Update July 31 8:07 a.m. ET: An enhanced version of the tape attained by Ted Rall contradicts the LA Times’ comments on his firing. Listen to it here.
aNewDomain commentary 
— As an editorial cartoonist for The Los Angeles Times, I have drawn numerous cartoons critical of the Los Angeles Police Department’s abuse, corruption and heavy-handed incompetence.
Now it seems the LAPD has gotten even: It has convinced the Times to fire me.
At issue is a blog I wrote to accompany my May 11, 2015 cartoon for the Times.
It was about an announced LAPD crackdown. Not on violent crime, but jaywalking. I opened with a personal anecdote from nearly 14 years ago, when a Los Angeles police officer ticketed me for jaywalking on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. The date was October 3, 2001.
I’ll get into the allegations below the fold. But first, here is a far-from-complete sample of LAPD-related cartoons I’ve drawn for The Times and some other publications:
Ted Rall LAPD Cartoon: By Ted Rall, September 13, 2012
Ted Rall LAPD cartoon: By Ted Rall, May 8, 2012
Ted Rall LAPD cartoon: By Ted Rall, May 11, 2015
Ted Rall LAPD cartoon: By Ted Rall, April 20, 2015
Ted Rall LAPD cartoon: By Ted Rall, August 14, 2014
Ted Rall LAPD cartoon: By Ted Rall, March 13, 2015
Ted Rall LAPD cartoon in Pasadena Weekly: By Ted Rall, July 25, 2013
Now, regarding the 2001 jaywalking ticket about which the LAPD now calls me a liar, I should note that I wasn’t jaywalking. Not even a little bit. I was innocent.
And the cop was rough. While writing me a summons for what is, in Los Angeles, a mere infraction, the cop shoved me around and handcuffed me. He was contemptuous, too — after issuing me a violation and releasing me, he feigned to hand me back my driver’s license.
Then he tossed it into the gutter.
I was upset. And, after discussing this incident with some friends, I fought the jaywalking charge. I also decided to file a formal complaint with the LAPD. (This is the only time I have done so.)
When I didn’t hear back, I called to check the status of my complaint.
Eventually I received a letter from LAPD’s Internal Affairs division. It stated that, without interviewing me, they had found my complaint groundless.
That was the last I heard from the LAPD. Until, this past May, when I wrote a blog for the Times where I mentioned the story of when the angry cop shoved me around and threw my drivers license in the sewer.
What’s crazy is, the LAPD says I’m the one who is lying!
So, last week, on Thursday, I got a call from Paul Pringle, a reporter for The Times.
Pringle told me that the LAPD was calling me a liar. According to the police, he said, the whole thing never happened — well, the jaywalking citation did, but that’s it. The police officer, the LAPD now claims, was scrupulously polite.
What’s more, the LAPD told Pringle the department had proof that I had misrepresented the incident.
Far from the mean, unprofessional asshole I described in my Times blog and on other occasions, the LAPD claimed, the officer who’d ticketed me and thrown me against a wall (and my driver’s license into the sewer) was the epitome of professionalism and politeness.
And Pringle told me that the LAPD had “proof.”
Apparently, and unbeknownst to me, the LAPD officer who wrote me that bullshit jaywalking citation secretly recorded the incident — audio only, no video. We don’t know what device was used but, since this was 2001, it may have been an analog micro-cassette recorder.
That’s right: As far back as 2001, Los Angeles police were surreptitiously recording their interactions with the public. Did anyone know that?
Even more incredible, someone at the LAPD took the time, presumably while on the clock and while spending taxpayer dollars, to dig up a 14-year-old tape recording of a Times cartoonist getting a jaywalking ticket.
This, remember, is the same LAPD that couldn’t be bothered to test thousands of rape kits.
This Extremely Damning Audiotape, Pringle told me, seriously called my account — and by extension my journalistic integrity — into question. (Scroll below to hear the tape yourself, the one LAPD offers up as “proof” and which The Los Angeles Times accepted as such.)
On Monday, Times editorial page editor Nick Goldberg called to inform me that I had been fired, based on what he’d heard on the LAPD audiotape.
I was shocked. I’ve worked as a professional journalist, both in words and pictures, for more than 20 years. Journalism’s search for truth is sacred to me. When I get something wrong, I don’t hesitate to issue a correction or a retraction.
Was it possible that I had conflated two incidents? Fourteen years is a long time. Is it possible that I’d misremembered the incident? Was I suffering some sort of memory loss?
In short: No. I hadn’t. I wasn’t.
This so-called “evidence” against me is audio-only, and crappy quality at that.
Pringle emailed me the audiofile, along with an LAPD transcript.
