A Final Thought On Stupid "Stuff"

If you want to be the type of copper that has to photograph every crime scene and keep a few for your private little photo album, you've got bigger problems that we can imagine. You are a ghoul. Plain and simple. In the early part of the last century when photography was a new and novel invention, some people in Texas were taking photographs of the dead after a major hurricane destroyed the coast. A number of them were summarily rounded up and hanged by the necks by irate townsfolk and we can't say we blame them.

Death, especially violent death, is not really an appropriate subject of photography (and don't give us any shit about the Tookie picture - if you can't tell the difference, fuck you). For some reason, probably around the time of the Kennedy assassination, filming death became something of a media staple, culminating in the "If it bleeds, it leads" news shows of the 1990's. The "Photo's of the Year" at most major magazines always include some bloody victim of some heinous event and this is supposed to do what? Move us? Make us thankful we aren't that poor bastard? What exactly? Does anyone ever stop and wonder why? Curiosity? Fascination with violence? A general lack of moral outrage?

We signed onto to our e-mail account today and we had no less than 3 different e-mails with an entire SERIES of these unauthorized photo's attached. THREE. And each of the address lists had around another 10 to 25 names in it. Photographs from the public way? Fine. It's a goddamn plane parked on Central Avenue. You aren't going to see that every day. BUT PHOTOS FROM INSIDE THE CRIME SCENE TAPE? Sorry, but you're a fucking moron looking to get suspended or worse. In this age of instant communication, who in their right mind would even think of taking, let alone spreading these photographs around? We hope to high heaven that the individual in those photos never knows the pain having a bunch of people (POLICE OFFICERS FOR GOD'S SAKE) standing around the spot where their child was crushed to death, grinning like it was a spectator sport.

A little boy died in that plane accident people. He was six years old and his name was Joshua Woods. He was by all accounts a spunky kid with his entire life ahead of him. And he got crushed by a fucking airplane in our city. We are appalled that photographs like this made it into the public realm. A-fucking-ppalled. You can't imaging the disgust we are feeling right now.

TRUE WAR STORY - On the scene of a traffic accident many years ago, a car went airborne and landed on another car. Cops on the scene didn't even realize there was a victim in the crushed car at first because it was pancaked so bad. When the fire department cut her out, she was a mess. Some media jackal was up against the tape, within 30 or 40 yards of the car and he started taking pictures. Without a word, 3 or 4 coppers went and stood in front of him so he couldn't get a shot of this poor dead woman. When he moved, all of them moved to block his angle. When they backed the tape up another 30 yards, he got shouldered back the whole way so he couldn't get any shots. No violence. No words. No need.

Where are those guys today? We see so much misery every single day. Let's try to act like we're fucking police officers once in a while and not some gawky goddamn tourists from the sticks. Comments are closed for this post - we are just too pissed off to listen to any excuses right now.