This is why I hate those god damned cop "reality" shows

[MrScorpio]

It's because of the shit that they do strictly for the benefit of the cameras

Man Claims 'Female Forces' Humiliated Him

By DAN MCCUE

CN) - A&E TV's "Female Forces" and Naperville, Ill., police humiliated and violated the civil rights of a man the officers stopped on charge of driving on a suspended license, and profited from his persona by showing him on the "reality" show without his permission, the man claims in Chicago Federal Court.
Matt Coan claims he refused to sign a release, but the TV showed him anyway on its "Betsy Warrior Princess" episode.
Coan claims that the female officers featured on the show ridiculed him when he became ill and threw up in their custody, and that post-vomiting footage was edited, staged and sensationalized to further demean him.

"Female Forces," produced by defendants A Day With Inc. and Good Luck Nat dba The Grief Co., for A&E Television Networks, purports to tell the stories of female officers from the Naperville Police Department, "as they fight a full gamut of big city crime in the suburbs of Chicago," the complaint states, citing a Biography Channel promo.
A&E owns the Biography Channel. The show's tagline is "Brains, Beauty and a Badge."
Coan, a construction contractor, says he was pulled over for driving with a suspended license on April 4, 2008, plaintiff. As defendant Officer Tracy Nance took his license, the TV crew pulled up and began shooting.

Coan claims that Officer Nance stalled, holding him longer than necessary so that defendant Officer Julie Lardino could arrive with another film crew. He says an unknown individual repeatedly asked him to sign a consent form permitting his name, image, voice and likeness to be used on the program. Coan says he refused.
Nonetheless, Coan says, he was prominently featured in the televised episode, and was shown vomiting out his truck door as police arrive.
Nance is heard asking, "Why you throwing up like that, dude?" before asking for Coan's license and insurance. She asked whether he "forgot to pay some tickets, because that is what it looks like you're suspended for."

After Lardino arrived, the two officers mocked and demeaned him, Coan claims.
Nance says that Coan's license is suspended and that he's "really sick."
"Write him a ticket and get him out of here," Lardino said.

Lardino then approached the passenger side of the vehicle. On the program, Coan is shown coughing in his front seat, and Lardino is shown backing away from the car, presumably to avoid being thrown up on. However, at the time, the passenger side door and window were closed, and the footage was edited to "humiliate and embarrass him," Coan says.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/25/28375.htm

On a side note, I know for a FACT that Naperville, IL SUCKS!

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[autorank]

2. Shake that money maker k*r

That guy should collect. Releases are required.

That show is strange. Does that town only have female officers?

[notadmblnd]

6. I think a lot of police departments are letting A&E film crews come in

and are getting paid to let them film them busting people for crimes. I know there is a big stink here in the Detroit area in regards to the DPD busting in a house looking for a suspect and ended up killing a 7yr old girl sleeping on the couch. Many people think they wouldn't have resorted to their extreme tactics (flash grenades and shooting into the house from outside) if they weren't putting on a show for the film crew. Needless to say Geoffrey Feiger is on the case.

[autorank]

15. Feiger is the best!

While the feds were screwing Siegelman and others in the South with selective pro/persecutions,
they went after Feiger. They lost but what a nasty move.

I think you're right about showing off for the cameras. It's obvious in the way they talk to
those they arrest. Contrast that with "The Dog," that bounty hunter, who tells the bail skippers
that they can fix their lives, get an education, and then encourages them to go to church.

Who's the public servant?

[MrScorpio]

16. Cops have "bad ass" rep that they try to keep up

Nothing's better for that rep than humiliating "perps" on camera.

[notadmblnd]

20. Many people around here feel that Fieger is a big mouth and a grandstander

When they give me that argument, I ask them; If you need help with the law who would you rather have fighting for you a big mouth who cares passionately about his job or a wall flower of an attorney. I know I'd want that loudmouth representing me.

[autorank]

23. You need a big mouth to get the word out and a grandstand for distribution;)

[stranger81]

3. Naperville is a former sundown town,

according to James Loewen.

http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?id=1647

A charming place, I'm sure.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. It's also where they make Corexit

which is that dispersant being used in the Gulf

[SocialistLez]

4. I used to watch and like that show..........

[Skittles]

5. disgusting but not surprising

[noamnety]

7. The cops on those shows have lost track of the distinction

between "serve and protect" and "exploit."

