On March 20, 2006, I published "Is it Professional Courtesy or is it Professional Irresponsibility?," a blog concerning favoritism shown miscreant off-duty police officers when apprehended by on-duty officers. Several of my law enforcement buddies got pissed off at me for what I wrote in that blog. Now we have a different example of police favoritism, and this one really stinks!
Recently, Hollywood's "Lethal Weapon" star, Mel Gibson, was arrested at 2:30 AM in Malibu on suspicion of Driving Under the Influence. He had been observed crossing lanes at 87 mph in a 45 mph zone on a dangerous stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. After the stop, the arresting Los Angeles Sheriff's deputy walked Gibson back to his patrol car and offered to place him inside without cuffing him. At that point, Gibson bolted, and had to be chased down, subdued and cuffed, before being placed in the patrol car. A subsequent breathalyzer test showed Gibson with a blood-alcohol level of .12 , well above the .08 minimum level for intoxication.
On the way to the Malibu station, Gibson turned into "Mad Max" and let loose with a tirade against the arresting officer and against Jews. "You mother fucker, I'm going to fuck you," he shouted at the officer. He claimed to own Malibu and promised to make the deputy's life miserable. During the ride, he yelled something about "fucking Jews" and followed that up with "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Then he asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"
Before going any further, I want to pause and ask the question - is Mel Gibson anti-Semitic? My conclusion is - definitely yes! Why? No one is born a bigot. Bigotry is acquired from family and friends. Gibson, born and brought up in New Jersey before he moved with his family to Australia, was raised by an anit-Semitic father. Hutton Gibson has, publicly, made several anti-Semitic statements and claims that the Holocaust was a hoax. Gibson once responded to his father's Holocaust denial, by saying that some of his "best friends" had numbers on their arms, and that among the many millions killed in WWII, some Jews were killed in concentration camps. That is hardly a repudiation of his father's Holocaust denial. Gibson's drunken outburst about Jews, shows what is really in his heart and in his mind - a virulent hatred of Jews. He insists that he is not anti-Semitic, and that it was the alcohol talking. Gibson has issued several apologies, undoubtably scripted by his public relations people, but those apologies have a hollow ring to them.
What people say when they are drunk is considered by most to be a true expression of their feelings. However, according to Drew Pinsky, M.D., a board certified Internist and Addictionologist, drunks do not express their true feelings. Pinsky, better known as "Dr. Drew" for his popular radio talk show, was interviewed by Tucker Carlson (8-1-06) on the MSNBC program "Tucker." He defended Gibson by claiming that drunks and dopers are experiencing a severe dysfunction of the brain, causing them to behave in ways they would never do when sober, and say things they really don't mean and would never say when sober. Duh! Of course people are going to behave differently when drunk and most, especially celebreties, are not going to make inflammatory remarks when sober.
Pinsky is partially correct. Gibson was pissed off because he was under arrest. He did not mean and would never carry out the threats he made against the officer. That was the alcohol expressing his anger over the arrest. However, Pinsky is dead wrong about Gibson's hatred of Jews. What caused the angry anti-Semitic outbursts? Did the Jews get him drunk? Were the Jews behind his reckless driving? Did the Jews force the deputy to arrest Gibson? At the time, he had no reason to be pissed off at Jews. The alcohol loosened his tongue and he was expressing the feelings he harbored in his heart and mind. Come on Dr. Drew, wake up and smell the roses - when drunks lose their inhibitions, they are prone to express deep-rooted feelings, and that makes Gibson, like father, like son, an anti-Semite.
Now, continuing on with the police favoritism issue. After the arresting officer submitted his eight page detailed report, which described Gibson's attempt to flee, his threats against the officer, and the anti-Semitic outbursts, a captain called Sheriff Lee Baca who said he did not want the press to obtain any information from the report which might be damaging to Gibson's reputation. A lieutenant then ordered the deputy to re-write his report and eliminate all references to "Mad Max's" bad conduct and inflammatory remarks. When LASO notified the press of Gibson's DUI arrest, they announced that he had been arrested "without incident." That was before they became aware that the celebrity news Web site, TMZ.com, had obtained copies of four pages of the arresting officer's initial report.
When Harvey Levin, TMZ's managing editor, called the Sheriff's office to verify the information he already had, LASO denied that any of the inflammatory tirade took place, insisting that Gibson was arrested without incident. They denied "sanitizing" the DUI arrest report. Levin says LASO flat-out lied to him. When LASO learned that TMZ had copies of the initial report, their public relations unit went into overdrive.
First LASO said they had the deputy write a supplemntal report without the anti-Semitic tirade because they wanted to avoid a possible anti-Jewish backlash if the inflammatory remarks were released to the press at the time of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. What a crock of shit! Then they said that LASO often submits a detailed report and a shorter supplemental report of the arrest to the District Attorney's office, leaving it up to that office to chose which report to use. Another crock of shit - supplemental reports are submitted only when additional information in an investigation has been obtained. All the time, LASO insisted than nothing would be "sanitized" and no information about the arrest would be withheld. They explained that "without incident" means there was no violence involved - more LASO horseshit!
Without incident - let's see. Gibson fled on foot and had to be forcibly subdued by the deputy. Once in the patrol car, he repeatedly banged himself against the seat. The deputy called for backup to meet him at the Malibu station. Upon arrival, Gibson called a female sergeant, "sugar tits." And, when he could not get a dial tone on a pay phone, he threw the receiver against the phone. Without incident - my ass!
Mel Gibson is a personal friend of Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca. Gibson has helped Baca raise money for LASO charities. He has made a number of public service commercials for LASO and he has been a strong supporter of law enforcement. Previously, he had been stopped on the same stretch of highway in Malibu for driving in excess of the posted 45 mph speed limit, once while driving 64 mph and another time while driving 74 mph. In both instances, he was let go without receiving any citation. Something does not pass the smell test here. Would the average Joe Sixpack have been treated the same way? Of course not!
Anyone who believes that LASO was not trying to protect Gibson from a bad press must still believe in the tooth fairy. Whoever provided TMZ with copies of the initial arrest report will be up to his ears in deep shit if LASO manages to find out who did it. You can bet that the investigation of that leak will be far more intense than the investigation of the whole Gibson affair. It would seem obvious that LASO attempted to cover up Gibson's anti-Semitism as payback for his past favors to Lee Baca and the department. The favoritism they tried to show Gibson after his arrest reflects badly on all of law enforcement.
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