With Pringle listening on the phone, I listened to it for the first time. When it was finished, I was baffled. Why was I in trouble?
Seriously?
Here. Listen for yourself:
If you’re listening to the tape, there are multiple incidents on there. My jaywalking detention begins at 06:38.
Update July 31, 2015, 8:10 a.m. ET: Ted Rall and aNewDomain today released an enhanced version of the tape on which you can clearly hear — beginning at minute 3:30 — a bystander clearly yell at the LAPD officer to “take the handcuffs off” Ted Rall, a development which suggests cops, not Rall, have been lying about what happened on the Oct. 3, 2001 traffic stop. Listen to the tape and read more here.
Warning: the sound quality is atrocious. You can barely hear the officer speaking and I’m barely audible. For about six minutes while I’m standing against a wall, handcuffed and waiting, you’ll be hearing wind, traffic, and for all I know, the muffled sound of something covering the mic, or perhaps it is demagnetization. If you’re a sound engineer, I’d love to hear your opinion of the authenticity of the tape.
As you listen to this recording, this recording that The Los Angeles Times and the LAPD say proves I’m a liar with no journalistic integrity, notice how the tape doesn’t even back up the LAPD’s account or allegations against me.
The LAPD claims the cop who arrested me was not overtly rude. This is true. Unlike me, he knows he’s being recorded. So he plays to the tape.
If you listen carefully, however, you might pick up the jovial sarcasm in his voice. Unlike the Times’ Goldberg, I was actually there. You can hear the cop whistling at about 7:30, 9:30, and 10:10. He hums at 11:11.
Has a police officer issuing you a ticket ever done that?
At about 12:15 the cop says he’s returning my license. But you can’t see him smirking as he tosses it on the ground. The audiotape “looks” fine for the cop.
A video would tell a different story.
Paul Pringle, the Times reporter who initially called me to tell me that the LAPD was calling me a liar, repeatedly challenged me on why I was so polite and deferential in the audio. Yes, sir, no sir — why didn’t I argue with the cop? Pringle demanded to know. Especially since, as he put it, I had a small crowd of “supporters” gathered around on the street? (The LAPD also denies the crowd happened.)
I told Pringle:
“I don’t argue with cops. Cops can kill you. They can beat you up. They can throw you in jail overnight, for days, even longer. They have the power of the state backing them up. I’ve been nice and non-argumentative with every cop who has ever written me a ticket, justified or not. Of course, if I’d known that the encounter was being recorded, and that my job would be at stake as a result 14 years later, I might have piped up.”
At this point I feel compelled to quote Dave Barry when I assure you I am not making this up: The cops say I was never handcuffed or manhandled.
What?
Pringle asked me about the fact that you couldn’t hear (a) the sound of the handcuffs going on my wrists or (b) the sound of my driver’s license hitting the ground. Listen to the tape: Industrial Light & Magic this ain’t. And a driver’s license is made of laminated paper.
Paper, even laminated paper, doesn’t make a heavy sound when it lands. Not here on Earth.
The LAPD told Pringle there was no crowd. Actually, there was. Melrose was a hangout for punk rock and counterculture types back then, several of whom loudly questioned why the officer was writing me up in the first place and why he’d put me in handcuffs. Others just watched.
I’m not sure, but their voices may be what you can barely hear in the background between 9:50 and 11:20. Then again, maybe not. It’s too hard to hear. When the officer whistles and hums, is he doing so in order to mask the sound of these people objecting to what he’s doing? Maybe. Maybe not.
Pringle and Goldberg, when we spoke, questioned why in the several accounts I’ve written about this, a detail changed. I had remembered the cop throwing my wallet, not just my license, on the ground. I called the place where the license landed “the sewer” as well as “the gutter.”
In southwestern Ohio, where I grew up, the two words are interchangeable. But yeah. I’m a writer, I should have been more specific on that. (Editors note: Across the United States, where the editors grew up, we used the terms interchangeably, too).
The Los Angeles Times also wanted to know: Why, at the time, hadn’t I complained about being handcuffed, but instead about my being falsely charged?
The answer is, I was, at the time, far more concerned and angry about being falsely charged with a misdemeanor that could have created a criminal record. Being roughly detained was just something I endured. Though traumatized, I hadn’t been physically injured. Moreover, I was a talk show host at KFI, a Los Angeles radio station, and certainly didn’t need any public scuffles with the LAPD.
Looking back on it now, I’m surprised I even bothered to take the step of filing a complaint. It speaks to how much I felt an injustice had been done.
But The Los Angeles Times still wanted to know why — why if this encounter was so awful, did I not ask the cop about dining options (!) after he let me go?
