How Many Lies Can This One LAPD Officer Tell While Being Recorded?

By Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Nov. 12, 2014

Los Angeles, CA — Police accountability specialists Daniel Saulmon, AKA Tom Zebra, along with Ricky Munday, were responding to complaints of people being harassed by police in South Central Los Angeles when they ran into Officer Wank.

As Munday and Saulmon were biking down the road, they had to swerve into traffic to miss a patrol car that was blocking their path. After they passed the patrol car, Officer Wank came very close to the bikers, at which point Munday told him to slow down.

Wank did not like the fact that these two bikers dared to tell him to slow down, so he pulled in front of them and made the unfortunate choice to try and detain this professional cop watching duo.

The funny thing about officer Wank, (besides his infelicitous patronymic) is that he likes to lie.

Upon the initial confrontation, Wank was very aggressive, getting in the face of Munday and shoving him. Once they let the officer know that he was being filmed he completely changed his demeanor, the shoving turned into hand gestures and the yelling became affable chatter.

Two more officers arrive and the conversation escalated a bit.

"You guys yelled at me, I got out of the car to make sure you're alright," said Wank, as if to imply that he pulled over and shoved Munday, almost knocking him off of his bike, for his own safety.

If you pay attention closely you will notice that at the 00:38 mark in the video, Wank can be seen turning his body camera on. Amazingly enough Munday and Saulmon noticed this as it was happening.

"Pay attention and listen to me," Sergeant Wank said. "Everything we do is recorded. It's not about whether we are."

"It wasn't recording when you got out of the vehicle," noted Munday.

"Of course, it is, the light is green," Wank said.

"You still have an on and off switch," Saulmon said.

"You can't turn it off from here, no," Wank lied again, "You can push all you want, but you can't turn it off, there is no on and off switch."

Now for the hilarity! At 2:25 in the video Wank claims that pressing the button has no effect and he cannot turn off his camera, yet the green light on the camera clearly goes out and then comes back on after he presses the button.

Eventually the group exchanges cards and the interaction is over.

According to PINAC, anticipating a civilian complaint after committing assault and battery and wanting witnesses to confirm his side of the story, Sergeant Wank gathered contact information from two sheriff's department officers who arrived on the scene.

h/t PINAC