Seattle Interim police chief Jim Pugel apologizes for taxpayer video mocking homeless (Pics/Video's)
The video which is available below doesn't exactly represent ALL of those who are "To Protect and Serve", but is a problem that these same sworn public servants DO abuse, on duty and off, citizens.More will be written here related to others such as: William "Bill" Tarr & employees of Tarr Chevrolet; Jefferson County, TN "Rule of Law" and/or "Protect and Serve" public servants; Catholic and religious business organizations in the East TN area; the Rice's, individuals, religious and business organizations ... all who abuse "The Houseless", but due to the shocking nature of Seattle Police defaming, demeaning and/or demoralizing "The Houseless" with the covering up and if finally coming to surface, the important actions was to get it posted ASAP so others would at least know that those who "APPEAR" to be forthright, aren't necessarily so.
Are those responsible for harming those who fall victim to a social/economic system any less human? Why then are these humans treated as "Last Class" citizens?
WHY?
If remorseful, regretful and/or repentant, are those who have brought harm unto others such as, yet not limited to, "The Houseless" just about venting empty words of remorse, regret and/or repent?
You sure?
Make sure!
More will be forthcoming!
Via
Interim police chief apologizes for video mocking homeless
SEATTLE -- The Seattle Police Department's soon-to-be police chief apologized Thursday for his role in a decades old department training video that appears to mock the city's homeless population.
The video, which was produced in 1986 and released Thursday night, begins with a message saying it was a "skit created in a misguided attempt at humor."
In it, assistant police chief Jim Pugel and other officers sing a parody song to the tune of "Under the Boardwalk," by the Drifters.
The song includes lyrics about homeless people sleeping on the dirt and drinking all day, including the line, "Under the viaduct down by the bay, we'll be drinking our T-Bird all through the day."
The video also shows homeless people fighting with police and using drugs.
The department claims the video was supposed to be a joke to go along with an internal training video.
In a Thursday night press conference to address the video, Pugel said then-police chief Patrick Fitzsimons saw the skit and reprimanded the officers involved. He also ordered all copies of the video destroyed, but one copy remained in the department.
"I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry. Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel said in a written statement.
Pugel said he was not asked to release the video, but did so to "show where this department has been and where it is going."
He said he released a department-wide statement Thursday afternoon to apologize to his fellow officers, and he had already spoken with the leaders of several organizations that work with the homeless to express remorse about the video.
Pugel is a Seattle native and an officer for more than 30 years. He was named interim chief earlier this month when chief John Diaz announced his retirement from the department.
Via
Seattle's interim police chief sorry for video mocking homeless
 |
| Seattle police officers perform a skit that mocks the homeless in
this still image from a portion of a 1986 training video released by the
Seattle Police Department.
Credit: Reuters/Seattle Police Department/Handout
|
 |
| Seattle police officers perform a skit that mocks the homeless in
this still image from a portion of a 1986 training video released by the
Seattle Police Department.
Credit: Reuters/Seattle Police Department/Handout
|
By Elaine Porterfield
SEATTLE |
(Reuters) - Seattle's interim police chief has apologized for appearing
in a 1986 video that showed him and other officers mocking the homeless
in what the city's police department this week called an "ugly piece" of
its history.
Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.
In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"
Interim Chief Jim Pugel, who is implementing sweeping reforms in the wake of a 2012 U.S. Department of Justice report that found the city's police routinely used excessive force, appeared in the video when he was a 26-year-old officer.
In the roughly five-minute clip, which officials say was part of a training video and which they released this week, Pugel and a few colleagues are seen wearing fake beards, dancing with bottles of alcohol under a freeway overpass and singing parody lyrics to the 1964 song "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Some of the officers sport blacked-out teeth as they croon lyrics such as, "We'll be drinking Thunderbird (wine) all through the day, under the viaduct. Who could ask for anything more?"
"Even by 1980s standards, the Seattle Police Department considered the video to be insensitive and inappropriate," Pugel, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, said in a statement late on Thursday. "I regret my participation and have professionally apologized for my role in it. I do so now publicly. I am truly sorry."
He takes over a department that has at times experienced a troubled history with minority communities and is in the first year of a reform plan overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice to revise the use of force by officers.
The Seattle Times reported in a story posted on its website on Friday that the newspaper and other media outlets had received several tips about the video's existence before it was made public late on Thursday by police.
Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Pugel, who has not said whether he will seek to lead the department on a permanent basis, disclosed the existence of the video to other city officials and homeless groups when he was appointed interim chief.
"It's not a problem but an opportunity to showcase who Chief Pugel is," Whitcomb said. "For him it was a leadership moment."
Police say all existing copies of the video have been destroyed, except for a single copy retained for their records.
Pugel said in his statement that he had the video released because he felt it was "important to show where this department has been and where it is going" and that he discussed it with Mayor Mike McGinn and several Seattle-based homeless groups.
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)
Lest we not forget!
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