Yes, you read correctly. That’s what my editors asked me. Even if the cop hadn’t been mean, why would I have asked him to recommend a good restaurant?
Listening to the tape now, I can’t imagine what I was thinking. The only explanation I can fathom is that I had classic Stockholm Syndrome.
I was stunned at the time. Not that I’m comparing myself with a rape victim — far from it — but now I better understand why sometimes a raped woman will question pressing charges or call a date-rapist at home hours after he left her. I was blathering nonsense, I guess.
But LA Times editors told me they believed that inaudible tape. Why?
The audiotape, both Pringle and Goldberg told me, supports the official police narrative: no rough treatment, no handcuffs, no shoving, no angry crowd, no second motorcycle officer pulling my cop away from the scene.
What a surprise, that the cops’ cherry-picked evidence, mysteriously lacking five solid minutes of intelligible sound, should back up their story!
I, on the other hand, had nothing. I don’t surreptitiously tape things 14 years ago just so I can pull them out and use them later. Who does that? Well, besides the LAPD apparently.
Such flimsy “evidence” to lose my cartoonist position at the LA Times over.
Truth is, this is a he said/he said story. Either you believe that a Los Angeles police officer mistreated me or you don’t.
I don’t have proof for my claims.
What I do have is common sense. I’m betting you do, too.
Why would I file a formal complaint, and thus subject myself to investigation, if I were lying?
If I were lying, why didn’t I claim something more serious — say, physical injury?
What I also have on my side are the citizens of Los Angeles.
Anyone who has dealt with the LAPD, or known someone who has, won’t have much trouble imagining the incident exactly the way I describe it, which is exactly how it happened.
At the Times, however, a cartoonist under fire from the LAPD is guilty until proven innocent.
Pringle and Goldberg’s credulousness is, well, incredible.
During his interview of me, Pringle asked about my claim that the LAPD had ignored my complaint.
In fact, he pointed out, the LAPD provided a call log showing their attempts to contact me. How did I explain that? he asked.
I replied that I had been waiting by the phone because I wanted to talk to them, but that the LAPD had never called.
Did I think, then, that there was a “grand conspiracy” to falsify the call log? Pringle wanted to know.
Since when is a “conspiracy” required to fake a call log?
Notice anything funny about the log?
Check out the dates. Don’t the police know the difference between 2001 and 2002? Doesn’t the LA Times staff?
Grand conspiracy? I doubt it. But it’s interesting that the date error doesn’t bother them. If I’d supplied that, Pringle and Goldberg would have ripped it apart.
What I don’t doubt is that the relationship between the Times and the LAPD is way too cozy.
This much is clear: It was easier for The Los Angeles Times to throw a cartoonist under a bus than it was to stand by him in the face of institutional anger.
During my last call with Goldberg, when he called to fire me, he said he had tried to be fair.
If that was true, I asked him, why hadn’t he allowed me to defend myself in any of the meetings over the past week, in which he said the editorial board had “agonized” over what to do?
He had no answer.
I reminded Goldberg that no one had impugned the veracity of anything else I’d written for the LA Times since I began in 2009. He conceded that was true.
Given my exemplary history and the chilling effect this will have on anyone who dares to criticize the LAPD, he should have given me the benefit of the doubt over an inaudible audiotape.
For aNewDomain and the new SkewedNews satire site, I’m Ted Rall.
Addendum:
Check out the LA Police Department’s transcript, below:
Update Aug. 6, 2014: For further reading, check out these links:
Ted Rall-LAPD-LA Times Scandal: Timeline by Gina Smith (aNewDomain)
A Note to Readers (about the Ted Rall firing) by Los Angeles Times editorial page editor Nick Goldberg (LA Times)
LAPPL Applauds LA Times Firing of Ted Rall (by Los Angeles Police Protective League Board of Directors (LAPD.com)
LAPD Convinced LA Times To Fire Me After I Criticized Cops [exclusive] by Ted Rall (aNewDomain commentary)
Ted Rall, Los Angeles Times Cartoonist, Dropped After Blog Post Appears To Stretch The Truth (FoxNews.com)
Ted Rall LAPD-LA Times Scandal: A Discrepancy In The Cop’s Story [exclusive] by Ted Rall (aNewDomain commentary)
Ted Rall-LAPD-LA Times Battle: New Tape Proves Cops, Times Were Wrong [exclusive] by Gina Smith with Ted Rall (aNewDomain commentary)
Ted Rall LAPD LA Times Scandal: Second Enhanced LAPD Tape Reveals Startling Details [exclusive] by Ted Rall, Gina Smith and Tom Ewing (aNewDomain)
Ted Rall LAPD Scandal: Rall Vindicated, LAPD And LA Times under Fire by Tom Ewing, Gina Smith (aNewDomain news)
Did The LAPD Have A Political Cartoonist Fired? by Ryan Steadman and Guelda Voien (The New York Observer)
‘Cleaned-Up’ Audiotape of Political Cartoonist’s Clash With LAPD Bolsters His Story by Hunter Harris (New York Observer)
In Defense of Ted Rall, A Hard Guy To Defend by Ken Kurson (New York Observer opinion column)
Why Didn’t The Los Angeles Times Examine The Bad Audio from the LAPD? by Ted Rall (aNewDomain commentary)
Cops Gun Down Unarmed Journalist’s Career by Greg Palast (Reader Supported News, opinion)
Ted Rall: Fisking The Los Angeles Times by Ted Rall (aNewDomain commentary)
Why Won’t The L.A. Times Admit They Were Wrong About Cartoonist Ted Rall? by Susie Madrak (Crooks and Liars)
14 Years Ago, A Woman Vindicated Me Now by Ted Rall (Common Dreams)
Cover image: LATimes.tumblr.com, All Rights Reserved.
