Racy Police Videos Defended

The lawyer for the San Francisco police officer who produced the videos at the center of a growing storm says his client is being unfairly criticized and disciplined.

Daniel Horowitz, who represents Andrew Cohen and is his longtime friend, told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Friday the videos were meant "to bring spirit, to bring some joy and laughter to the police officers who work under tremendously difficult conditions."

Still, plenty of people were left scratching their heads as Cohen and 17 other officers were suspended without pay for participating in the videos, which used splashes of ethnic humor and sex to parody life on the force.

Intended as a private spoof, the tapes didn't play as well once the mayor and police chief made them public, blasting the vignettes as racist, sexist and homophobic.

"I'm sorry they did it, and I'm sure they are very sorry they did it," said Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.

Police Chief Heather Fong moved swiftly to discipline the officers involved in an incident she called "egregious, shameful and despicable." The department didn't release the names or ranks of the officers, part of a group of about 20 who were under investigation for using their patrol cars and other official equipment in the videos.

The skits featured uniformed and plain clothes officers making fun of Asians, blacks, women and members of the gay and transgender communities, Mayor Gavin Newsom said. He was particularly offended by a scene showing a white officer in a patrol car running over a black homeless woman.

"It is shameful, it is offensive, it is sexist, it is homophobic and it is racist," said Newsom, who directed two city commissions to join the police department in its investigation.

Horowitz disagreed, telling Chen, "I think it's anti-racist. I think it's pro-understanding. First of all, I don't know why that woman is homeless. I think some people are labeling her as homeless due to their own misconceptions that black people who live in that area might be homeless. She is a nice, kind woman. That's what I see when I watch that video.

"And the perception that police officers would run somebody over and not care is how the community often feels about officers. That's an acknowledgement of that fact. It's honest. It's brutal. It's meaningful that a police officer could put that out there and say, 'Wow, if we had that attitude, that's bad.'

"And then again, when the woman gets up and curses, 'You white blah, blah, blah,' the officers feel badly. 'We're here to serve. Don't people understand that? Don't just stereotype us.'

"It puts on the table a critical point in that community and gives us a chance to move together to fix it. Unfortunately the mayor and the chief have turned it into a politically correct, 'That's a racist video.' It's not. It's the truth. It hurts. Let's fix it."

Horowitz says police officers "like to laugh at themselves, share humor and go ahead with the job that is both dangerous and often gets them very little thanks from both the public and certainly no thanks from their chief (Fong), who ignores this police station, but spends a lot of time walking around and doing politics."

All the officers involved, including a captain, worked at the Bayview Station in the city's roughest section, an industrial area with a large minority population and high crime rate.
The videos are "really a story from the hearts of these officers. It's humor, but it's also social commentary on their situation," Horowitz told Chen.

He stressed that Cohen only posted them on Cohen's Web site "as a distribution medium to police officers. It wasn't indexed in a search engine. You couldn't type and find it if you were a person who didn't know the exact web address. It was up for only 20 hours."

Horowitz's wife, Pamela Vitale, was murdered in their home almost two months ago, allegedly by a 16-year-old neighbor but, citing a court gag order, Horowitz refused to discuss the case with Chen.

Cohen, 39, said he was suspended Thursday for posting inappropriate and unauthorized pictures about the department on the Internet.

"I don't know what's going on," Cohen told The Associated Press. "I've never been in trouble before."

The video spoofs were shot more than a year ago, but came to the department's attention three weeks ago after Cohen showed some clips to a member of the command staff, saying he planned to show them at the station's Christmas party, Delagnes said.

Cohen was reportedly told "to get rid of them" and then put them up on his Web site, Inside the SFPD.

Delagnes called the videos "extremely stupid and immature," but said the skits reflected "the gallows humor of police work" and not the dedication or cultural views of the officers involved. He noted that the actors in the parodies included female, black and Hispanic officers.

"These were meant as comic relief, parodies of police work," Delagnes said. "The fact that the eyes of others have seen these skits is a result of deception and manipulation by a single individual," he said, referring to Cohen.

Horowitz said Cohen was slandered by officials who drew attention to the matter and took the videos out of context. He said Cohen had permission from the chief to produce videos while on the job "without any content review."

Capt. Rick Bruce, who formerly led the Bayview station but is currently on leave awaiting retirement, is among those under investigation.

Bruce appeared in a video called "The Ladies Man," which spoofed the television show "Charlie's Angels." Three gun-toting police women in T-shirts and blue jeans report to Bruce, who sits behind his desk suggestively licking his lips.

Through the rest of the clip, a street person, an apparent transvestite and several others tongue their lips in a similar manner and say, "Ohhh, captain."

Bruce's attorney, Jim Collins, told the San Francisco Chronicle that his client had known nothing of the videos, and that the footage featuring him was an outtake from a department-sanctioned film shot years ago.

"He has never seen the video and did not participate in its production in any way, shape or form," Collins said.

Several Bayview residents shopping at a grocery store near the police station were unamused by the clips.

"I don't know what's so funny about it