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'Officer Bubbles' Sues YouTube Commenters Over Mockery
An anonymous reader writes "'Officer Bubbles' — the Toronto Police Constable who was videotaped threatening a G20 protester with arrest for assault over the crime of blowing bubbles at a police officer has had enough of mocking videos and comments on YouTube. He has decided to sue everyone involved (commenters included) for more than a million dollars each. The complaint is detailed in his statement of claim — most of the comments seem fairly tame by internet standards; if this goes anywhere, everyone is going to have to watch what they say pretty carefully. The lawsuit appears to have been successful in intimidating the author of the mocking cartoons into taking them down."
They need to collectively countersue him for legal fees.
Technoli
Yeah.. I love the way 'Officer Bubbles (*)' laywer is saying 'the videos are now removed and that is the end of it'.
Someone is about to have a very bad morning.
(*) I'd make a joke about Michael Jackson and chimps in uniform here, but mocking the dead... now that -is- sick.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
Anyone who actively seeks becoming a cop (or a politician) has already proven they are fundamentally the wrong person for the job.
It seems having them behave more like public servants and less like gangbangers might be helpful in more cases than just this one.
The gang in blue somedays seems far more dangerous to public safety than many others.
I don't think it's all that hard for an adult to understand that blowing soap bubbles into a police officers face is going to get you arrested, and he did give her the courtesy of a warning first. I don't really see the controversy there. Well, not unless people are unable to disentagle the word "bubble" from the "soap" part. Blowing a rather effective eye irritant in a cops direction isn't likely to end well, no matter if it's in bubble or other form.
it does seem like he could have a thicker skin about random internet jackhole comments though. you don't HAVE to read them.
Standard crowd control tactics. If you're facing an ugly mob that hugely outnumbers you, the only way to keep things under control is often to convince the crowd that you're uglier. I agree that a lot of LEOs everywhere take the concept to places it shouldn't be though.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
No. Officer bubble should sit down with a psychiatrist. Other people didn't do anything wrong.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I'm going to go comment on the video purposely to get included in this. I want to see dear officer try to come after me. I will attempt to educate the Canadian with regard to this thing we Americans call the First Amendment.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
Fortunately in Canada you have to "prove damages", and the damages of a cartoon that many of us didn't see, pale in comparison to the damage this officer (yeah that's my opinion, so sue me!) did to himself, and the discredit he brought to his force. Well, unfortunately the whole of Canada's police forces involved in the G20 were pretty discredited by both their lack of action, and their action that was clearly counter to out constitution.
We're still waiting for a full Federal inquiry, by PM Harper is still running and hiding from it.
We all make mistakes, some of us apologize and move on, some of us just move on, and some of us decide to display even more ignorance to the world.
Mr Bubbles, you seem to have a fundamentally wrong idea as to how the Internet works and an understanding of the Streisand Effect will be invaluable in the coming months as you are mocked not only by not only YouTube commenters, but also journalists who will undoubtedly pick up the story and your own friends as they read about it.
Mad Dogs and Policemen.
So this is why police don't like to be filmed?! It makes them accountable for their douchery after the fact.
Looks like the court of public opinion made its ruling on Officer Bubbles, I sure hope the official court sees things the same way.
I know we didn't get to see the crowd very well, but the part of we we did see in that video was anything but ugly. Mostly just people milling about, taking pictures, and one lady blowing bubbles. It wasn't exactly a mob situation. It didn't even sound very angry in the background.
I read the internet for the articles.
The initial incident was pretty silly and I don't have much sympathy for the officer being ridiculed for that, but my understanding is it elevated past that quite quickly. From other articles I've read, there were cartoons & posts about him beating people and what not. You can argue that it was for fun but there was a note in one of the articles that libel laws cover comments & such on websites, so if you do it you'd better be careful its not defamatory.
Its a kind of tricky line. Anonymity is a powerful and -- often -- good force on the Internet, but there are clearly times when it can be a detriment. Its not hard to design a thought exercise: imagine that newspapers were printed anonymously or articles within them were written anonymously. Yes, I know sources remain anonymous, but in those cases the author of the piece takes responsibility for any libel (well, them and their publisher). If a paper could just publish blatant nonsense that was incredibly defamatory, I doubt many of us would stick up for them. So why do we stick up for some assholes getting their kicks on a bulletin board? It probably didn't matter that much ten years ago, but with YouTube and Facebook and all the viral crap, stuff that would have limited to a few people having a chuckle can now range unpredictably large. Hell, just look at the whole cyber-bullying phenomenon.
