Texas Cop Trips Girls Celebrating State Soccer Title, Creates New Generation of Cop Haters

Ever wonder why some people hate cops? Watch the video above, captured on a cell phone, for some clues.

On Saturday, after Vandergrift High School's Lady Vipers won a state soccer title, fans poured on to the field to celebrate. Like a Berlin Wall border guard, a Georgetown, Texas, cop tried to stanch the celebratory flow by kicking and tripping celebrants.

Here's a local news story about the incident:

Hat tips: The Twitter feed of Lionel and the Activist Post blog.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that the office, George Bermudez, has been put on leave until an investigation is completed:

Bermudez was chosen as an outstanding police officer for the Georgetown Police Department last year, [a GPD spokesman] said. He said Bermudez has been with the department since 2005 as a school resource officer at Georgetown High School, where the soccer game was held Saturday.

In the scheme of things, this is tiny, for sure. But WTF is still WTF.

Comments

[Bronwyn]

And by "leave", you mean "paid vacation", of course.

[Ramjet]

So glad I live here. Most days...

[SRVolunteer]

Totality of circs.

Soccer players (and fans?) are known floppers.

[Almanian!]

Irrational Exuberance?, in any form, must be suppressed. Job well done, Officer Friendly, supporting an ungrateful civilian populace that has neither the stones nor the will to do what you do to keep them safe during sports riots like this. I'm hopeful that Officer Friendly got home safely to his family. Because that's what's important here.

[I can't trust my fans]

Here's a cache of his Twitter account.

http://webcache.googleusercont.....clnk&gl=us

Lots of Bible verses. Also, a trained jiu-jitsu meister.

A dedicated public servant, Bermudez is a true pillar of the community.

[Suthenboy]

What a hero.

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

"Bermudez was chosen as an outstanding police officer for the Georgetown Police Department last year

I love how they mean for this statement to mitigate the damage, rather than them look worse. Look how low our bar is, guys! He's one of the better ones! Be lucky Bathtime Bobby wasn't patrolling the fields!

[sarcasmic]

These kids were not obeying him, and that gives him the right to kill them on the spot. If anything he'll be rewarded for using restraint.

[BSubversive.com]

Did they ask permission to celebrate? No?? Totally justified. There is no happiness outside of asking permission and obeying orders.

[The Late P Brooks]

Those girls might have been injured in that unruly unauthorized celebration. He was protecting them. Give him a medal.

[The Late P Brooks]

Bermudez has been with the department since 2005 as a school resource officer at Georgetown High School

NO)THING LEFT TO CUT.

[Pathogen]

Well, to be fair, the moderate cutbacks in budgeting... because *Austerity* *Sequester* did deprive these officers the riot gear, stun batons, and tear gas they so desperately needed to quell that unruly mob. Those officers were just lucky they made it home that night...

[Pope Jimbo]

Hmm...

Looks like he only went after gals too. What a total jack ass.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Anxiously awaiting the celebratory post of Lenin's 144th birthday, or Earth Day, but I repeat myself.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I reported being pissed in February when I was pulled over and the cop told me I was being let go with "just a citation."

Well last week was my court date and the jackass didn't show. Justice!

[db]

You got to waste your time showing up when.he didn't! Yay!

(I've been there too and it is really annoying)

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I would say let the girls' soccer team trip and push him in retaliation, but I'm not sure he'd experience that as a punishment.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

They're lucky the cop didn't go after them for felony interference with an officer doing his duty.

[The Late P Brooks]

told me I was being let go with "just a citation."

As opposed to what? A vicious beating and rape? Summary execution at the side of the road?

[gimmeasammich]

Well they don't call it "cop a feel" for nothing.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

All I wanna' do is cop a feel.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Yeah, I was stewing over that comment for a few days.

[Pathogen]

Well, since the majority of our Heroes in Blue? view us as living/breathing ATM machines, tin cans on a fence line, and meat sacks to be savaged by their mongrels for the sake of amusement, he's probably lucky he got out of their without the need for major surgery and a severe lifelong limp...

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I do realize that while the comment was infuriating, I am lucky that I wasn't fucked with more.

[Pathogen]

And they'll be waiting for you to step out of line again, buster... then they'll cool your jets...

[Andrew S.]

Well, this is near Austin... isn't Austin where the chief tried to justify beating a jaywalker by saying that at least the cops didn't rape her?

[Pathogen]

A new case law precedent...

[Old Man With Candy]

That area is sociologically much different than Austin. Far less lefty statist, far more rightly statist.

[Emmerson Biggins]

tru dat.

