A member of the Philadelphia Police Department has been reassigned to desk duty and had his service weapon taken from him after a video surfaced showing him pressuring a driver to purchase a ticket for a police fundraiser.
On the video, Officer Matthew Zagursky is shown holding the tickets in his hand and saying:
“You and your friend got any money to buy these thrill show tickets? Support your police department? Ten bucks each, man. Either you buy these, or I take your car. ‘Cause it’s unregistered. Ten bucks each, man.”
One wonders if this was the approach Zagursky insisted on why he didn’t just pull his gun and demand the money in exchange for not shooting the occupants of the car.
As the driver starts to get the money together for the tickets, the officer then inquires:
“You got any kids? You got any sweetheart?”
The driver replies:
“Yeah. I’d rather take my girl than this guy.”
At that point, Officer Zagursky starts making anti-homosexual comments, beginning with this:
“You don’t want to look like two fruitcakes, you know.”
Zagursky also points to the pink windshield wipers and calls them “f*ggot-ass.”
The driver tries to explain that the pink is for breast cancer awareness:
“Breast cancer man. My grandmom went through it.”
Zagusrky fires back with this retort:
“Breast cancer I can understand, but can’t you support breast cancer another way? You look like you’re a fruitcake, you know, what the hell?”
As if Zagusrky hasn’t done enough extortion for one day, he then demands $30 for three tickets. The driver says he doesn’t plan to take the other person in the car. The cop remarks:
“Let him buy it, too. Or else I’ll take his shit.”
Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey told a local TV station:
“It’s just stupid. It’s just not good at all. There’s nothing about the stop that’s good. Period. And I’m not going to even remotely try to justify any of it.”
And yet the police wonder why people are losing respect for them. I cannot imagine why, can you?
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.
Give that contemptible officer a permanent leave of absense, without any pay. His conduct isn’t just reprehensible, it’s criminal – extortion.