Columbus cop rails against minorities in Internet videos

Should this lady lose her job even if she's just expressing her views on a personal level -- as opposed to in her capacity as a police officer? Or are 'public officials' (I am guessing cops would qualify as public officers) held to a different standard, especially given the nature of her job as a police officer and the possible implications of her views on her ability to carry out the assigned functions in a 'lawful' manner?

It should be interesting to keep an eye on this and see what develops...

Columbus cop rails against minorities in Internet videos

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/08/27/susie.html

Disparaging remarks about blacks, Cubans and Jews are found on amateur online videos co-produced by a Columbus police officer.

The videos were created and distributed on the Internet by Officer Susan L. Purtee, 60, and her sister, Barbara Gordon-Bell,52, who call themselves "The Patriot Dames.''

Together on the videos, they blame Jews, blacks, illegal immigrants and Cubans for a variety of the nation's ills.

When asked about doing the videos, Gordon-Bell said, "We've had a lot of fun with it. I don't see that we've ever harmed anybody."

Purtee was off-duty when she made the videos and in civilian clothes. The pair never mention Purtee's occupation, though their Web site, www.patriotdames.com, notes that she is a law-enforcement officer.

"We weren't trying to strong-arm anybody or do it for the money," Gordon-Bell said tonight from her home in Coral Springs, Fla.

There was no answer tonight at Purtee's Grove City home. Her sister said they made the videos when Purtee visited her in Florida.

Asked if she saw anything wrong with a police officer's role in making such comments, Gordon-Bell called the opinions "reality."

"And reality and racism and bigotry run awful close together."

But the videos have the attention of attorneys for the city's Police Division.

"The legal team is reviewing the YouTube videos to see if there is any misconduct within our directives," Police Division spokeswoman Amanda Ford said last night.

Purtee is a 15-year veteran who patrols day shift on the city's Far East Side.

In a video called "Jews'' that is on the sisters' Web site and that has made its way to YouTube, they say that after the 1960s, Jews monopolized the entertainment industry.

The sisters largely blame violent movies and ones that set bad examples for teens on Jewish filmmakers.

"They started to tell us – the Gentiles – how to live, because if we did, they'd make a lot of money,'' says Purtee on the video. "We're something they can suck off of.''

Purtee also says that "when Hitler couldn't get rid of them (Jews), no other country wanted them.''

"As long as you're a Jew, you have that thinking that everybody's beneath you,'' Purtee says on the tape.

At one point, Bell holds up a sign in the video that says, "Jews Are the Problem.'' She also says "Mel Gibson was right.''

The sisters also complain about Cubans in a video called "Cubans – Miami's Vice.''

In it, Bell says that a recent trip to Miami was "like being in the banana Republic,'' and says "no one spoke English.''

In another video, called "Borderopoly,'' the sisters rail against illegal immigrants and suggest building walls of prisons along the Mexican border, and in one called "Ebonics,'' they say blacks have chosen to fall into stereotypes that they say were prevalent about blacks in the 1950s.

The sisters say that many blacks won't speak proper English.

Purtee says in the video that blacks use English that is "mangled English, dirty and filthy.''

In the event of an administrative investigation, the Fraternal Order of Police would provide Purtee or any other member with legal representation, said President Jim Gilbert of the FOP's Capital City Lodge No. 9.

"She clearly doesn't represent herself as a police officer on the video. It appears she is speaking out, utilizing her First Amendment rights."

"I've known her as almost motherly-like in her dealings on the street," Gilbert said. "Many officers see her as like a motherlike figure."