SJ Cops Take Battle to YouTube
NBC Bay Area
The showdown between community activists angry over alleged racial profiling by San Jose Police and the police has landed on YouTube.
The San Jose Mercury News reports it all started with a 1:32 running length video of "powerful propaganda effect, filled with Bresson-like purity".
Released by union director Bobby Lopez, the YouTube clip shows community activist Raj Jayadev speaking at a recent city council meeting. Sarcastic subtitles are rampant, making fun of everything from Jayadev's speech to his choice in apparel. At one point, Jayadev says "Our patience is running thin." and the narrator is quick to reply, "Sounds like a threat to us."
Jayadev obviously isn't happy, but he swears he's not behind the rebuttal clip that went out soon after. We didn't catch the clip, but the Merc says: "This four-minute-plus epic, much like the legendary 'Naked Gun 2 1/2', uses the Lopez video's own style as a counterattack." Apparently, there's a point where the officer in the BART shooting is compared to the SJPD, and even a donut joke tossed in for good measure. You can't go wrong with a good police donut joke.
The Police Officers Association has launched its own blog to fight back. The original video clip is there and it even comes with a little note from the creator.
The hubbub all stems from a report the Merc published last year, that says San Jose police arrest more people for public drunkenness than any other department in the state. The report also said more than half of those arrested are Hispanic even though less than a third of the people living in San Jose are Hispanic.
Last month, a city task force recommended the city jail be used as a drunk tank and only repeat offenders should be prosecuted. But you can't put much stock in those recommendations because they came without the input of seven of the ten members of the task force. Those members, many of the community leaders, walked out in April because they were unable to access the arrest records they wanted and weren't allowed to expand their probe. Mayor Chuck Reed defended the limited scope of the task force, saying the council was worried recommendations would take too long.
The city council voted earlier this week that police can no longer criminally charge people for being drunk in public, though repeat offenders can still be arrested.
Posted Friday, Jul 17, 2009 - 12:46 PM PST
