Harvey Levin’s TMZ.com told the story of Mel Gibson’s arrest in Malibu, California by L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies. It was a tale of bigotry and sexism by an admitted alcoholic while under the influence. The words we say can too often hurt, insult and inflame others. The primary attack here was against Jews. Gibson's suggestion among others was that Jews were the cause of all the wars.
Anti-Semitism is as old as humanity. For some reason Jews have always been singled out for contempt by most other cultures. I’m no expert on this subject by any means but I have an idea for any and all Jews Gibson has offended.
The best way to show Gibson and all those who exhibit hate against the Jews is to take the high road. That is to openly accept Mel Gibson’s apology and show forgiveness for his outrageous conduct. Instead of trashing Gibson show him that Jews can be kind and forgiving. I would hope all Jews would extend their forgiveness, love and help as a real example of their own humanity and teachings.
Having been a cop and after looking over the debacle involved with TMZ’s so-called police report cover-up story angle, I concluded that TMZ assertions are incorrect. I must say that the four pages of a report published by TMZ was not up to normal police reporting standards anywhere in America.
On a DUI arrest officers are simply to establish probable cause for the arrest. That includes the driving behavior that led to the stop, the officer’s observations of the driver’s condition, level of impairment and all sobriety tests performed. Writing pages documenting every goofy thing that the suspect says is never called for unless they are criminal threats that bring additional charges.
If Harvey Levin’s accounts are true that the arresting officer was ordered to re-write his report that was no a cover-up but an effort to make sure the report is up to acceptable police agency standards. I suspect that a very offended officer that wanted to expose Gibson’s drunken statements for additional punishment wrote those published pages of the report. Cooler heads obviously prevailed at the Sheriff’s department.
Remember police reports are to document crimes. Drunk driving is a crime but dumb anti-Semitic rants are not.
Video taping of the suspect’s activities and statements is always proper so that a court and jury can later see for themselves the level of the suspect’s impairment in order to pass judgment.
A side note: Apparently the high profile actor also referred to a lady Sheriff’s sergeant as, “Sugar Tit’s” (please excuse me for grinning here). Why do I suspect that this poor gal will carry that new moniker throughout her entire police career?