[Nailzberg]

8. This is the second time this show has been sued for using unreleased footage.

Incidentally, I got a call to work on this actually show, but in the end I was too expensive for them. I'm positive they hired a bunch of people who didn't know what they were doing.
I do a lot of television shows, and all reality shows stress the importance of obtaining releases. Especially in law enforcement programs because you will be portraying people negatively.


On Edit: Opps. Make that the THIRD time they've been sued for releases. Here's the other two. I'll bet A&E drops this production company and finds a new one.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bar-tender/2009/10/women-sue-over-biography-channel-show-set-in-naperville.html

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bar-tender/2009/12/another-lawsuit-filed-against-ae-over-female-forces-in-naperville.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. There are two reasons why I hate them

1.- Personal experience with the EMS version of it... yes I am dating myself, they tried EMS... and no, we did not ahem... volunteer for it. Another company did, and we "beat them" to the GOOD call, since we were CLOSER, to dispatch PRIORITIZED US... plenty of cursing came over the radio while they TRIED to beat us to it. Yes some dangerous driving Code 3 was involved as well. When they arrived we were almost finished packing our patient for transport, and how dare I protect MY PATIENT"S identify by using my body to block the camera. Oh man they were PISSED, and so was the CAMERA crew. And yes IT WAS the "good" call, aka gory call of the evening... so be it.

2.- Usually (insert emergency responder here) get stoopid in front of the camera leading to incidents like the above.

That said they DO have a benefit... at times they are used to train cops of what NOT to do. EMS... they have not done them in a long time.

[mrcheerful]

10. The one thing that every show on cops does that gets my hackles up is continue with the myth

that giving up your right to remain silent proves you are either innocent or that the cops will give you a break if you tell "your" side of the story. When the suspect does choose to remain silent, they put him in the back seat and as they are closing the door they quip "you had your chance to come clean", as if anything the suspect told the cops wouldn't later be used against them in a court of law. That is why the jails and prisons are filled with people, they open their mouths before getting an attorney, then are surprised when they get in court and find out that they admitted to a crime even though when they made their statement they thought they didn't confess or admit to anything.

[Mariana]

17. The rights to remain silent and to have an attorney

should be taught to every schoolkid. I had a high school teacher teach us about our rights when dealing with police and even showed his classes a (fiction) film in which an innocent suspect talks to the police and gets himself in some deep shit by doing so. He also told us some of the psychological tricks and the lies the cops use to get people to talk, or to "consent" to a search, or to go with them for questioning. This was in the 1980's and I've never forgotten those lessons. Everyone should know this stuff.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

11. I only watch "Cops"

Anything produced and created in the last few years is most likely scripted, as all reality shows are now.

That Steven Segal show is bullshit.

[MrScorpio]

14. I once talked to an off duty Hampton VA PD cop about COPS once

He told me that the Chief would never think about allowing COPS to film them. He pretty much hated the show.

"Why would we allow our screw ups to get televised?", he said.

I thought that it made a lot of sense.

By the way, Hampton has some pretty good cops. At least they were when I was there.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Even the Geneva Convention bans exhibiting prisoners for sensational reasons

And this guy wasn't even arrested.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Heywood J]

21. You're right on that.

I hope these people get an injunction on the company to prevent further filming or airing until it's been satisfied that all participants signed informed releases and agreed on camera to being filmed. Having months of delay and legal hassle added to production should be enough to shut these idiots down.

[Hannah Bell]

18. all those shows, & crap like "judge judy" are about humiliating & demonizing the poor

and teaching people that the world is full of creepy scary people so they'd better cower in their houses and not draw outside the lines

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. At least Judge Judy is voluntary participation

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Punishist porn. You see the anti-poor glee in the repo men discussion? Same thing.

I am thoroughly convinced this is a personality disorder. A very harmful one.

[KillCapitalism]

24. The shows have a lot of racist overtones.

Look at everyone they bust on those shows, it's just about always a dark-skinned person. It's extremely rare that they show whites or asians getting busted.