We previously covered a story involving two Los Angeles police department
cops who ended up getting fired after they decided to ignore an active robbery,
just so they can continue playing Pokémon Go on the job.
Now, Vice recently obtained the transcripts of the officers
dialogue as they played the game and
it's as ridiculous and somewhat hilarious as you would expect.
This incident took place on April 15th, of 2017, and here's what we know about it.
So Sergeant Jose Gomez radioed officers, Louis Lozano and
Eric Mitchell for help with a robbery in progress.
Gomez didn't hear back from them.
The next day, Gomez pulled the video footage from their squad car.
He discovered that the pair were parked literally across the street from
the alleged crime.
So they're in the vicinity,
they're very close to where this alleged robbery is taking place.
It would have taken minimal effort for them to simply do their jobs, but
they refused to do so because they were busy everyone,
they were playing Pokémon Go and they gotta catch them all.
And so what ended up happening?
What did the transcript say?
Well, dispatch reached out to the officers and
asked for their help directly, they ignored it.
Should we ask if there is a message, Lozano said,
maybe they want us to go over there and help out.
It's up to you senior, Mitchell said.
Ahh, screw it, Lozano said.
So basically, I don't know, we should really look into this,
maybe they need our help, screw it.
It continues, so they began this quest to catch them all.
And here's how that went down,
Mitchell said Snorlax just popped up, Lozano,
Leimert doesn't go all the way to 46h, does it?
I haven't played this game so I don't know what any of this means but
it sounds fun I guess.
Or what could I do?
I'll go down to 11th, swing up Crenshaw, that way I can get to it.
By the way, they're not talking about getting to the scene of the robbery,
they're talking about getting to a Pokémon that they're trying to catch, okay?
It continues, if this light changes you could take
11th to 46 and then make a right on 46.
If it's up at Cavalry Chapel, Christian Cavalry Chapel,
remember we were there earlier?
You went to go check the church, that's exactly where it's at.
We got four minutes, then after that Togetic just popped up.
So that's another Pokémon that they wanna get and
apologies if I'm mispronouncing some of these names incorrectly.
So for those in the audience who might not be familiar,
myself included with the game, here's what Snorlax looks like,
there's Snorlax very cute and cuddly, I would wanna catch it.
Not if I'm a cop, I'd rather do my job, and respond to an armed robbery but
that's not what happened with these two cops.
And then we also have the other, this is a Togertic,
that's the other one that they were trying to catch, so lots of fun.
Anyway, we're currently dealing with the crime wave and
it is concerning that we have police departments.
Not just here in Los Angeles, but across the country,
that are full of cops that are either so
terrified that they immediately shoot as soon as they feel like there might be
a threat thus killing a lot of unarmed people across the country.
More importantly, these people do not, these two especially,
clearly don't take their job seriously.
When responding to a robbery would have taken minimal effort, but
they couldn't be bothered with it, they were too busy playing a game.
Now they were both fired luckily, and they were both so incompetent that
they didn't realize that they were being recorded in their own squad car.
But how many cops refuse to respond to the scene of a crime when
they're asked for help, that's the real question here.
>> Yeah, this reminds me of the Democrats, I mean, you're gonna say, wait,
come on Cenk, right?
>> [LAUGH] >> And I'll tell you why,
because it turns out these cops can catch things if they want to.
It's just, they wanted to catch the Pokémon and
they didn't wanna catch the robber like the Democrats.
They could apparently fight really hard,
you just have to put them up against the progressive in the primary, but
when against the republicans are like, I don't know how to fight them.
Fight what names so, but to be fair to the cops,
Snorlax is a hell of a beast.
It weighs in at over a 1000 pounds, compared to the Gobbledygook,
the other one that weighs in at just 7.1 pounds.
And Snorelax also has abilities,
immunity, hey, just like the cops and
the other ability is listed as thick fat.
Interesting, okay?
That is apparently not offensive in the Pokémon world, his thick fat,
that's his ability.
But if he doesn't eat 880 pounds of food every day, he will instantly go to sleep,
which makes it a little bit easier on the cops to catch him, to be fair.
So look, my guess is, if it was a random call called in by one of you guys,
a normal citizen, and they wanted to go catch donuts,
they would not have gotten in any trouble at all.
The reason why they got in trouble here, is one, it was a fellow cop asking for
backup and they decided to ignore it, that makes it worse, of course, and
something that other cops might care about.
And number two,
it was just a funny absurd story about how they were trying to catch Pokémon.
Otherwise, cops don't respond to a million calls, they think working is optional.
So after the 2020 protests and then some of the riots etc,
the cops decided they were gonna protest by not doing their jobs.
Can you do that at your job?
>> Yeah.
No, I don't like Burger King policies, I'm not gonna flip the burgers anymore.
You'd last approximately three and a half minutes, right?
But the cops, well, give them credit on this one, they have great unions and
you can't ever fire them unless they screwed over another cop.
>> Exactly, and
that's really the reason why they ended up getting fired pretty swiftly.
I should also note that they ended up speeding,
again, not to the scene of the alleged crime.
They were speeding on the road to get
to the Pokémon that they were trying to catch for this game.
And this was also telling, one more exchange I wanna read to you.
So this is a graphic seven, Mitchell said holy crap!
Finally, the guys are gonna be so jealous and Lozano said,
let's go back to 7-11 and sit there.
>> There you go, that's cop 101 right there, okay?
>> That exchange, but okay, the guys are gonna be so jealous.
I mean that's where you tell, I mean he's telling on other cops within
the department who are much more concerned with playing this ridiculous game.
I don't mean don't mean to besmirch the Pokémon Go game, okay?
But seriously, if you've taken an oath to protect and serve and
instead you're focusing on this game.
And it's not just you, it's all the other guys within your department who apparently
are gonna be so jealous that you managed to catch more Pokemon than they have.
>> Yeah, well, it turns out this Pokemon character is not the only thing that
should be named, Snorlax, them going back to headquarters is going back to 7-11,
they be lie, let's meet up with all the other cops doing nothing at 7-11.
Did any of those cops get fired?
Nope, did all the other cops playing Pokemon Go get fired?
Nope, okay, no only these guys because they didn't respond to a fellow officer,
that's the only thing that could possibly get you in trouble.
We reported on cops getting fired before, it's because they stole from other cops.
It's like it's the same pattern every single time.
But if you're not doing that, you can get away with anything,
you could have been playing Pokemon Go from that moment to this moment and
you wouldn't get fired as a cop, okay?
And by the way, what do you think they were all doing?
They're all still at that same 7-11 and
nobody's doing any goddamn thing about that.
So that's the reality of policing in America, but they are doing tours non-stop
around Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills is gonna be okay, the rest of you, good luck.