’t make me real popular with some of the guys, but no one tried to “close ranks.” I.A. Discipline if found credable.

        My code on the streets.

        1. I’ll treat you as well as you’ll let me.
        a. I’ll ask you politely to do what I need you
        do.
        b. I’ll tell you what I need you to do.
        c. I’ll make you do what I need you to do.

        Did it always work? No sometimes the bad guy got away.

        Sometimes I had to go straight to gun, but I can look in the mirror every day and know I never used excessive force on any suspect. In fact I can think of a couple of times I would have been justified in double tapping a couple of guys (seperate incidents), but didn’t. Ran into one after he got out of D.O.C. He said his left knee hurt him from the knee sweep I gave him. I told him, “Don’t pull a knife on a cop.”

        • I am a free white man over the age of 21. You don’t have any business ever telling me what to do. If you are armed and pointing a weapon at me, I have every right to respond in kind. Citizens should be armed, not cops.

        • Chris, I’m dumbfounded. The only persons I ever disarmed were those under arrest. Well, when I was working Katrina I was attached to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC S.W.A.T team as security around a mobile field hospital that had been sent to the area. Drug supply was severely hampered post hurricane. We had “seekers” probing all the time. Numerous citizens showed up armed needing medical treatment. We disarmed them and returned their weapon upon their departure. Never even unloaded them. Law enforcement unarmed? You can’t be serious! It’s your job to kick in a door to arrest a homicide suspect. You have no choice. You going in unarmed?

    • Yeah, but if it comes down to their paychecks and pensions or kicking in doors of gun owners, doors are gonna get kicked.

      • Which is why I sleep with a gun under my pillow. Most cops are okay or good, but a large enough percentage aren’t, that I just can’t rely on, or trust them.

      • Nope. Not always. Always swore I’d never disarm an otherwise law abiding citizen of the United States of America. Took the oath to defend the Constitution twice. Meant it both times.

        • I like you. Cops like you restore my faith in law enforcement. I really want to trust cops to do the right thing, but sadly, Tucson and Phoenix police seem inept, to put it mildly. I would go into details about what happened to me, but I want to retain some anonymity over the internet.

        • That you would disarm anyone not under arrest for a violent crime shows you are still putting your paycheck first.

  24. When you buy mentos, the clerk puts them in a bag with a recipt? When the hell has this ever happened??? I have NEVER bought a pack of gum, or a candy bar and had a clerk put it in a bag with a recipt.
    “..While it gave me no satisfaction to do so, no one hates a bad cop more than a good one.”
    While I am not saying that you did not do exactly what you say you did, cops close ranks amongst themselves ALL THE TIME. I have seen it first hand and personally know at least a dozen police and sheriffs that carry drop guns. Covering up others mistakes and overreach is police 101…always has been. Anyone who denys such is part of the problem.

    • Is it even legal in California to use plastic bags these days? I thought they outlawed them to save the planet.

  25. I watched the video and racism played a huge part in the cops action you could see and hear it in the cops actions and voice.

    • Your eval of the video is, at best, suspect. You call everyone that doesn’t agree with you a ‘racist’ or ‘hill jack’.

      Basically, you may be right in your assessment. But nobody trusts your judgement. You lack even basic credibility.

      This comes from being indoctrinated, not educated.

  26. Now if you go back a couple days this is the guy the overwhelming majority of writers wanted guarding their kids at school. Suggest that cops have no place in schools and you would think you were advocating drowning kittens.

    I know, I know. They only wanted this cop in the schools where the minority kids go.

  27. Well maybe the clerks around here are more professional. I usually have to tell them, “Don’t worry about the bag.” Listen, I’m not defending him. If you remember, based on what I saw, I think he overreacted. If you know these guys are carrying “drop guns” (almost laughable today) and their agencies why aren’t you doing something about it today. I have an F.D.L.E. agent buddy of mine that once told me, “The biggest trophy they can hang on their wall is a sheriff’s head.” Corrupt of course. Police 101? You took that class? I don’t recall it in my curriculum. Not saying it never happened. Still does? Probably. More and more rare. Who in his right mind is going to loose his home, family, career, retirement and, oh yeah, do prison time for a guy who’s that his only connection with is a job. You speak of that of which you do not know.

  28. Another thing Ed. If these guys are carrying drop guns. Never saw one myself in 25 year long career. They sure as shit aren’t going to tell you. Where is this jurisdiction anyway? I know some F.B.I. agents that would like to tear their lives apart.

    • When your a FFL and have family in law enforcement you’d be amazed what people not only tell you, but what they ask you for. I have been given drugs by police on duty while working at a nightclub, and watched three Providence R.I. cops beat a black guy in an alley so bad once while calling him everything you can imagine in reference to his color…it happens. Cops, especially in big cities are nothing short of gang members…they just happen to be in the biggest gang. I personally have NEVER called a cop for any reason, and won’t. I handle my own shit and was brought up not to be a snitch (rats are even lower than dirty cops), plus, cops don’t listento civilians when they rat on their fellow cops.You don’t have to believe me, we all know that it happens more than you all want to admit…because you DO cover for each other…PERIOD.

      • So you watched three cops beat a black man senseless, but didn’t intervene or at least record the incident and report it to the local news? Curious…

        • I didn’t say they guy didn’t deserve the beating (he had bottled a doorman at another club across the alley in the face), and snitching on cops to one of the most corrupt police forces on the east coast at the time (google Buddy Cianci) would have been a real stupid move…but you can’t tell me it doesn’t happen, because I’ve seen it, period.

