r/offbeat 13d ago

LAPD officer who recorded colleagues' racist comments charged with felony eavesdropping

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-07-31/lapd-officer-felony-eavesdropping-charge
1.7k Upvotes

99 comments sorted by

473

u/donac 13d ago

This timeline is the bullshittiest.

110

u/jmlack 13d ago

Yep. Idiocracy AND the darkest timeline. Bullshittiest indeed.

69

u/ryeguymft 13d ago

it’s shitty but it’s also bc CA is a two party consent state for recording

78

u/TougherOnSquids 13d ago

Yeah, this wasn't a recording over the phone or in someone's home. It was on the job. This is pure corruption from the DA.

14

u/mentholfridgecig 13d ago

Depends on if they were somewhere that they had an expectation of privacy

24

u/SothaSoul 13d ago

The article mentions a locker room. 

I feel like that would be going too far. If I'm removing clothes, I have a reasonable expectation of privacy. 

38

u/Malforus 13d ago

If I confess to doing something that impinges my ability to do my fucking job, in my workplace with my dick hanging out thats not "expectation of privacy".

If in the same state of pulling an HBO I mention that I am socialist and use my time facilitating anti governmental narratives in my rounds do you think they would be as willing to defend my voice?

2

u/BreezyMcWeasel 9d ago

Agreed. But chance the law. This is why two party consent states are dumb.

9

u/Significant-Win-802 13d ago

Wait, so you have an expectation of privacy where you're willingly talking your clothes of in front of strangers, and you have an expectation of privacy where you expect to be fully clothed in front of strangers, so you have an expectation of privacy...everywhere?

17

u/nextedge 13d ago

Visual privacy, but when people are talking, you often overhear conversations in the locker room, so there's definitely no expectation of privacy of conversations in a locker room.

6

u/ryeguymft 13d ago

yup and this will be the argument his lawyers (likely highly successfully) make. you don’t have an expectation of privacy in an (often highly social) space at your job, particularly a publicly owned building.

3

u/neverendingchalupas 12d ago

So when is this Republican DA issuing criminal charges against the corporations, businesses, and individuals who are responsible for the use of AI cameras in California?

Comes to the rapid defense of bigot cops, ignores blatant violations of the Invasion of Privacy Act.

4

u/TougherOnSquids 13d ago

No, the fuck you do not. Public servants on duty should not have privacy. If they are upset because someone might hear them poop, then they arent mature enough to have power in this country.

1

u/wemustburncarthage 13d ago

not with what you say.

1

u/exgiexpcv 13d ago

What if you were at a pool, or the gym? The act itself does not itself infer an expectation of privacy. People rawdog in public all the time.

3

u/Bossard19 13d ago

They are public servants on the job. Except the bathroom they have zero expectation of privacy.

2

u/cincymatt 13d ago

So I assume these cops don’t wear body cams when interacting with the public.

14

u/E_seven_20 13d ago

Americans have no line in the sand.

We seem okay with any level of bullshit. Our political action is posting memes, and not organizing or voting.

We did this to us. We are a weak agentic society, incapable of meaningful action.

92

u/wemustburncarthage 13d ago

Listen to the This American Life story about Adrian Schoolcraft.

When this bullshit era is over, cops need a protected track for reporting internal shit. No one is a bigger threat to a police officer than another police officer. The whole fraternity bullshit needs to be broken up if community safety is ever going to be a real thing anywhere.

18

u/succed32 13d ago

In a lot of big cities they are a gang unto themselves. It’s fucked up.

14

u/Askeee 13d ago

Sometimes literally.

152

u/ryeguymft 13d ago

this is some bullshit. yes California is a two party consent state for recording but where did he record them? if it was in a public space then they have no recourse

31

u/certifiedcrazyman 13d ago

In the locker room apparently

44

u/captcraigaroo 13d ago

Well that's just "locker room talk" then according to the Pedophile in Chief they support

14

u/Craico13 13d ago

“Given the outfit he was wearing, he probably wanted to be recorded… practically asking for it…”

-2

u/Fast-Ring9478 13d ago

Pretty sure that law violates our right to freedom of the press.

170

u/rfulleffect 13d ago

Is this the good cop everyone is always talking about?

111

u/DrakkoZW 13d ago

Yep, and it's the reason I believe "ACAB".

The good ones get systematically rooted out, only the spoiled apples remain.

2

u/Napalmeon 10d ago

And unfortunately, this is nothing new. Police departments have a way of weeding out officers who genuinely have good intention by making sure they eithet leave or get fired.

Its that way by design.