[John]

I saw my dad this weekend. He lives out in Albuquerque. As readers of Reason probably know, the APD has shot 27 people over the last five or so years. My father's impression after moving to the city last November is that the entire city, white, black and Hispanic alike has completely lost respect for the APD. It is not just crackpot Libertarians or poor people who hate them. It is the entire city from the begger on the street to the small business owner to the old person in the home.

You can't have a functioning society when the police are completely alienated from and disconnected from the community. It is quickly going to get to the point where juries stop believing cops' testimony at trials and stop calling the police and handle things themselves. That will not work out well. These people are animals who are eating the fabric of civil society.

[sarcasmic]

There will always be people who love the cops, and the prosecution will always make sure a few of them end up on the jury.

[Lyle]

There will always have to be cops. Hating them is wrong too. There needs to be respect for them and they need to respect the people. The problem today is a lot of cops have militarized in fear of their lives, and they just treat everyone badly.

[sarcasmic]

The vast majority of laws out there have no victim. They are crimes against the state. Crimes that actually do have victims are at the bottom of the priority list. Especially because assault, murder, b&e, theft, destruction of property, etc are things that cops do every day. They don't care when other people do that shit. However crimes against the state? That's when they care, because they take that shit personally.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Crimes against the state generate revenue. Crimes against people require spending money to resolve. You get more of what you subsidize.

[sarcasmic]

When crime victims complain to the cops, the cops often mock them. Seriously. Ever reported a crime? Cops don't give a shit. You were on the receiving end of what cops do to people every day. The only difference is that it wasn't a cop doing the shit. So the cops don't care. They view you as a whining pussy.

Crimes against the state are crimes against the cops. They view themselves as the victims, and damn they are gonna get retribution.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Ever reported a crime? Cops don't give a shit

Sure have. Best one was when my house got robbed and the body language and attitude came through loud and clear: "Why are you bothering us with this?"

[sarcasmic]

I called the cops after my apartment was broken into. The responding officers ran me for warrants and then asked if I would let them search the place for drugs. When I declined they left.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I have. Granted I was in the process of bleeding out, but the cop seemed to take it pretty seriously. I did have to argue with his stubborn ass to get him to go check on someone else, though.

[Scarecrow Repair]

"Needs to be respect for them"???

They can get their respect the old-fashioned way -- earn it.

[pogi]

Not to put too fine a point on it but fuck the police.

[BSubversive.com]

stop calling the police and handle things themselves

What's wrong with that? Other than major crimes, wouldn't it be better if neighbors worked things out themselves rather than using the PD?

[John]

To some degree nothing. Taken to its extreme, a lot. You wind up with vigilantism. Vigilantism is better than nothing but it is not a substitute for a functioning justice system.

[croaker]

This is a functioning justice system?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Yeah, it would. Tell that to the cunt next door who left her dog out to bark every nanosecond it wasn't sleeping, then told me it was legal and that I was harassing her by requesting that she shut it the fuck up.

[Lyle]

I have said this before, but the most public display of cop brutality I've ever seen was in Albuquerque. Random February day near Old Town Albuquerque and a cop was beating a bum down. Striking him hard against his legs to get him to obey or something.

[John]

My dad's theory is that the APD has created a culture where the risk is so overplayed that the officers are trained to be terrified when they are working. The cops are trigger happy because they are terrified and poorly trained and that is all they know how to do.

I think he is probably right about that. If they were just sociopathic killers, they would have killed a lot more than 27. Pulling your weapon out and shooting is something someone does out of fear.

[sarcasmic]

Someone wrote a sarcastic letter to the editor a few months back after this city got a surplus APC. He wanted to see the city parade its military might on holidays like they do in communist dictatorships. Well, the mayor responded with a letter saying that it's a war out there, and there is a subclass of people with automatic weapons who are always ready to kill cops. Thus cops must treat everyone like the enemy until they prove otherwise. That's how they think: Everyone is out to kill them. That's why failure to obey gets people killed. At that point the cop assumes the person is the enemy, fears for his life, kills the person, and nothing else happens.

[John]

Being in danger gives a certain amount of self satisfaction. When I was in Iraq, I knew people who would write back to their families all of the details of the danger they were in. It never dawned on them that they were basically torturing their families. All that mattered to them was the self importance that being in danger gave them.

The sense of danger and the self importance that can give you when doing it as part of your job causes people to lose all sense of perspective. It feeds on itself. The more danger you are in, the more excited and important you feel. I think what has happened is that the culture of law enforcement has transformed from one that derived its sense of importance from protecting people to one that derives it from being in danger. So cops constantly talk in terms of "war" and "combat" and constantly and obsessively overstate the danger they are in. Well, amazingly enough being in danger is scary. So they now are completely terrified whenever they do their jobs. And terrified people with guns and badges is never going to end well.

[Swiss Servator, K?se, K?se!]

I knew people who would write back to their families all of the details of the danger they were in.