Is there a single human being on the planet more insufferable than Ted Rall?
probably not.
Aaaaahhhhh yah.. HILDEBEAST! Some folks actually PAY ATTENTION to her, as compared to this cretin..
Obama, H. Clinton, Pelosi, Bloomberg…but at least they, sadly, have power.
Yes. Bill de Blasio
Ethically and intellectually speaking, Rall’s shit is better than Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter, by a country mile.
It’s empirical.
Ebola-brained RW tards can bite it (after they finish sucking Koch).
todd roll is a terrible person because he’s been misogynist, transphobic, and homophobic while using the shield of liberal so people say “well he’s better than those evil republicans”. ted rall has written autobiographical comics where he admits to bullying and terrorizing a boy as a young man (“My War With Brian”) and having sex with multiple women when he suspects that he may have the aids virus and be spreading it to them (“The Year of Loving Dangerously”). ted rall is a sad old man that sits on his ass and criticizes young liberals like me while attempting to steal credit for movements like OWS. ted rall is embarrassing to me because he represents the worst of the left. I’m glad he got fired, although I wish it had been for the “Boy wouldn’t it be HILARIOUS if Hitler was a transwoman??? man those lgbtq people sure are dumb” comic he wrote.
So yeah, pretend that you’re a good leftist while calling people “tards” (because people with mental disabilities are so worthless, right?). And sucking cock, that’s for gays and women, so that’s totally an insult.
The comic isn’t “about” trans- anything. It’s about how “the many” get distracted when celeb du jour meets issue do jour and core issues get pushed aside.
It was a comment on our collectively terrible attention span and how we seem to split into only “this is good” or “this is evil” camps. He used something topical to address these issues.
I mean, all of the transpeople I know find it pretty gross and offensive, but I’m sure you, the cis male dude, know better than the minority being mocked here. It doesn’t have to be “about” being trans for it to be awful to use a minority as a joke to push your points.
Ted, you’re pretty much a Bizzaro-World libertarian with all the baggage of whining about petty slights and arbitrary rules, aren’t you?
He’s a communist, actually, but yes, Teddy makes it up as he goes along.
Oh, I know he’s a running Red (except when people pirate his books) but he’s got the same semi-paranoid lunacy that most hardcore libertarians wallow in. Seriously, just change the boogeymen in any of his rants to their logical opposites and he’d fit right in on Reason or Rockwell.
Make them pay.
Paul M Edwardsvia Google+
So much for freedoms of speech and the press
I find this disturbing, Ted. The LA Times believes this old, garbled tape? Really? Something else might be going on …
the la times believes evidence over the word of a person with an axe to grind and agenda to push…
Yeah, there might be. All I know is, they made the wrong call.
Sure, it’s easy for the LAPD to claim that Ted is full of crap. But remember, it’s only easy for them to do so because they have proof.
How dare they use real proof!
pretty crappy and unconvincing “proof.”
So, in between the cop being nice and whistling and being professional, the LAPD edited out the beatings, the crowd gathering, the handcuffing, the wallet tossing?
I have convincing proof that you’re a bit sluggish.
By the way, Ted, how many sockpuppet accounts and boyfriends do you have?
Did you see the follow-up article where the cop who said he never uses handcuffs on traffic infractions is featured in the Times using handcuffs on a traffic stop? Just a few months ago, too. I’d say that’s proof the cop is lying, not Rall.
Yawn.
First of all, the cleaned up audio tape where doucheblast says you can “clearly hear a woman say take off his handcuffs,” uuuuh, no.
