VIDEO: Driver Shows Creep Cop That Her Hand Is Missing, He Still Falsely Tickets Her for Holding Phone While Driving
We here at The Western Journal are pro-cop. But most importantly, we are pro-good cop. And most of them — the vast, vast majority — aren’t just good, but great. Men and women who, without prejudice or animus, set off to serve and protect, and put their lives on the line doing so.
We also acknowledge, as does anyone, that there are bad cops. I’m not going to write an exhaustive list of what might be a bad cop, but will simply quote the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, speaking in the context of pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
Therefore, when I hear a cop say on bodycam that he’s ticketing a woman for using a cell phone with her right hand and she holds up her right arm to show that she has no right hand, I’ve pretty much seen enough.
The viral TikTok video of a Palm Beach County, Florida, traffic stop was taken on Feb. 11, but first went viral when the woman involved — Kathleen Thomas, who goes by the nom du internet @slightlyoff.balance, described by WPEC-TV as “an adaptive athlete and social media influencer” — posted it to the social media platform this week.
That’s because she went to court, and the bodycam footage was turned over. It’s as bad as you might imagine.
“Today, we’re doing an operation for distracted driving, and you drove past me holding the phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone,” the officer said.
Katie then holds up her right arm to show there’s no right hand, and laughs.
“So, do you just want to call this a day, or what?” she said.
And here’s where blind pride kicks in: “I don’t want to call it a day,” the cop said. “You had a hand up manipulating … you had a hand up. I saw you manipulate with your right hand? Perhaps not, right? But I saw you.”
Except he said he saw her using specifically the one hand she can’t use to drive, which means he would have noticed no hand on the steering wheel, right?
He went through with it anyway, giving her a $116 ticket for violating the state of Florida’s ban on using your phone while driving. However, even this is suspect, as this only necessarily applies within certain areas, including school zones and crossings and work zones.
While the ticket was listed as “Wireless Comm. Device/Handheld While Driving – First Offense,” the cop did not check either the box that said it happened in a school zone or a construction zone.
Well, there was good news, after the video amassed millions of views: “Court records show the citation was dismissed at the request of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy who issued it. A court hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday, but was canceled after the case was dropped,” WPEC reported.
@slightlyoff.balance The finale!!!!! #court #cbs #update ♬ original sound – slightlyoff.balance
There are two things to note here about how stupid and unnecessary this was.
First, for stubbornly insisting he give a ticket to a woman for using the phone with a hand she did not have — something even Joseph Heller wouldn’t have dared include in “Catch-22,” come to think of it — he may have thought he had gotten the better of her.
Not only did he not, but he’s become the subject of an internet Two Minutes Hate, and not quite wrongly. As for Thomas, not only did the bodycam footage rack up millions of views, but got her an invite, among other things, to appear on “CBS Mornings,” according to WPEC.
Second, what this cop did is nothing but fodder for the Black Lives Matter contingent who want to make out every man and woman who wears a badge as a Bull Connor lurking beneath a modern veneer.
For those who don’t pay much attention, this argument seems somewhat more plausible when looking at this man playing out a Kafka-esque scene on the side of the road. (Yes, he’s managed to score references to Heller, Orwell, and Kafka all in just two paragraphs. That trifecta should tell you precisely how most people are going to view this sort of behavior.)
Finally, it’s worth noting that bodycams have been great for conservatives in so many ways. Not only have they shown the widespread malfeasance cops were accused of by liberals had nothing in common with reality when they were mandated en masse over the past decade, but they have allowed us to identify the real cancers on our men and women in blue.
This case has been dismissed. I’m not saying the officer should be, mind you — but at the very least, he needs a talking-to about where pride can lead an angry soul. There aren’t many publishers that are more pro-police than we are, but this guy was way, way out of line. It’s bad enough that the creep didn’t apologize, but then to give her a ticket after he claimed he saw her doing something she literally can’t do because she’s missing a hand — that cannot be brooked.
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