Dang.... I didn't even tell anyone about the bad stuff I got into until I was home. Or if I mentioned something, I sure as hell downplayed it.

[John]

I was amazed at the number of people who did just the opposite. Not all or even a majority but a few. It was just nuts. I wasn't even in very much danger and I still never mentioned it. These people were in actual danger and told their families anyway.

[Res ipsa loquitur]

These police are not in any danger though.

I am still amazed that my ROE in Afghanistan were so much stricter than some cop in downtown America. Baffles me. If being in "danger" was all that required a response in force, I would have had many bloody days.

[dantheserene]

One of my best friends has promised me a no kidding ass-kicking if I ever explain what a Combat Action Badge is to her mother.

[thesis_ascendant]

There's the issue. Police respect for the individuals in the community is (or should be) mandated - they're public servants. Respect from the community must be earned based on this duty.

[iEagleHammer]

"The complaint was forwarded to our internal review team"

Who will promptly throw it in the garbage.

[iEagleHammer]

Oh, and why is everyone calling it a trip? He didn't "stick his leg out," that was a kick. He assaulted the kid.

[Warty]

I miss dunphy. Oh, wait, no I don't.

[John]

I kind of do. He would absolutely defend the indefensible. He served a value in that he showed just how crazy some of these people are.

[Harvard]

Dumby was no cop. Ever.

[Lyle]

Cop mentality rot leads to acts like this. Respect my authority and stay where you're supposed to, etc.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Bermudez was chosen as an outstanding police officer for the Georgetown Police Department last year, [a GPD spokesman] said.

Considering he was only tripping up highschool girls that is probably accurate. Friendliest pig in Bricktop's pig farm.

[croaker]

I think his next assignment should be undercover in a gay bath house. If they don't have a gay bath house, maybe there's some place like the Blue Oyster.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Sociopathic pigs gotta sociopathically pig.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

If I got tripped by a "regular" person, my initial reaction would be to stand up and shove the person. If I did that to a cop, what are the odds I'd walk away alive? What are the odds the cop would be punished? What if I didn't realize it was a cop that did it until it was too late?

I'm surprised this situation hasn't happened yet.

[sarcasmic]

Remember the hot blonde wearing headphones who was arrested for jaywalking? That's exactly what happened. She brushed off a hand on her shoulder, and was immediately taken down for assaulting a cop. She's lucky they didn't kill her.

[John]

The Austin police arrested the jogger last year for "failing to respond to their commands" and jaywalking. The person was running with headphones at like six in the morning.

[sarcasmic]

Don't deaf people regularly get beaten by police for the same reason?

[John]

Yup. And mentally handicapped people who can't comprehend being yelled at do as well.

[sarcasmic]

A month or two ago those brave heroes in NYC severely beat some ancient Chinese guy for the threatening action of not understanding English.

[Suellington]

He had to potentially injure people so people would not be potentially injured. Give him paid vacation.

[Dr Fallout]

The audacity of those kids to hit his out-stretched leg with their shins!

Next thing you know they'll be head-butting his night stick.

[UnfrozenCavemanTaxpayer]

In the scheme of things it may be small potatoes, but keep in mind that muggings on the NYC subway decreased when they started arresting turnstile jumpers. The little stuff is the big stuff. The mindset that produces this kind of policing is the mindset that shoots dead a mentally ill citizen because "we don't have time for that."

[John]

And lets not forget that if the cop had done the right thing and done nothing and these kids had gone out and hurt themselves, the parents would have immediately blamed the police for not keeping their little darlings safe and off the field.

There is no defending this guy's action. There is, however, as you point out more to what is going on here than one asshole cop. This asshole cop is just one manifestation of a lot of different really stupid mindsets, one being the "we can't let anyone get away with breaking any rule or civilization will fall" and the other is "if I or my child does something stupid and gets hurt, it is the government's fault it happened because they didn't stop me".

[Edwin]

I think they all would have been fine

It's a fucking girl's soccer game, how much more nerdy, ball-less, and harmless can you get? Everybody's mannerisms who's jumping onto the field screams "nerdy white person"

[TerminusEst]

$100 says he won't face any type of discipline for this.

[Malvolio]

No, 50 years of history says he won't face any type of discipline for this.

[ibcbet]

Those officers were just lucky they made it home that night

[MoreFreedom]

Try doing this to a cop, and you'll be arrested and thrown in jail for assault. Why can cops do this? Were people committing a crime by going on to the field after the end of the game? I can understand ejecting those who interfere with the game, or even arresting them for disorderly conduct.

Seems like cops get the idea they can abuse citizens, because they never suffer the consequences like citizens they push, trip, and hurt because they aren't following the cops orders. Since when can a cop order you to not do something that is legal?