Make fun of the officer for being an idiot with the bubble lady -- he deserves that. I'm not sure he deserves some of the other crap, or even if you think he does, if its defamatory (let the lawyers argue that) and you say it, you can be held accountable. There have always been limits on speech -- American 1st amendment not withstanding -- so I don't know why people think the Internet is somehow a special magical case.
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
Citizens need the right to record any public police action, and any police action in which the individual citizen is involved.
This needs to be a law now.
The public needs a clear law allowing for the recording of police actions and allowing for the recording to be owned by the citizen and protected from seizure by police officers.
Some police do lie, some police do overstep the bounds, some police protect fellow officers.
If you're Canadian, you might have a problem, but Americans can tell this douche to stuff it.
From the safety of their free speech cage.
You can't take the sky from me...
Because they're used to exercising petty authority, and cannot stand having their miniscule power challenged. This has been the case since humans first built cities.
Just be glad this retard doesn't have the power of life and death like his contemporaries had in ancient times. Just goes to show - the best measure of civilization is the ease with which a citizen can point and laugh at a stupid official.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
The amusing bit is that somehow I missed hearing about the whole Officer Bubbles thing until he decided to sue, which brought him up in the news again. Had the little jackass just kept his mouth shut and taken his well-deserved lumps for arresting a girl for assault-with-a-deadly-bubble, I'd never have known about him. I'm sure there are many others out there in the same boat. So he's brought quite a bit more shame and embarrassment on himself with this latest stunt.
I wonder if he'll sue.
"I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
If they just act without thinking, why not use machines instead?
Seems like it would be cheaper.
Haven't seen the video and think police have turned thuggish over the last 40 years but...
They are trained to take control of situations and something silly like not respecting their authority and blowing bubbles can sometimes escalate quickly into something worse.
It was really a no win situation for the police officer.
Sometimes, they are going to make the wrong call and bring the wrong level of intensity to the situation. Some times they won't be aggressive enough and things will turn ugly... other times they'll be too aggressive and look dumb.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Police officers are trained to create a zone of control around themselves, which would include things like threatening random passers-by and generally acting like thugs, its standard crowd control tactics, and while very far from acceptable civilised behaviour, it does work.
If "standard crowd control tactics" doesn't accomplish anything and introduces new liabilities, they should rewrite their playbook.
"Civilized" means "we gave up power so that there would be less evil in the world; we can't be consumed by fear and doubt and in that panic destroy people." As a tradeoff, certain trustworthy individuals must have power to prevent those who remain un-civilized from harming others. The only reason that's okay is because they can be trusted. He showed then, and he's showing now, he can't be trusted. He will be consumed, and he will hurt people, and he doesn't care. Get him off the fucking street.
....which would include things like threatening random passers-by and generally acting like thugs, its standard crowd control tactics, and while very far from acceptable civilised behaviour, it does work.
Oh, so that's why riots break out when the cops are around - the cops are acting like assholes and start it.
I'll remember that if I'm ever called for jury duty and the cops are whining about how the crowd rioted and they had to bash people's skulls in, fired tear gas or used deadly force.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Smacking anyone who walks by with a stick is not thinking, it is what animals do.
The plain fact is they signed up to risk their lives, not to risk other peoples lives, yet they act in the opposite of this manner.
Just doing what you were trained to do, is not thinking, It is repetition, no different than the cat coming running when the tuna fish can is opened.
Streisand effect.
This guy was seriously power tripping in the video. Why should anybody be surprised to find that he responds similarly to criticism? I suspect that even the officer next to him thinks he's a jackass, judging by how hard it looked like she was struggling to bite her tongue.
Congrats, "Officer Bubbles". In my opinion, and that of most of the Internet viewing public, you just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you do not belong in uniform. Cops who are incapable of treating others with courtesy have no business interacting with the public. Give that guy a desk job, make him a crime scene investigator, whatever, but take him the heck off of any sort of duty where he interacts with the public on a regular basis.
P.S. To "Officer Bubbles", I hope the people you are suing hit you with a SLAPP-back suit so fast it makes your LAWYER shit his pants... followed by having your sorry ass brought up on barratry charges.
Welcome to the real world, where criticism is protected speech (unless it is threatening or libelous in nature, which opinions almost by definition cannot be).
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
And often, taking 'control' of the situation means backing off. Moving back a few feet, losing the shades (notice the female officer with her glasses up) and smiling would have defused the whole thing right there.