You can’t clearly hear that.
I didn’t hear anything of the sort.
In fact, the person who he claims is talking to Durr, in my opinion, is not,
unless Durr is a ventriloquist who can make himself sound close and far away at will.
Second of all, no cop would ever say he “NEVER” uses handcuffs.
He might’ve said, “I never use handcuffs on jaywalking offenses.”
Rall equating jaywalking with a specific task-force charged with cracking down on street racing is another douchetastic moment.
If you’re cracking down on a particular systemic problem in the streets, you might use handcuffs as a way of showing the detained that they are taking this seriously.
Also, the guy in handcuffs? Was he “roughed up?”
Thirdly – the Times is not reacting to whether Rall was stopped, detained, ticketed (whether put in cuffs or not), they are responding to this douchenugget’s claim that he had an extraordinary experience with the police, one akin to a civil rights violation, one where Durr should be, perhaps, on a list of watched officers because the man is a menace.
There is NOTHING in the tape that supports this. NOTHING.
Fourthly, I had no idea Durr was black. And this might be a case of being burned by your own.
The LA Times is not interested in hearing about black cops.
And when Rall characterizes an event with a cop to prove he is part of, and down with, the oppressed #BlackLives Matter coalition, this fantasy of his becomes a twofer.
Not only is it exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness, he’s attacking the wrong race.
All in all – Rall is a schmuck on every level.
So how long have you worked for the LAPD?
No dummy.
I’m not pro-cop, not by a long shot.
I routinely post anti-cop stories and videos when cops are wrong.
The cop that just shot the guy trying to drive away (the guy with the gin bottle) is a murderer. He should be put away for life.
I’m just not going to allow this moron, Ted Rall, to manufacture his seat at the Victims of Barbaric Cops Club with a tall tale of being handcuffed and roughed up and his wallet thrown in a sewer, all happening in front of scores of people yelling at the cop to stop his brutality!!
It’s complete bullshit, and the audio tape proves it.
What do you want? The evidence speaks for itself. Rall got caught creating a mountain out of a molehill and not only will he not own up to it, he’s got delusional sycophants, such as yourself, calling the sky red just because Ted is saying it’s red.
You should be embarrassed.
The evidence exonerates Ted Rall. You owe him an apology.
AHHHHHH hahahahahahahahahahaaha.
There was no exoneration in the “cleaned up” audio.
There was wishful thinking.
The audio is really terrible, but there are some interesting things about it:
1) It isn’t the original recording. It is three recordings spliced together from an earlier set of recordings made by the officer. The splicing is so good, you can’t actually hear exactly where in the tape it takes place. This means that the recording of Rall’s incident could have been spliced as well, and you wouldn’t be able to tell.
2) Of the three recordings, the quality of Rall’s incident is by far the worst. On the others, you can hear the conversation (kinda), there is less background noise, and no oddly placed whistles or hums. This raises the question of why the Rall recording was so bad – obstructed mic ?
3) There is a woman in the Rall incident either very close to the officer or talking directly to him at the time that Rall says that a crowd gathered. This supports the idea that there were others at the scene at the time.
4) The question and answer at the end don’t seem to match each other. While the question really can’t be made out, it sounds a bit like its related to the citation. Without hearing the question, its impossible to say if the answer was a non-sequitur, sarcasm, or a response to a person other than Rall.
5) It’s not clear how the officer was able to end the recording so fast. According to the timeline, the interaction ended at 12:40 and the tape ended at 12:52. Rall was surprised to learn that he was being recorded, so the tape wasn’t ended in front of him. How could the officer get from a busy street to privacy in 12 seconds ? It is possible that there was tape that was edited out between the end of the interaction and the sign-off.
Quite frankly, if Ted Rall were in court, and this tape were presented as evidence, it would probably be thrown out. I can’t imagine a man legitimately losing his job over it. It’s hard not to come to the conclusion in the title – that he was basically fired for criticizing the police.
Thank you, Bob. Not for agreeing with me, because I don’t need a yes man, I need smart people able to see this for what it is. Which, clearly, you do.
Because clearly, he agrees with you. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when you got the call and found out there was a recording. I’ll bet you could have heard a rat pissing on cotton because it got so quiet on your end of the line.
I bet you and flies have some similarities.
Since we’re all tape-y, the LAT has a tape of that call. Maybe they’ll be kind enough to produce it.
The flies and I do have something in common, we have had to put up with the cartoons and opinions you have foisted upon the world like so much bull excrement. Plenty of fodder in that regard. Enjoy your time off.
This is beyond disturbing for me… the mismatch of power is pretty frightening. Please update this post if you get a better analysis of the recording.