      • I don’t know you so I can’t say you’re not telling the truth, but you should have done something if no more than give it to the media anonymously. Cops/victim’s name would be helpful. I had a great uncle that was a deputy sheriff in the county I retired from. He was murdered by an African American suspect. The man was lynched. My great grandmother, his sister, kept a piece of the rope as a souvenir. The man deserved a trial. End would have been the same. Those officers you spoke of, if true, I would have spit on their badges.

        • You seem to level headed to not realise you are the exception to the rule, and most cops knowing your feelings and strong moral standing would be compelled to behave a bit differently around you. I’ve lived in big northeastern cities, and small southern towns and its all been pretty much the same. It was sometimes worse in the small town as I have seen a cop with a hair across his ass for someone completely ruin them, pretty much stalking the person and poking them into multiple arrests for disorderly conduct, refusal to comply with lawful orders etc. and the towns so small its hard to avoid the guy. I mentioned it to another sheriff in my shop one day and all he said was something along the lines of “Yeah, he really don’t like that guy. He should just move, it’d be cheaper on him.” And then right back to business. I now live in the woods, far from police and stupid people, no one can be trusted anymore.

        • “I had a great uncle that was a deputy sheriff in the county I retired from. He was murdered by an African American suspect. The man was lynched. My great grandmother, his sister, kept a piece of the rope as a souvenir. The man deserved a trial.”

          No, the murderer did not. The process itself is not important, in and of itself. The process only exists to help ensure the guilty are punished and the innocent go free. If it was that plain the murderer committed the crime, deserved what he got.

  29. Another thing. I really don’t hate Jim. Just disappointed. My snitches used to tell me he was dirty. Didn’t believe them. After all, we’re doing our best to put them in an unpleasant place. Didn’t expect them to send flowers.

  30. Wow. Fortunately, the poor guy wasn’t suspected of boosting Rolos instead of Mentos, or he and his whole family would be dead.

  31. To me the guy acts/talks like a junkie.
    Cop made a mistake and apologized.
    Guy sounds like he’s hunting for a payday.

    • The guy probably is looking for some easy money. But – the cop apologized, so all is good? Imagine if you or me did the same thing to the cop. Aim a gun at him for suspected shoplifting. Would my apology be enough?

      • Damn, LEO in plainclothes pulls out his pistol over a roll of mints! Didn’t even identify himself as an off duty cop. He’s damn lucky he lives in a state where very few citizens are armed. In a Red State that will get you killed.

        “My bad” apologizing is not going to ease the victim’s
        angst ever.

        I’m a 67 year old women and could have beat him to that draw. Idiot didn’t even have a decent pair of pants on to make a decent job of drawing a weapon.

        He needs to, at best assigned to unarmed, desk duty, for the rest of his career. Worst case early retirement and prosecution for brandishing.

        My Golden Retriever could have done a better draw. Well not really, but she is more intelligent than this cop.

  32. Even if he does look like a junkie, that doesn’t make him someone to draw on. Believe it or not, junkies(at least older ones) show some respect to cops that treat them correctly. If caught, they are caught. They realize that the LEO can out run them and overpower them. They have been to jail, and would only have a gun if they were after a big score(not a package of breath mints), they do not want the extra time of the beating they might get.

    Believe it or not, most old timer junkies give opiates up(30 years plus using), it just doesn’t do it for them anymore.

  33. First thought that went through my mind, what cop carries a pistol without having a round chambered? If I was his chief I would fire his ass for carrying a gun off duty without a round in the chamber. Of course he also should be fired for pulling a gun on somebody for stealing Mentos, even if he did it. So much fail in such a short amount of time. Who would want this idiot for a partner anyway, I certainly wouldn’t want this fool behind me ever.

  34. Why the hell are cops trained to draw at all when there’s no immediate threat to life or bodily integrity? If a CCer had done this, they would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Absolutely disgraceful.

    • Bryan, we’re not. I learned more about defensive shooting from a guy that had no military, or law enforcement experience than I did in in the army, or the academy. Although, I did go on to take some pretty high speed, low drag training that built on what Noel taught me. At the risk of repeating myself, most cops are average shooters. So are most CCW holders. Trained an assload of both.

  35. Just be glad he eventually admitted his mistake and apologized, instead of arresting the victim for assaulting him. (SOP in many police brutality cases, charge the brutality victim with resisting/assaulting the cop to cover up what the cop did)

    Here’s an example, I still can’t believe that he got 5 years, it’s actually reasonably close to the sentence I think a cop should get for breaking an innocent citizen’s leg and then framing him for a crime, but I would have preferred ten years. His attorney seemed shocked that a violent thug was actually taken away from his family and incarcerated at all.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/08/ex-cop-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-for-beating-man-accused-being-walmart-shoplifter.html

    However, King searched Carnegay and discovered a receipt showing he paid for the tomato just a few moments before the attack.

    “King then wrote a false report to cover up his unjustified assault,” prosecutors said. “Additionally, King charged the victim with obstructing a shoplifting investigation and with assaulting a police officer.”

    King’s attorney called the sentencing “heartbreaking for Mr. King, for his family. He’s a father.”

    After Carnegay underwent surgery, he was transported to the Fulton County Jail on “King’s bogus charges,” prosecutors said.

    “He got what he deserved,” Carnegay said Monday following the sentencing. “He did me wrong.”

    • That is eerily similar to what happened to me. Traffic stop, not shoplifting, but still similar. 🙁

  36. He wasn’t an officer at the time, he was a civilian and so should be treated as a civilian.
    Just because your day job lets you carry, when you’re off the clock your just like everybody else………Should be.

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