'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."

Comments

Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Crazy stuff. 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. The commenters didn't understand this, and the police officer didn't understand the commenters, and its all going to make bunch of lawyers wealthy. They should all sit down together and get drunk and forget about the whole thing.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

That's correct, they didn't. The point of the operation isn't to take out the troublemakers and to give everyone else a big hug, that's impossible, its to ensure that the mob mentality doesn't scent weakness. This is why, I'm not saying it's right, but it is an explanation. Another example was the guy wandering past a police line in the UK a while back, an officer rapped him on the leg for getting too close, and he got a heart attack around the corner. All he was doing was taking a shortcut home, but the officers were just doing what they were trained to do.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Is rapping someone on the leg with a truncheon a normal way to commit murder?

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

She only looked embarrassed for a moment, then you will observe the training kicked in. I'm not trying to psychoanalyse individual officers here, just telling you what the process is. You will no doubt see it again and again and again, so it might be helpful keep in mind the reason for it.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Acting according to training does not imply acting without thought. However you seem determined to get offended no matter what is said, along with that person with mod points who had his two minutes hate rained on, so eh good luck with that.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Where did I say it should be allowed? Lot of people determined to get upset in this thread.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

And did you see her face about ten seconds later? I have no idea why people take it personally when the reasons for things happening are explained to them. Nobody as far as I can see is defending it, either.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Are you trying to dehumanise them by constantly referring to machines?

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

She obviously does not react in the same way that OB does, and I'm puzzled as to what you think shows that her "training kicked in" (meaning that she would react in a similar way to OB since they would have similar training).

Eh despite another poster trying to paint them as robots, they are in fact human beings and will react differently until certain situations start occurring or they realise that others think they are occurring. If it was so distasteful to her why didn't she stop it from happening or interfere in some way? Solidarity? Why do you think police officers in every developed country act the same way in crowd control situations? And they do. Unless you're saying that most police officers are congenitally vicious thugs.

Re:Drinking session

[SmackTheIgnorant]

THANK YOU!

If I had points, I'd mod you up. He may have gone a tad overboard... she was clearly trying to piss them off, to get a response... Police in this situation are not necessarily dealing with sane, rational people. Group mentality can be a dangerous mentality, where it only takes a few to lead a large group into something they ordinarily wouldn't be doing.

As for her being put into a van: One can only guess. I just listened to the first words out of the woman's mouth, and wanted to toss a bucket of water on her... There's no respect towards the officers who are there to do a job, there's only attitude towards "the establishment", trying to be coy and smart for the cameras. With a little luck, she'll grow up before she gets into serious trouble.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Oh fuck off you zealot. Your inability to deal with reality is not my problem, and the reality is this is the training they receive. Go witchunt somewhere else. And for the record, I don't think its right.

Re:Drinking session

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Haha! Did you really just call an attractive 20-something woman blowing bubble's an "ugly mob"? That's... just... I salute you my friend, your logic is astounding.

Hi there, we call that a generalisation around these parts, as in the general case.

I mean, wow, that mob was so ugly that the other officer at the scene was talking with one of the 'rioters' in question with a smile on her face. That. is. terrifying.

His 'crowd control' tactics are what cause the riots 50% of the time. Take a look at La Cross WI Halloween riots, for years there would be a violent riot every Halloween, until the police finally realized that the rioters were responding to their presence in full riot gear blocking streets. So they changed tactics, got the bars to serve out of plastic bottles, pulled the riot cops, and reassigned them to be fast responders to break up bar fights and whatnot. The result? No riots at all, not even an 'ugly mob' to be found.

Great, maybe you could get yourself elected and mandate that this procedure be used in all crowd control situations, rather than inflicting your diamond sharp responses in between web wanks on the rest of us?

Re:Why so many cops are pricks

[Scrameustache]

For elected leaders I can maybe understand that logic, but that doesn't make the least bit of sense for police officers. Would you prefer there to be some sort of draft for police officers? So the cop responding to your 911 intruder call is some scared housewife or accountant who got drafted last month and is liable to shoot the first thing that moves when they come through the door?

