Court To Cops Who Caught Pokemon Rather Than Robbery Suspects: That's A (Justified) Firin'
from the but-can't-even-catch-a-case dept
Sometimes you can't always get what you want. In this case -- argued in front of a California court -- you can't even get what you need.
Ex-officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell wanted their jobs back. They used to be cops working for the Los Angeles Police Department. On the way to a call about a robbery in progress, the officers -- ostensibly "running towards the sound of gunfire" -- found something far more compelling than the job they were hired to do.
The opinion [PDF] -- highlighted by Jake White on Twitter to the amusement of thousands -- is a blast to read. The headline and the opening hijacking of the Rolling Stones makes it clear where this is headed. But even if the destination is clear, you'll still enjoy the ride.
Here's what the cops should have been doing, as recounted by the court:
It was a “busy” Saturday in the Southwest Division— there were more calls than police cars available to respond and there had been a homicide earlier in the day. While en route to the homicide scene, Captain Davenport heard a radio call for “a 211 [robbery] in progress” with multiple suspects at the Macy’s in the Crenshaw Mall. When the call came in, the Captain could see the Macy’s from where he was stopped, and to his right he noticed a police car tucked back in an alley just feet away. He was not able to identify the unit, and when the unit did not respond to the radio call, the Captain assumed it might be a traffic unit or a unit from a different division using a different radio frequency. Consequently, Captain Davenport decided he would respond to the call and notified communications he was going “Code 6 on the call”—i.e., responding to the location of the robbery. At around the same time, the Captain saw the police car start to back up down the alley, then negotiate a left-hand turn to leave the area.
The two officers trying to recover their jobs also claimed to be going "Code 6" on the same call. This seemed peculiar to Sergeant Gomez, who asked the officers if they were headed to assist Captain Davenport. He received only a cryptic "no" in response to his question. He tried to follow up on the officers' failure to follow up on this robbery call, asking to meet them at a nearby 7-11 store where the officers were (and now we'll use the word "allegedly") engaged in an illegal merchandise investigation.
At that point, the officers claimed it was hectic and noisy and that they had heard no call for backup. They said "it was really loud in the park, especially on a Saturday." Sgt. Gomez reminded them radio calls could be the difference between life and death. The officers agreed and said they'd try not to hang out in noisy areas in the future if possible.
Unfortunately for the lying officers, their actions had been captured by their dash-cam. The DICVS (digital in-car video system) showed the officers were otherwise occupied during the time their presence was needed at the Crenshaw Mall.
First, they blew off being part of the thin blue line:
The DICVS recording disclosed that, immediately after Captain Davenport’s Code 6 broadcast, Officer Lozano asked Officer Mitchell if they were Code 6 on the Crenshaw Corridor or on the corner near the mall where they were parked. Mitchell responded they were “[a]t the corner” and noted the broadcast radio call was “Davenport.” Lozano then instructed Mitchell to put them Code 6 “at the corridor,” adding (after some laughter) regarding Captain Davenport, “I don’t want to be his help.” Petitioners’ unit then moved backwards through the alley and turned away from the mall, as Captain Davenport had observed.
For the next several minutes the DICVS captured continued radio traffic regarding the robbery and pursuit of multiple suspects. After communications made a second attempt to contact petitioners, Officer Lozano asked if they should “ask [communications] if there’s a message.” Officer Mitchell replied, “It’s up to you. Whatever you think. I don’t want them to think we’re not paying attention to the radio.” Lozano responded, “Aw, screw it.” Petitioners made no attempt to respond over the radio when their unit was called.
Then they went hunting for something apparently far more worthy of their time, attention, and tax dollars than the reported robbery.
After carefully listening to the DICVS recording a number of times, Detective McClanahan also became concerned that petitioners were playing “the Pokémon Go video game” while on duty the day of the robbery. The recording showed that, at approximately 6:09 p.m. (just five minutes after Officer Lozano said “screw it” to checking in with communications about the robbery call), Officer Mitchell alerted Lozano that “Snorlax” “just popped up” at “46th and Leimert.” After noting that “Leimert doesn’t go all the way to 46th,” Lozano responded, “Oh, you [know] what I can do? I’ll [go] down 11th and swing up on Crenshaw. I know that way I can get to it.” Mitchell suggested a different route, then told Lozano, “We got four minutes.”
That's the response to an officer in need of backup: "screw it." Also, "I don't want to be his help." Also, "Snorlax."
And so much for "four minutes." The hunt for Snorlax continued for much longer than this original estimate. The hunt was on and no amount of law enforcement responsibility was going to stand between these officers and their quest to catch 'em all.*
* "All" may not include criminal suspects.
For approximately the next 20 minutes, the DICVS captured petitioners discussing Pokémon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their mobile phones. On their way to the Snorlax location, Officer Mitchell alerted Officer Lozano that “a Togetic just popped up,” noting it was “[o]n Crenshaw, just South of 50th.” After Mitchell apparently caught the Snorlax— exclaiming, “Got ‘em”—petitioners agreed to “[g]o get the Togetic” and drove off.