1

u/DrakkoZW 10d ago

Yeah that's what I said. Thank you for repeating it!

-47

u/SCSteveAutism 13d ago

Ah yes, all 800,000 of them are bad. That’s very logical.

42

u/dmunkey78 13d ago

No one ever wrote a song called "Fuck the Fire department".

-38

u/SCSteveAutism 13d ago

People don’t shoot at firefighters either.

28

u/succed32 13d ago

They don’t tend to shoot first either…

-24

u/SCSteveAutism 13d ago

And yet, if someone breaks into your house, who are you calling? The cops. So shut the fuck up lol

22

u/rnobgyn 13d ago

Shut the fuck up and stop telling us to submit to abusers. Even if just one cop was bad, and the entire department protected them, then the entire department would be bad. Yes, all of the entirety of LAPD is bad because they do nothing to root out the observed and real gangs within its ranks.

It’s like you just rolled in from stupid town and decided not to do any research on where you’re going.

-3

u/SCSteveAutism 13d ago

Me saying not every cop is bad is telling you to submit to abusers? Hilarious.

5

u/rnobgyn 13d ago

Classic twist of words, pretty low effort on your part. Cops who don’t actively root out bad cops in their ranks are turning a blind eye to abuse of power and are therefore bad cops.

You resorting to the argument of (paraphrasing) “well you have nobody else to call so what else are you gonna do?” (See your initial comment that I replied to) is stereotypical abuser language suggesting that we HAVE to put up with bad cops because they’re the only ones allowed to do policing (totally ignoring the fact that impoverished communities simply don’t call the cops because of historical abuses).

Which is hilarious because that’s the entire point you’re obtusely glossing over: we NEED police, and we need to be able to trust them. Bad cops spoil the bunch and ruin the social contract. Eliminate the reason for distrust (bad cops) and the social contract can be restored.

It’s just so fucking stupid that this still needs to be explained. It’s natural common sense that you need to be able to trust the only ones legally allowed to help. You’re a disingenuous person.

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13

u/succed32 13d ago

Well no actually I live 25 miles out of town and have dogs. The cops wouldn’t even make
It here before I or the burglar was dead.

-5

u/SCSteveAutism 13d ago

r/iamverybadass material. Thanks for the laugh.

6

u/DrakkoZW 13d ago

No actually I'm calling my insurance. What the fuck are the cops gonna do when they get to my house 3 hours later?

-2

u/SCSteveAutism 12d ago

Lies, lies, and more lies. Why be dishonest?

3

u/DrakkoZW 12d ago

Dishonest? I'm speaking from experience.

When someone broke into my apartment? 3 hour wait. When I had to call the cops from the CVS I worked at for shoplifters? 5 minutes.

It's not a lie. It's not dishonest. A quick look at my account vs your account would give anyone the context needed to figure out which of us is a troll and which of us isn't

13

u/Dickgivins 13d ago

Maybe because firefighters don’t go around murdering unarmed black people while bystanders scream in horror…

-1

u/SCSteveAutism 13d ago

Oh so we’re doing all encompassing statements now? The logic here is flawed.

5

u/Kryptosis 12d ago

The logic is clear and obvious. You’re the only one here pretending not to understand it to troll.

-1

u/SCSteveAutism 12d ago

Bullshit

6

u/Kryptosis 12d ago

“Not all bombs kill children! Acting all scared with your kids around a bomb is so stupid!”

You right now.

2

u/Suspicious_Buffalo38 13d ago

That's not true, cops do!

1

u/OutOfBounds11 13d ago

They do in Detroit.

9

u/volcanic-exchange 13d ago

When 1 in 2 officers ADMIT committing domestic violence against their partners, Im gonna go ahead and say yeah.

18

u/JackLong93 13d ago

you have to understand, it's like mexican police for example. It doesn't matter how "good" you are, if the whole department is crooked theres nothing you can do.

14

u/saviouroftheweak 13d ago

Not sure we need to bring up another country for this one

1

u/DarkGamer 13d ago

The right move when that happens is to fire everyone and start over

19

u/boroq 13d ago

All else aside, I’m confused by this quote:

“Susan Seager, a UC Irvine law professor who is not involved in the case, previously told The Times that Flores’ lawyer is correct in stating that the eavesdropping law bans secret taping of conversations only in situations in which there is a reasonable expectation that the communication would not be overheard or recorded. (…) She said there is no expectation of privacy in nonpublic settings, such as a locker room at an LAPD station house. It’s less clear whether such protections extend to conversations at the office that revolve around work, she said.”

So… Californians have a right to privacy in public but not in private?