It's not like she was being particularly menacing. The officer was being an aggressive jerk for no good reason. Makes everybody look bad.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Yup, I'm not saying he was justified, but in all likelihood he was just doing exactly as his training dictated.
If so, why didn't the female officer next to him *not* react in the same way, instead silently bearing a look of embarrassment for her colleague's overreaction? Would she not have received the same training?
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
She stopped when asked. Watch the video again. After he says "If the bubble touches me, you're going to be arrested for assault," no more bubbles are seen.
Right. Which is why I pointed out that it's interesting that there is no footage of her immediately prior to her arrest. According to this article, she wasn't even arrested for the bubbles.
However, according to CNews, Winkels [the lady] confirmed that she wasn’t arrested for blowing bubbles but instead detained for wearing a backpack and having a lawyer’s number written on her arm. She was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mischief over $5,000.
So are people really upset that she was asked to stop or are they just misinformed due to suggestive editing in the video?
I thought the young woman officer was handling herself very well. Either could have easily diffused the situation with a "please put the bubbles away ma'am, I don't want them getting in my/her eyes". And escalating from there, instead it's "If a bubble touches me, I'm going to arrest you for assault! That's a deliberate act! It's a detergent!! You want to bait the police!". He escalated the situation well past where it was, and was being far from professional.
No one was following anyone around blowing bubbles, so your analogy falls flat. I'm guessing by worse you mean that you would shoot someone putting a flower down the barrel of your gun. Cops need to be held to a higher standard then what you or I would do, because they have been entrusted with a certain amount of authority over other people.
You can tell which cops feel that they have adequate control over their own personal lives and which do not.
Cops are there to serve and protect, unfortunately, their unions have all but eliminated that obligation.
A libertarian shat on my carpet once. Claimed the free market would sort it out. -Ford Prefect(8777)
The cops puts on a plastic face protector and thus totally cancels out her weapon of mass cleaning.
Cops want the situation to turn ugly, they want to crack skulls, otherwise they would not use these methods at all.
Yep and you saying that the police officer was correct for getting pissy about bubbles, doesnt make it true either. I don't know why she was soon arrested, but if it was for more bubbles then I say the cop needs to be fired.. immediately.
In fact I would have immediately blown more bubbles in his general direction when he told me to stop. Take me to court, Ill make you look like a jackass in front of the world. Assault with a deadly bubble. Hell I would have turned around and put my hands behind my back the second he threatened to arrest me.
Why do we let these public servants treat all people like they are criminals?
It looks like even his partner thought he was a douche.
Hey Officer Bubbles. YOUR A DOUCHE BAG!
I await my lawsuit.
However, according to CNews, Winkels [the lady] confirmed that she wasn’t arrested for blowing bubbles but instead detained for wearing a backpack and having a lawyer’s number written on her arm. She was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mischief over $5,000.
So are people really upset that she was asked to stop or are they just misinformed due to suggestive editing in the video?
Wow that seems an even more ridiculous reason for arrest then for blowing bubbles.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
One second people are blowing bubbles and the next they are throwing bubble bottles and then next it's rocks and people are setting cars and buildings on fire and looting.
Erm... What the fuck are you talking about? It's like I've entered an alternate dimension in which blowing bubbles is the first step onto becoming an international terrorist. Containing the situation is _entirely_ different from what was seen in the video. The cop was intimidating and overly aggressive.
Confrontationalism like this is what often escalates situations up the straight linear path from bubble blowing to arson and looting.
Wow... honestly.
The female cop that was talking to the protester has no problem, why did Officer Bubbles have to stick his nose in it?
Good spotting. I hadn't noticed that. She was like "Is he going there?... Nooooo... He's going there!"
Funnyhacks - Wierd, unusual, and fun hacks
I endure insulting comments and inane questions at work all the time. Ever been to an inter-departmental meeting? Feel free to pop along with a camera crew and bring some bubbles, it'll actually help me endure the pain and loathing.
A cop is supposed to be able to put up with way, WAY worse things in a demonstration environment - they're trained to put up with that sort of crap, and if Officer Bubbles breaks his training maybe he shouldn't be on the front line of a police demo response unit.
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
Meh, I don't think so. If I'm on a park bench blowing bubbles, and someone comes running up to me screaming for me to stop, it's not socially unacceptable for me to continue blowing bubbles. Because he's a police officer brings no weight to the argument, I'd carry on blowing bubbles even if he was a uniformed cop. It's not against the law to blow bubbles.
