"services to business"
Nudge nudge, wink wink. say no more.
Police in Orlando have confirmed they arrested Scottish technology entrepreneur Chris Gorman and his wife following an alleged tryst in the toilets of Roxy Club in Orlando, Florida. According to the arrest reports seen by The Register, officers working in an off-duty capacity at the nightclub in August were informed that a …
at a strip club in an "off-duty" capacity.... really?
What good does that do other than having people that don't look like the police interfering in the types of things that must go on regularly at such a place?
More like they were hanging out at the club on their own personal business, and came up with this as lame excuse as to why they were they to begin with.
> But you can't act like an officer when you are employed as a bouncer. <
Actually, yes, you can - One of the nice advantages (to the club) is that all the off-duty plod has to do is whip out his badge and identify himself as police, and suddenly all his police powers are in force. Effectively, it means that the club has the police immediately to-hand if anything gets nasty - No need to wait for a unit to respond to a call.
"Using your public office to pursue a private enterprise sounds like corruption or abuse of power."
*Excellent * point which their attorneys should pursue.
*Either* they're police officers 24/7 (which means there is no time when you *can* "batter" a police officer) or they are not.
Otherwise what's the penalty for pushing a bouncer in a nightclub when (allegedly) off your t**s on drugs?
Thumbs up for the point, not the behavior.
The Roxy isn't a Strip club, it may as well be (its not exactly a high brow type of place) but its a regular type of crappy club, 12 dollars for a beer, and not even a good one. I live in Orlando, and there are cops that work outside of all of the Clubs, whether Downtown (where most of them are) or wherever. This one's on Colonial Drive, but it still warrants their attention.
And she's lucky she obviously wasn't American, OPD would have beat the holy living shit out of her for hitting one of them if they had reason to believe that she wasn't an international.
I don't know how lively that county is -- so maybe yes, maybe no.
The question is, doesn't ElReg have anything better to do? "Scottish businessman arrested for ignoring police order to stay away from his wife"... Sheesh, that interests me deeply, that's why I read Hello! and the DailyMail and all that. Religiously.
If the police report is to believed it seems all three were given a Get Out Of Jail Card for free, told to sling their hook and that's the end of it. Only through their subsequent actions have they ended up in the position they have. The anonymous black feller seems to have had enough sense to bugger off into the night, no doubt breathing a sigh of relief at his good fortune and it not having a worse outcome for him.
I suspect the judge is going to have as little sympathy as I have.
Thats because the Black guy was more than likely probably a local, and more than likely had run ins with OPD or the Orange County Sheriff's Office enough times to know that if they're actually letting you go (its rare around here, they arrest people only for resisting arrest alot of the time) that you'd better beat feet and get the hell out of wherever before they change their minds or the shift supervisor at Pershing Street shows up and tells them to take everybody.
Yeah, the black guy was most likely local. In other words he knew better than to argue with US cops. An open hand shove to a cop is hardly the height of assault, now is it really. I wouldn't be surprised if the cops were throwing their weight around more than a bit. Thing is they don't take at all kindly to any push back, literal or otherwise. Mr G probably didn't appreciate that either when told not to approach.
I'd question the actions of police on the spot in the UK (have done). I'll argue with them too without being physical and while controlling language to a point. Not in the US though. That's madness. The only thing that's going to help here in the land of the free is lot's of yes sir with the emphasis on sir.
Brit resident in USA.
Wouldn't it have been more polite of the police to cough a few times and wait until the various parties involved/not involved had straightened up their clothing, wiped their noses and come out to discuss whatever the problem might have been?
These people are supposed to be public servants, yet they throw their weight around like monkeys in blue wooly suits.
To The Cheap Tat Shop.
These days these just seem to sell the sort of cr@p that even Toys-R-Us refused to stock because they thought it too naff and overpriced. And if I see another Oregon Scientific "weather station" (ie a £100 thermometer which doesn't work properly + clock - oooo!) I'll chuck it at that stupid battery powered ball of fluff with a tail thats always in a tray at the front.
If they were off duty then how could the gormans be done for assault of an officer? How would they know that these weren't 2 freaks with a penchant for peeping? Hmm. Come to think of it, this is 3 consenting adults out of public view, what's the issue? Oh, finally 'I found this wrap of cocaine'...sure you did, that's the old tried and American way of ensuring that the 'perps' get done
If the report is accurate they should throw the book at the police. Off duty they have no more rights than anyone else paticularily when 'responding' to a non-crime.
It would seem a strong case can be made for assault, kidnap, false imprisonment and possibly corruption. The only thing the couple concerned seem to have done which is in anyway illegal is possession of druges but given the behaviour of the police involved and theiir behaviour how confident can anyone be it was not planted.
> It would seem a strong case can be made for assault, kidnap, false imprisonment and possibly corruption <
Oh, boy, would the prosecuter & judge love to have you show up in this case! The laughter would surely be heard for miles, and everyone would be so entertained that they might even forget to fling you out of court!
Seems as though an off duty officer ought not to have the right to search someone's belongings to find the cocaine. What do you want to bet the two will be let off with a hand slapping or minor fine if not the entire thing thrown out of court?
Granted, their lawyer fees will probably cost 20X more than it would most of us to just plead guilty and pay the fine.
What you and some other ignorant people on this thread do not seem to understand, is that a police officer is *always* a police officer, on duty or off, and is required to *always* act like a police officer, and *always* has those powers that are vested in him by virtue of his being a police officer. Or else why else do you think clubs such as this hire police officers in the first place?