When I'm Not Happy With Gutfeld

I mentioned the other day how one of my favorites, Greg Gutfeld, gets on my bad side now and then. Mostly, as I wrote, when he's on the Fox News show The Five which seems to bring out his more conservative side. Here's an example  from that show. Video runs just over 7 minutes. I'm not sure if he really feels this way, or is just trying to be provocative.

In his monologue, he suggests the reason crime is going up is because of "hyper- scrutiny" of the police, citing Baltimore in particular. He's saying that because police don't feel respected, and every move they make is being watched now, that's why crime is rising and Baltimore's homicide rate has as much as doubled over the last year.

I DON'T THINK SO, and can't help but wonder if he really believes that? And most reports show crime generally going down nationwide.

After his monologue, they show a few minutes of discussion with The Five. I'm with the negro, Juan Williams- one of my favorites from the old Capital Gang show. Both Williams and the white guy to his right, whose name escapes me, make the more sensible points.

Williams points out people of color, in some areas anyway, have reason to be suspicious of police and that crime has many other reasons for rising and dropping. The white guy suggests body cameras be worn by police as they'll make everyone behave better. Can't remember all the details as it's been a couple days since I watched the video.

All in all some good comments by those two. Shame on Gutfeld for downplaying concerns about use of force by police. Overuse of force by law enforcement should concern everyone, aside from those with blind faith in the benevolence of government. Gutfeld should not be among the latter.

 ******

Speaking of use of force by police, did I ever tell the story here of when I got hit by a cop? Well, if I had, I'll tell it again anyway. Wouldn't exactly make a compelling video if it had been filmed, but a fun story...for me anyway:

It was back around '70-'71. I was 15 years old at the time. Myself, my girlfriend Cheri, and best friend Mark were in my girlfriend's car going out for a drive. I was driving with only a learner's permit at the time. We decided to go down to the Balboa Peninsula. 

We get down there and drive leisurely west (or is it south?) towards the end of the peninsula. About 2/3 of the way to the end a car that was parked on the side of the road pulls out quickly and drives right up behind us. They're honking their horn but we don't know what they want as we're just driving along.

They're almost touching us they're so close behind. I can see the two guys in my rear view mirror. Maybe late 20s, early 30s. Dark hair and mustaches on both. They're driving a mid- sized sedan. They get more aggressive so finally I say screw it and hit the gas. We're not going too fast. Just trying to get some distance from them.

As we get to the end of the peninsula the road narrows where it turns and you head back the other way toward the mainland. As we get into that tight area, the two guys swing to our left and pass us, just enough so they can get in position to block our car. They edge in front of us and I stopped. Classic cop car stop in hindsight.

The two get out of their car. Big guy was driving. He didn't say anything. The smaller guy was in the passenger side. He gets out and I ask what the problem is and if we did something wrong. At no time did they identify themselves as police. The small guy yells, "Get out of the car!". I ask again what the problem is. He yells again, "Get out of the fucking car!", steps toward the open window and punches me twice through it.

I'm stunned, but ok. Probably more surprised than anything. I jam on the gas, turn a bit to the right of their car blocking us and scream around them and on down the road. 

We get back on the main drag and Mark, Cheri and I are going "What the heck was that about?". We feel we should report those guys to the cops. For some reason they aren't behind us, but we felt we should report them anyway.

Just a few seconds after that, we see a Costa Mesa Police car on the side of the road. We stop. Mark and Cheri get out and go to tell the cop what happened. As I'm sitting in the car, I see the two guys driving up behind us. I honk the horn and point to the rear. Mark sees them and points them out to the cop. The two guys just drive on past.

The cop takes off after them. We continue on our way discussing whether we should just get the hell out of there. A bit further down the road we're passing the Costa Mesa Police Department. We'd kinda decided to just leave, but with the Police HQ right there, it kinda brought home that we'd be leaving the cop that chased the guys hanging with no witnesses as to why he pulled them over.

We decide to drive down to the station. Cheri and I walk inside into a large lobby. About half way to the reception desk, there's the big guy that was driving the car, just standing there. His eyes looked awfully bloodshot to me. He calmly asks, "How are you guys doing?". My jaw probably dropped but I replied, "Ok". He says, "Good. Good", turns and walks down a long hallway next to the lobby.

I go to the receptionist and ask who he was. She says, "That's one of our officers". I say to her, "Well, your officer and a friend of his just chased us down and attacked us". She doesn't seem too concerned. Hey, punk hippies weren't thought well of in Orange County back then. She says, "I don't know what to tell you but, if you'd like, you can report it to the duty sergeant". I told her we would like to.

Within a few minutes he calls us in and we tell him what happened and that one of his people chased after the guys. Just about then the cop that chased after them goes walking by the hallway and Mark points him out the Sergeant. The Sergeant calls him back and asked if he'd seen us before. The officer nods his head and walks off. The Sergeant said something about he'd take care of it and off we went.

 Back in Irvine we dropped off Mark. Cheri and I went to my house where my mom just got home from work. She was a pretty conservative and law and order type lady. I tell her, "Guess what, mom? One of your cop buddies hit me!". She wanted to know what happened and was not happy when we explained it. She said that wasn't right, and we're going back there to make sure a complaint was filed.

Mom drives Cheri and I back down there. Different shift there now so the receptionist has us talk to the watch Lieutenant. We explain what happened, including being in there earlier. He said it was the first he'd heard of it. He called the duty Sergeant as we sat there to confirm. He was visibly unhappy after he got off the phone. If nothing else, I'm sure he didn't appreciate being blind sided with something like this.

He had us both write statements. Cheri's statement said, unbeknownst to me, that she'd flipped the bird to those guys through her window. I said, "Why'd you have to do something like that?". The Lieutenant said, "That doesn't matter. If what you're telling me is true, there's no excuse for this behavior".

And that was it. We never heard from Costa Mesa P.D. again. I found out what happened to the two officers from a waitress where I had a job for a while a short time later.

She was a cop groupie. Always sitting in a cop car on her breaks making out with cops- not always the same one, as I recall. I mentioned the incident to her, including the names of the two guys- Officers Black and Brown (yes, their real names). She said those two were among her best of friends (no surprise she'd say that). 

She went on to tell me because of the disciplinary action one of them was refused promotion to Sergeant. The other one was refused attendance to Detective School. So, they did get in trouble. She went on to say they came into our restaurant fairly often and that if I wanted to talk to them about it, I was welcome to. 

I never did. Probably just as well. What would we say? I'm not even sure if they were on duty at the time. I do wonder if they were drunk, or something, and just looking to pick a fight with someone.