I agree. I’ll be fine. Journalism, already on the ropes, not so much.
Journalism is on the ropes because of lying, whining employees like you who got caught in an obvious, bald faced LIE! Any press organization that would employ you would lack any semblance of credibility.
Curious. SuperBOBMarley, how did you come to your determination that that the tape is spliced three ways? gina@ginasmith.com
There are three main sections of the tape:
1) The beginning, where the investigating officer explains that he is making a “recording of a recording” of three of the traffic stops from that night.
2) The main section, containing the stops. These are three stops from the same night, but not necessarily in a single continuous stretch of tape (that part is not clear).
3) The recordings of the investigating officer trying to call Rall’s answering machine (and getting the recording of the Indian / Philippino man)
My point is that the tape is not the raw content from the officer’s recording device, and could have been edited to remove content as well as to add it.
I have people analyzing the tape now to see if that’s the case.
Bob….I notice that you only have 6 comments…all of them on this article.
You aren’t Ted Rall’s sock puppet are you?
Fact is, I have a strict policy of NEVER commenting on political blogs, because it’s almost impossible to have a fact-based discussion. This one is interesting, because there is an actual recording which can be analyzed and interpreted, and because of the stakes – a man’s credibility and livelihood depends on what’s there.
Still, you understand my suspicion. You break the surface for the first time ever to defend Ted, with a new account.
A little odd.
I agree with Bob. It’s weird. It’s worth investigating. It’s ignorant and counter productive to just attack Rall because you want to see him down, conservative vs liberal and all that dumb junior high locker room talk. There is more at stake.
And something smells wrong.
Just to be clear, I didn’t learn about the recording until late last week, when the LAT told me about it. They didn’t tell me, for example, that they’d relied upon it to dismiss my complaint without talking to them,
As someone who has experience in interviews and behavioral elicitation, I can read deception all over this piece from the beginning to the end. I doubt Mr. Rall would have an issue with a 14 year old recording if it exonerated him. But a 14 year old recording that contradicts his version is just downright Orwellian according to the bag of cats he calls a rational mind. I am sure you will land on your cloven hoofs Mr. Rall and be right back at your insulting buffoonish cartoons before too long. Enjoy the time off, read a book, have an original thought….
this is a person who advocates all police interactions should be recorded. being upset his bs story was recorded is indeed hilarious.
A clear high-quality video camera would have been more than welcome at my incident, and likely would have prevented that lying sack of crap cop from treating me the way he did.
How dare he have recorded you and put an end to the lie you’ve been telling all of these years. Sucks when the shoe is on the other foot and it kicks you in the ass, doesn’t it? I used to dig your cartoons in MRR back in the day, but I’ve grown up since then. Suggest you do the same
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
STFU
OVERWHELMING PWNAGE: THE THREAD!!!!!
LOL. Is that what’s dripping all over this thread?
Good luck finding real work in Obama’s America now. Call in all your ill gotten chits for this. I hope to never hear your name again.
I heard Hillary’s campaign is looking for a good few liars and is good at smear campaigns.
Bwa Haa Haa ha!…
According to your own words the cop didn’t get fired for lying, hippy; you did!
STFU
Such things were rare back in 2001.
As for who the “lying sack of crap” is…well, I guess we all can make our own minds about that.
BTW, the recording seems to indicate that you asked the cop about a place to eat after you got your ticket. Do you really expect us to believe that after being slammed up against a wall, handcuffed, and then having your license thrown down the sewer that you then asked the cop about a place to eat? Come on, Ted.
Oh, and one last thing…you make an issue of the detective investigating your complaint using the year “2001” twice in his log. This was right after New Years…who among us hasn’t mistakenly used the previous year in the first month of the new year?
It’s called “normalizing.” It’s a common attempt by someone being harmed by an oppressor to make small talk in order to deescalate a situation by humanizing himself. It’s the reason people say “thank you” to cops after they give them a ticket.
Come on, Ted….give us a break.
A cop slams you up against a wall, handcuffs you, throws your license into the sewer all while attracting, according to you, a crowd of several dozen protesting onlookers and you ask him about a place to eat? Really?
That doesn’t pass the straight-face test, Ted.
Ted misremembered over the years because he’s since included it in his fap sessions, and the cop got rough with him, handcuffed him… and crossfade to the hot tub… cue the gay porn music.
You should have scratched his eyes out, you fierce, fierce, cougar, you.
That’s either the most beta male-tastic thing I’ve ever heard a beta male say, or more b.s. in addition to the b.s. you just got busted for.
Actually, being that you’re a leftist, the correct answer is that it’s both at the same time. Only a leftist could be so completely, unapologetically craven.
