If you need something a little stronger than coffee to perk you up this Monday morning, perhaps disgust and outrage will do the trick? Because I think I have just the thing for that. Introducing… two Austin police officers who not only think mocking rape and robbery victims is hilarious but were too stupid not to record themselves during the conversation.
In the video, the two unseen Austin cops—later revealed as Officers Michael Castillo and Mark Lytle—start out discussing how crime better watch out when they're riding together. "Shit would get real for the bad guys," says one of the officers. "The world would be at peace for a week."
The other officer counters that peace would probably be likely "because we'd turn a blind eye towards everything." It continues:
Officer 1: I want to report a robbery! You probably deserved it. (something unintelligible about finding a rape victim) Officer 1: Look at that girl over there. (one of them blows a whistle at her) Officer 2: Go ahead and call the cops. They can't unrape you. (laughter) Officer 1: Yeah, exactly. … You did turn your camera off, didn't you? Officer 2: They can't unrape you!
The Austin Police Department confirmed to local station KXAN that the video is authentic and said an internal investigation is underway. "The investigation will include a comprehensive audit of the involved officers' contacts with victims of sexual assault to ensure the actions taken during the contacts meet the expectations of the Department, the public and most importantly, the victims," it said in a statement.
Austin lawyer Drew Gibbs, who first posted the video to YouTube, told KXAN the video was obtained as part of his firm's investigation into an auto crash. "The comments on the video struck me as inappropriate and I chose to allow the court of public opinion to decide if they agreed," said Gibbs.
"Arguably even more inappropriate than the rape joke made by the police officer was the other officer's initial reaction, which was to hope that the video camera was not rolling. … I would hope that when a police officer observes another officer acting inappropriately, or worse, illegally, that their initial reaction would be to correct that behavior and prevent its reoccurrence."
Watch the whole thing:
A spokesman for the Austin Police Association said "we all would be embarrassed if everything we said was made public" and that the statements the officers made on camera do not "reflect those officers work ethic".
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