Nah, I'd much prefer to have a thug who got into the job because it comes with a gun, a stick, and the right to use those without consequences.
Do you want me to fetch a bunch of "trained officers shoots up innocent people" links to prove the inanity of your point, or can you manage that yourself?

As much as I hate cops

[future assassin]

The bitch got what she deserved. Look at the stupid smirk on her face, you know shes a bit "special"

If she was standing there and blowing the bubbles away from him or just doing nothing and got arrested then that would be a different story.

Re:You Know What They Say?

[Maxo-Texas]

So the cop backs away and the crowd edges forward.

What now?

I get it-- the cop looks dumb here. A lot of cops are pretty thuggish these days. I think it is great that we are recording police. They should be recorded 24/7 while on duty to protect the public AND to protect the cops. People lie. Cops are falsely accused all the time. Cops lose control and hit when they shouldn't-- and then they lie about it.

But any case where the crowd outnumbers the cops can turn ugly fast.
They've probably been in situations in the past where it turned ugly.

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.

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

You do know that here in Canada we have free health care, including mental-health, right?

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

Why? Because he got pissed off with a couple of assholes who were intentionally baiting him?

Let me know where you work so I can drop by with a film crew and blow bubbles in your face while making insulting comments and asking inane questions. See how you respond.

Re:Why?

[MichaelKristopeit 31]

this retard doesn't have the power of life and death

we all have the power of life and death, and more so for those of us who carry loaded firearms... i believe you're talking about implicit consequences.

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

I endure insulting comments and inane questions at work all the time

Yeah, I'm sorry that your boss likes to point out your incompetence, but we're talking different orders of magnitude here.

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

No, actually, they're not. If you go out of your way to harass a cop, they can and will arrest you. There is no part of a cops job-description which states "must act as play-thing for every twit he meets", and so police are not trained to take your shit. I'm not sure where you got these weird ideas, but you've been lied to.

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

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 then she'd sue you and the force for millions of dollars, claiming it caused horrible pain and permanent damage when it got in her eyes.

Then we could go play "juggle the cameras".

Yeah, it's a fun game, but unless you can guarantee that you've got ALL the cameras, you're just making things worse.

But, I wouldn't arrest you, if I had arresting powers. There are always interesting ways to solve problems.

I'm betting you've never worked in law enforcement. "interesting ways to solve the problem" usually end up causing more problems than just arresting the fucker. Or at least they do when there are witnesses around.

Re:In defense of Officer Bubbles...

[Anonymous Coward]

God you're fickle...

The backpack was not the reason. The bubbles were not the reason.

Quit letting this college chick who gets her jollies off annoying authority figures manipulate you.

" conspiracy to commit mischief " was the reason

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

so you think police are justified in arresting people because they are doing something that the policeman disagrees with on a personal level? Really? that's your argument?

I'm sorry, what part of "harassment" did you not understand? Need me to speak more slowly?

what if i find out a cop has a particular religious affinity? and i go out of my way to mock that affinity "God a fag" or something to that affect? would he be justified in arresting me then?

A good friend of mine is a cop, and I mock his religious affiliation on a regular basis. On the other hand, I wouldn't dream of running up to him as part of a giant crowd, while he's on duty, and screaming such insults in his face. If you don't see the difference, you're an idiot, and you deserve no sympathy when you get arrested.

Also, the female cop obviously saw the funny side of this, she was smirking quite a lot.

If she wants to goof off and chat with the crowd instead of doing her job, that's an issue for her and her supervisor to sort out.

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

I watched the video...

... and you know everything about the situation. Bravo, Mr. Armchair Quarterback - you've saved the day again!

Re:You Know What They Say?

[c6gunner]

The part where you made it up. Watch the fucking video, she stops when asked to stop: That's not harassment.

Ah yes. That's why there's giant gaps in the footage. Because she just went away after that, and started being a good little girl.

here, have another glass of koolaid.

Harassment is you trolling this thread with your redundant bullshit.

Great, so in addition to having to explain the word "harassment" to you, I now have to explain "trolling" and "redundant"? I think your ESL teacher failed you.