I thought you claimed it was ‘classic Stockholm syndrome’ – which, frankly, is silly during a ten minute interaction.
Evidence?
The proof he claimed it was SS in in the article
“Listening to the tape now, I can’t imagine what I was thinking. The only explanation I can fathom is that I had classic Stockholm Syndrome.”
Except that story had changed now it seems
Handcuffed and beat up for JAYWALKING? fourteen YEARS ago? There but for the grace of God…
Sue S
Ha ha. Caught lying and fired. Fuck you.
Ted Rall is a juvenile, talentless agitator who was allowed to occasionally emerge from his proper place buried among the Sex 888 Line and Escort Service ads because he predictably mimicked the line followed by most newspaper editorial editors. But he has screwed himself now, because the mainstream media outlets need to maintain the appearance of propriety and honesty. And he has now been exposed as a liar and fraud. He’ll disappear down the same rabbit hole as people like Janet Cooke and Stephen Glass and Jack Kelley and Jayson Blair. Good Riddance.
Yeah how dare they prove you wrong…..
Go hang out with Brian Williams, the two of you can swap “stories”
They can hold hands and reminisce about the time the LAPD threw their IDs out of a Chinook onto a pile of dead bodies floating past them in the LA Basin just before they helped Obama strike out Hitler-in-Ted Cruz’s-body in the bottom of the ninth to win the big game.
In this case the truth did, in fact, set you free.
This is one of those rare, perfect comments.
Maybe Gawker is hiring. They’re a vile bunch. You’ll fit right in.
Almost funny. He’s ticked he got fired after it was proven he was a liar. (As if every news agency would want a proven liar on staff just for giggles). Then he has the audacity to complain that when he lied….the police went back to the video of the incident from 14 years ago (bet he thought that bit of evidence was long gone) and produced it as proof positive. Guess what dude? You might have a future in comic books….Your news career is pretty much over.
Video? You jackass.
The lady doth protest too much.
Wow, while the facts of this case, supported by the audio, show Ted to be a bald-faced liar, this defense he has written make him seem mentally ill. I had an ex-wife just like you Ted, lie, lie, and lie some more, and when you get caught lying, defend yourself by baselessly attacking others and calling them liars.
Try this on for size: The audio is pretty plain to me, I can make out enough to tell that the officer is polite and professional to you at the beginning of the encounter and throughout.
There are absolutely NO sounds on the audio to indicate he touched you, much less handcuffed you and roughed you up. So he mimed to you that he wanted to handcuff you without saying a word, you didn’t protest being handcuffed, not even a peep of “why?”, and he handcuffed you silently with no sound on the tape. And no sound of un-handcuffing you in the end, just handed you the ticket to sign while you were cuffed. Gotcha
He was polite in asking you to sign the ticket, gave you instructions on how to take care of it or contest it, and told you to have a nice day. And then you were a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome and asked this oppressive storm trooper, who bullied and traumatized you, where’s a good place to eat.
You’re not just a liar, you’re a pathological liar, and should seek mental health care.
What a libtard…And you asked this brute about dining in the area? “The only explanation I can fathom is that I had classic Stockholm Syndrome.” Are you sure they didn’t just fire you because you’re catastrophically stupid? And his whistling and humming “mocked” you? Are you mentally handicapped? Quit lying. Quit being a sissyfied whiner. Qui blaming others for your own stupidity. And above all quit the phony outrage that how dare they catch you lying. Your momma didn’t spank you enough for being a spoiled little brat as a kid. So now you grew up into a spoiled big brat as a quasi-adult. Shameful display of cognitive dissonance–but really good display of liberalism.
My dad introduced me to Ted Rall’s political cartoons when I was growing up in the 90s and early 00s. I find it hard to believe that he would make-up something so innocuous about the LAPD when they seem to do more than enough abusive stuff day in and day out that Rall has material enough to cover them.
The audiotape is BS as far as evidence goes. LA Times are shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits!
Amazing, btw, to see the #s of pro-LAPD commenters suddenly coming out of the woodwork to post vile, abusive statements attacking Rall.
How many have commented previously on any non-LAPD work that Rall has published?
They’re like the LAPD’s version of Russia’s Putinbots!
I’m not pro-LAPD, I live across the country. I’m pro-truth, and when you combine the audio evidence with Rall’s insane, nonsensical defense of his lies, a rational person can only conclude that he’s a liar.
Stockholm Syndrome from spending 5 minutes with a polite police officer?
Rall is counting on either your blind support of his politics or your complete and utter stupidity.
One can only hope that Jessica one day is at the tender mercy of those for whom her heart bleeds, and no LAPD is there to help. Now I might like to see a video of THAT….