When their car stopped again, the DICVS recorded Mitchell saying, “Don’t run away. Don’t run away,” while Lozano described how he “buried it and ultra-balled” the Togetic before announcing, “Got him.” Mitchell advised he was “[s]till trying to catch it,” adding, “Holy crap, man. This thing is fighting the crap out of me.” Eventually Mitchell exclaimed, “Holy Crap. Finally,” apparently in reference to capturing the Togetic, and he remarked, “The[] guys are going to be so jealous.” Petitioners then agreed to return to the 7-Eleven (where Sergeant Gomez later met them) to end their watch. On the way, Mitchell remarked, “I got you a new Pokémon today, dude.”
Clearly not your everyday disciplinary hearing subject matter, as can be ascertained by this perhaps unintentionally comical footnote:
According to evidence admitted at the board of rights hearing, “Snorlax” is a Pokémon creature known as “the Sleeping Pokémon.”
Truly a shame Niantic wasn't called in to testify about the relative rarity of Snorlax and/or the tactics necessary to subdue this infinite good made artificially rare by outside time and location constraints. On the other hand, we have the officers' testimony about why the pursuit of an infinite good was more important than the pursuit of a much rarer, far more finite (public) good: a robbery suspect. While it's presumably far less entertaining than an app developer attempting to explain why people with badges might be compelled to hunt large Pokemon rather than criminals, it's still instructive as to the testimony default mode when cops are caught fucking up:
Petitioners… denied playing Pokémon Go while on duty. They claimed they were monitoring a “Pokémon tracker” application on their phone, but not playing the game itself. As for “catching” Pokémon, Officer Lozano insisted this referred to “capturing [an] image” of the Pokémon on the tracking application to share with friends, while Officer Mitchell said his statements about “fighting” the Togetic referred to “relaying that information to the groups on my app,” adding that, “in order to take the picture, occasionally, the creature will fight.” Lozano said they were not engaged in a game; rather, it was a “social media event.” Mitchell said he did not consider the application a game because it was not “advertised as a game.” Petitioners admitted leaving their foot beat area in search of Snorlax, but they insisted they did so “both” as part of an “extra patrol” and to “chase this mythical creature.”
As if that somehow makes things better. It's such a terrible lie it can't even elevate the officers' actions about "wasting tax dollars" or "possibly endangering a fellow officer." The officers apparently hoped that capturing screenshots of Pokemon was somehow a better use of their time than "hunting" Pokemon.
The courts -- including the trial court, the police internal hearings, and the California appeals court -- agree: this is some bullshit. You may not have your jobs back, former officers Lozano and Mitchell.
The judgment is affirmed. The City and the Chief of Police are entitled to costs, if any.
Great news, ex-cops! You are free to waste all the time you want from now on. The public, however, will not be paying for your non-police-related activities. You truly have caught them all, by which I mean "yourselves" with the unexpected superball powers of your in-car cameras. Perhaps the private sector will be more willing to put up with your desire to get paid for doing stuff completely unrelated to your employment, but I doubt it. The public sector is the most forgiving employer, what with its institutional resistance to accountability and transparency, and you somehow managed to reach the end of its patience. If the world seems particularly anti-cop at the moment, just wait until you see how it treats ex-cops.
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Filed Under: eric mitchell, lapd, louis lozano, pokemon go, snorlax
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I said this before…
It's really sad (really more outrageous and infuriating) that playing Pokémon GO! would cause cops to get fired as opposed to killing blacks and Latinxs in cold blood.
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Re: I said this before…
I've heard Latinos/Latinas hate the Latinx label and have even elevated it to that of a slur.
That said, there is something wrong when committing a crime isn't a fireable offense, but wasting time is.
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Re: Re: I said this before…
"I've heard Latinos/Latinas hate the Latinx label and have even elevated it to that of a slur."
Using gender-non-specific language is a moving target. While it can be more easily expressed in written form as Latin?s (one variable character) or Latin*s (many variable characters), it seems a bit difficult to speak those terms, and what may be acceptable in one part of society can rile up another.
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Re: Re: Re: I said this before…
And it's already problematic that Latin- and Latin mean two different things.
"Do you like Latin culture?"
"Well, I'm not overly fond of reading the entrails of animals to predict the future or socializing while defecating out in the open..."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, the Romans were weird."
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Re: Re: Re: Re: I said this before…
Good thing we call Latins Italians these days or it would indeed be a real problem.
