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San Francisco police suspended over video sketch

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 20:08 CST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco is suspending 20 police officers who participated in video sketches portraying police ogling women, ducking emergency calls and going to a massage parlor on duty.

But the lawyer for the officer who produced the tape said that it had been intended as a parody and that officials had overreacted to an attempt at edgy humor and "social commentary."

Attorney Daniel Horowitz said on Thursday the San Francisco Police Department should expect a lawsuit if it did not reverse course on the suspension of officer Andrew Cohen, who made the videos.

Mayor Gavin Newsom called the tape, which had been prepared for a Christmas party and leaked on the Internet, offensive, sexist, homophobic and racist.

Newsom urged investigations by the city's human rights commission and a second city commission on the status of women.

Police Chief Heather Fong said on Wednesday, when the suspensions were announced, that the public release of the videos marked "a dark day" for the San Francisco police department.

The skits portray officers in the predominantly black Bayview-Hunters Point district as unresponsive to emergency calls but eager to make drug busts. The skits also portray male officers as sex obsessed.

One skit has officers going to a massage parlor while on duty.

But Horowitz defended the videos as a form of "social commentary" and said Fong's reaction showed how out of touch she was with rank-and-file officers.

"She wants everybody to think this is a happy police force and it's not," said Horowitz. "They feel very resentful."

Newsom appointed Fong, the first Asian woman to head a major U.S. police force, in January 2004.

She assumed office in the wake of the police department's "Fajitagate" scandal in which top officers were accused of covering up a street brawl over fajitas outside a bar. The fight involved a son of the former police chief.

Fong was not immediately available for comment.

Horowitz said the filmed skits attempted to use edgy humor to show how police at Bayview Station were viewed in the community.

"The officers feel perceived they're stereotyped," Horowitz said.

Source: REUTERS

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