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
No, homie was being a threatening asshole. Nobody was threatening him and he was just looking to be a dick to make up for the one he doesn't have. The other officer right beside him was cool and didn't give a fuck that she was blowing them because....the girl wasn't brandishing a rock or other weapon. The bubbles also weren't being blown "in his face", she was a good 4 feet away from him. So if you wanna come blow bubbles "in my face" at that range and with the same intensity(5-10 bubbles every 10 seconds or so..hell, I'll give you up to 100 of them), you could ask stupid questions all day long..most I'm gonna do is ignore you.
You know there's this thing called.... *dealing with it*, and cops have to do it too... Of course with your attitude, I'm thinking you're probably a fellow pig(not all officers are pigs but Bubbles is)...maybe even Bubbles himself...
0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
You seem to forget that in the US, you're not allowed to protest these things at all.
False. What you mean to say is you know of instances where people have been prevented from protesting.
"free speech zones"
Are unconstitutional, and are currently being proved to be so by the ACLU. But those are not the only instances included in your "at all".
Except for those instances, you are allowed to protest anything, anywhere, as long as your protest doesn't otherwise break the law. You may need to get a permit, as the freedom to assemble and to speak does not entail a freedom to be a spontaneous nuisance, hazard, or expense to the public.
I think the cop is totally in the right, and most of you don't have any idea what you're talking about. My grandfather died as a result of a stray bubble during the taping of the Lawrence Welk show, and we've been fighting for bubble danger awareness ever since. It's refreshing to see someone who has their priorities straight.
From what I could see, crowd control was going fine. Well, until the crowd got pissed off about the arrest.
Public interaction is far different than a prison environment or military action. You don't have absolute control over the people, and you can't enforce anything you'd like on them.
Let me give you an example of dealing with a hostile person. This is a real situation I was personally in. It was in a county jail, where we were holding high risk inmates. They were bad felony (murder, rape, etc charges) and state prison felons back in county for hearings. The layout of the jail is pods. Each pod had 4 segments (72 degrees view from the pod control room into each inmate area). Three officers were stationed in the pod control room
It was the end of the day, and I went in to lock all the inmates down in their cells. They'd always fuck with the officers, especially the felons. I knew the rap sheet on most of them, so I knew what they were in for, and what to expect. I had the lower tier locked down and went up to the upper tier. The first cell I got to, the inmate wouldn't close his door, and was blocking it from being closed. Escalation of force was allowed at that point, since he were being physically non-compliant. I also had other inmates on the tier who hadn't been locked in yet.
The inmate told me "I already have a life sentence with no parole. I could kill you, and there's nothing worse they can do to me." Again, escalation of force is allowed, due to physical non-compliance, and verbal threat. I could have called for assistance, had him forcibly put in the restraint chair, and put him in solitary confinement. Instead, I said "It's lockdown time. I need to secure your door. Do what you have to do." We went back and forth with his threats and my simple instructions. He may have been able to take me down. He was bigger than me, and he had been convicted of murder, so he could be capable of doing it. If he had, the control room would have had every free officer in the place on him in no time, but I may have still been dead.
Instead of making the situation worse, I repeated my instructions and didn't show any fear. After a couple minutes, realizing that he couldn't scare me, he laughed, said he liked me, and shut the door.
Facing a known murderer who may be able to kill me, and knowing that the only retribution would be use of force by other officers (since I'd be down and/or dead), and he'd get another life sentence, I calmed the situation down. After that, he didn't mess with me. I know the word got passed around not to mess with me. Inmates don't have much to do but talk to each other, and figure out how to get out of their shitty situation. I had grief in other pods on occasion, but I treated them fairly. My job is to make sure they didn't escape, they didn't riot, they didn't hurt each other, and they complied with instructions. It's not necessary to make things any worse than they already are.
I don't know if Officer Bubbles had to, but where I was, every officer had to work in a jail or prison for at least 2 years before being allowed on the road. It does teach you how to deal with very adverse conditions from known worse cases.
So, the girl blowing bubbles was assaulting him with bubbles. Big fucking deal. She wasn't throwing rocks. She wasn't throwing shit, piss, or blood at him. She wasn't even trying to physically approach him. Diffuse the situation, don't make it worse. It works in jails where they've already proven a disrespect of the law, and it works in public. If (and only if) she had done something worse, would it be worth arresting her. So treat every person you meet like they are a murderer. Unless they've done something to deserve rough handling, there's nothing more that needs to be done. The use of force matrix says what your available options are. They don't say that they maximum level must be used.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.