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Re: Re: I said this before…
The whole "latinx" this is weird because it seems to be largely an attempt to force gender-related political correctness where it doesn't belong. Spanish is a fundamentally gendered language, so I think it's less controversial among native speaking populations that you're assigning a gender to a person, when you also have to assign a gender to a chair and a loaf of bread. It's mainly people coming from non-gendered languages like English that have that problem. So, I can see why trying to force "latinx" could be seen as a backdoor attempt at colonialism and thus be deemed offensive in that way.
I'm not sure if I'm totally correct with that interpretation, but from what I've seen that's largely the conversation.
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Re: Re: Re: I said this before…
Spanish-speaking populations have been actively discussing the problem among themselves, and the current consensus seems to be that gender-neutral adjectives should use an -e ending. So, the more correct alternative to "Latinx" would be "Latine".
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Re: Re: Re: Re: I said this before…
A non-binary Mexican friend of mine agrees with you. (that's not sarcasm or edgelord-ism, that's the truth!)
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I said this before…
It's a slightly weird conversation as in it only seems to be an issue one way or the other among the hispanic populations of the US. I may have missed some conversations, but it's not something that ever comes up here in Spain, at least among my local friends, including those in the trans community. It's possible that it's something they won't discuss with a guiri such as myself, but I don't really see it this side of the pond.
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Play Pokémon Go... thats a firing...
Run a crew worse than any drug cartel... thats a promotion.
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They're even wrong about the pokemon
but they insisted they did so... to “chase this mythical creature.”
Your honor, I can assure you that despite claims to the contrary, Snorlax is not a mythical pokemon.
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The Audacity..
To even come back looking for their jobs let alone going to court over it.
Privilege, Privilege Corrupts.. Cops feel privileged, why help the little people when it is they are not held to any standard?
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Everyone switches parties when it comes to police unions!
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Catching a wild Snorlax?
Oh, you better believe that's a firin', https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKiLfH3DVGc
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Don't worry!
They can play PokeMon Go on someone else's dime.
Everyone knows police departments rarely, if ever, conduct background checks on former LEOs. They should have a new job in no time and back to racking up the collection of pretend creatures.
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Re: Don't worry!
Have your Sad But True/Insightful for that...
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Lovely priorities
Waste time playing Pokemon on the clock? Do not pass GO, do not collect your paycheck while an investigation is underway to clear you, go straight to 'You're fired'.
Rob, assault and/or murder someone on the clock? Promotion or paid leave until the heat dies down.
Nice to see that there actually is something that's considered so bad that police departments will fire a cop for it, it's just rather horrendous what that is versus what it should be.
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You think firing those officers is a smart move?
Let's see whether you still think that when Snorlax holds up a bank.
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Re: You think firing those officers is a smart move?
HM04?
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Re: You think firing those officers is a smart move?
I can't see Snorlax having the ambition to hold up a bank. Now, holding up an intersection, on the other hand...
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I'm more surprised
That 4 different units and half a dozen officers didn't tell the snorlax to stop reisisting leading to the officers using more force than necessary, leading to mass unrest and riots in the city of Los Angeles.
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Re: I'm more surprised
Give it time, the day that it's possible to assault and/or kill a digital entity is the day one or more cops will do so.
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Re: Re: I'm more surprised
Well, if you think about it a certain way, the core of Pokemon GO is that you wander around looking for minority populations to attack until they submit to be taken into custody for an indefinite period of time.
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Re: Re: Re: I'm more surprised
Now that you put it that way it's no wonder they tried to defend playing it on the clock, they were just engaging in some unconventional training for their job!
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Next Obvious Step
strange how their next step after this firing is to just toddle down to the nearest OTHER police district and be re-hired there,... [line on presented resume: Already trained, years of experience, etc. etc.]
rinse/repeat.
strange how that process is allowed, and never questioned,...
"what district did you come from? what were your accomplishments there? why did you move 50miles away to join us?"
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"So you abandoned your duty to go play a game? For over half an hour?"
"No, Your Honor. We abandoned our duty to go take a screenshot of a game. For over half an hour. That's better, right?"
Yeah, I don't know what kind of moron thought this was a better excuse. It looks to me they were really hoping that the judge would be so tech-unsavvy he'd have no idea how the game actually works and believe this was logical player behavior. Or they were hoping the judge didn't have a younger relative who was familiar with the game.
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Re:
I have this mental picture of the judge, after hearing their "better excuse", just sitting there with this look on his face that says, "you've got to be kidding". He looks over at their attorney, whose face is all, "I tried to coach them, your honor, I really did, I had no idea this was coming". Then they both turn to look at the former officers, who bear a striking resemblance to Beavis and Butthead, and the look on their faces is all "we so totally nailed this testimony".
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From Pokémon Go to "Policemen" Go(ne).
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Reasonable Suspicion
I'm surprised the [former] officers didn't claim that they were acting on reasonable suspicion, since they smelled the odor of marijuana on the Snorlax avatar.
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So, I think the police departments should enlist the help of Niantic.
Make Pokemon pop up where a crime is taking place, and cops will rush there anytime.
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