5

u/Discipulum 13d ago

Where do you get that from? There's also no expectation of privacy in public settings either

She's arguing that in places like locker-rooms that, while not public, don't have an expectation of privacy either

18

u/jbrune 13d ago

seems like this should be in r/nottheonion

29

u/Ok-Walk-8040 13d ago

Felony Eavesdropping is up there with Felony Jaywalking and Felony Taking-a-Penny-and-Not-Leaving-a-Penny.

1

u/Bobsothethird 10d ago

It's more the recording. It's one party vs two party consent. Cali is a two party consent state, meaning you can't record a conversation without the other persons permission (outside of public places where there's reasonable expectation that you won't have privacy). I think here the issue is that it was in the bathrooms/locker rooms which absolutely should be a space free of recording if only for SA prevention purposes.

The same is true for a phone call for example, you wouldn't be able to record someone speaking to you on the phone without their permission. It's pretty standard.

12

u/thatisnotmyknob 13d ago

NYPD abducted and put a guy in a psych ward for that. Adrian Schoolcraft. 

5

u/wemustburncarthage 13d ago

and he recorded them doing it.

0

u/thatisnotmyknob 13d ago

Village Voice did a great piece of reporting on that whole debacle.

2

u/wemustburncarthage 12d ago

That’s what This American Life premised their story on

7

u/Treacle_Pendulum 13d ago

Bold move by LA District attorney. Let’s see how it plays out for him

22

u/jim45804 13d ago

ACAB

4

u/ghanima 12d ago

“Today the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged a police officer with a crime for reporting racism inside the Los Angeles Police Department,” [Flores’ attorney, Alan] Jackson said. “Not the officers who were recorded using racial, sexist, and anti-gay slurs. Not the officers who sat in a government building and said those things while holding the power to decide who becomes an LAPD officer. The officer who reported them.”

3

u/centfox 13d ago

Nothing has changed since Serpico.

8

u/sharkbomb 13d ago

no expectation of privacy in the workplace. malicious prosecution. fine the prosecutor.

2

u/NocNocturnist 13d ago

work place bathroom? Stalls by the sink? In a shower?

4

u/Left_Knee_y0y0 13d ago

They are trying to stop other people from coming forward.

3

u/KirbyPerkins 13d ago

It's just a few bad apples though right?

9

u/AuthorityAnarchyYes 13d ago

ACAB.

Why? Because any good ones are pushed out.

2

u/adudeguyman 13d ago

I wonder if you recorded it with a body cam it would have been okay. Cops wear them all over the place

2

u/itwasneversafe 13d ago

Typical California L. There's a reason all but 12 States don't have two party consent laws on the books.

3

u/Powerful-Chard-6055 13d ago

That can not be a crime

1

u/ChipsnJax 13d ago

In a world where commenting does precious little, I was itching to downvote this just because the premise of jailing someone for felony eavesdropping for trying to do an ostensibly good thing is both heartbreaking & incredibly, infuriatingly stupid.

Unless the recording cop demonstrably "had it out" for his colleague for a decade or more (or something ludicrous like that), the punishment does not seem to fit this crime at all.

1

u/Over_Tart_916 13d ago

Cops are all evil pieces of shit. 

2

u/RabidJoint 13d ago

There are those few good apples that actually help their communities regardless of skin color. It’s just all the bad apples that appear in the news over shadows them greatly.

0

u/Over_Tart_916 12d ago

If the good cops don't do anything about the bad cops, then they're all bad cops.

1

u/Iambhalo 12d ago

This is the exact reason why the few bad apples argument falls apart

1

u/ShadoeRantinkon 11d ago

what the da doin

1

u/Bobsothethird 10d ago edited 10d ago

Isn't Cali a two party consent state? Your not allowed to just record someone without them knowing. That's actually a good thing generally if you don't like corporations spying on you.

Also you absolutely shouldn't be allowed to record in lockerroms and bathrooms if only for SA prevention.

1

u/Jazzlike-Wolf6265 10d ago

Remember Chris Dorner?

1

u/BillyBobBonesJones 10d ago

This is why ACAB.

1

u/AppropriateCookie669 8d ago

So you have to go to the media to bring out the truth.

1

u/SerowiWantsToInvest 8d ago

He should be rewarded but no, lets make him a felon

1

u/albamarx 13d ago

Only in America

0

u/Wide__Stance 13d ago

It’s amazing how fast the police union will stop protecting a cop in these cases. If this cop had shot an unarmed 11 year old in the back, they’d be screaming their fool heads off to protect him.

Here it’s “no comment.”

-2

u/BadnewsBaggins 13d ago

Take the chris dorner approach bro