Wow, that’s really nice of you.
Unlike you, Teddy, I am honest.
Honest. And rude and base. I fear you are a godless asshole. I could be wrong and I don’t mean to sound cruel.
But: Maybe some of the Christian Conservatives beating the drum in this forum can still save you!
Honest. And rude and base. I fear you are a godless asshole. I could be wrong and I don’t mean to sound cruel.
But: Maybe some of the Christian Conservatives beating the drum in this forum can still save you!
You are a sick, twisted, perverted and cruel person – possibly sociopathic. Recommend immediate voluntary commitment or at least a 72 hour psych hold so your mental defects and sadistic tendencies can be identified clinically.
It is called karma, toots. Or just desserts. Also, a good raping and beating, by the criminals for whom your leftist ideology bleeds, might undo said leftist ideology. Leftists who get mugged by reality become “neo-conservatives”, you see.
It’s karma, bitch. Just desserts. You and your ilk mollycoddle the criminal underclass, and so you deserve to be at their tender mercies.
These people came from far-right-wing blogs like Breitbart, Mediaite and Newsbusters.
Ted, just curious: is there even such a thing as “far-left-wing”??? Seems we don’t hear about it much, if it even exists………….
Wow, while the facts of this case, supported by the audio, show Ted to be a bald-faced liar, this defense he has written make him seem mentally ill. I had an ex-wife just like you Ted, lie, lie, and lie some more, and when you get caught lying, defend yourself by baselessly attacking others and calling them liars.
Try this on for size: The audio is pretty plain to me, I can make out enough to tell that the officer is polite and professional to you at the beginning of the encounter and throughout.
There are absolutely NO sounds on the audio to indicate he touched you, much less handcuffed you and roughed you up. So he mimed to you that he wanted to handcuff you without saying a word, you didn’t protest being handcuffed, not even a peep of “why?”, and he handcuffed you silently with no sound on the tape. And no sound of un-handcuffing you in the end, just handed you the ticket to sign while you were cuffed. Gotcha
He was polite in asking you to sign the ticket, gave you instructions on how to take care of it or contest it, and told you to have a nice day. And then you were a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome and asked this oppressive storm trooper, who bullied and traumatized you, where’s a good place to eat.
You’re not just a liar, you’re a pathological liar, and should seek mental health care.
When were you married to MY ex-wife?
“Here’s your license back.” So much for the bullshit about it being thrown in the sewer
Because nobody ever said “here’s your license back” while dropping it on the ground. That just can’t happen.
I had a passive-aggressive “friend” in college who did that. “Here’s your magazine” he’d say, as he tossed it into a pile of shaving cream he created as some kind of prank. All sorts of things like that.
Some people are mean, and lie, and the rest of us go on get new friends. We can’t really selectively go out and get new police.
I’ve been a Ted Rall fan for a number of years. With the audible evidence on that tape, I cannot vouch for the veracity of his accusations. I’m especially curious about the messages that were left on the answering machine and why there was no effort to arrange an interview.
A simple answer is that the police were leaving messages at a wrong number.
The voice on the answering machine recording and the voice on the citation recording are not the same.
That’s ridiculous.
Listen for yourself – you can hear Rall’s voice at 11:54. The answering machine is heard at 16:20.
I’ve listened and the street audio doesn’t tell me it’s Ted’s voice either. There’s no way to compare the two. Plus, the fact is that the policeman was professional and polite throughout.
Well, it’s true, you don’t have a sample of his actual voice to compare with the street audio. You can, however, compare the street audio to the answering machine audio.
The man on the answering machine has a thick accent. The man on the street does not.
Breaking news: A “thick accent” can be faked (to ward off telemarketers, for example). I’ve heard Rall on videotaped interviews, etc. And I couldn’t vouch for the authenticity of either of those taped voices (although the initial greeting on the machine sounded like his voice), and even though he tells me that it wasn’t his answering machine, I am not convinced. Next question: What was the outcome of his having been ticketed? Was it fought in court? With what result? That might be pertinent.
Ever see “Clockwork Orange”? The audio-only version of Malcolm McDowell’s character during the rape/mayhem scene would only have him signing “Singing in the Rain.”
Yes.
Non sequitur.
I agree, the tape doesn’t not verify my story. Not this version of the tape, anyway. But it’s NOT MY TAPE. It’s the LAPD’s tape. I never claimed I had a magic tape that confirms my story–they did. And the fact is, their tape does not confirm or deny anything.
What about those calls left on the answering machine?
What about them? It’s not my answering machine.
Dang.
One takeaway is to verbally and loudly describe what is happening to you as an officer is handcuffing and/or shoving you, and/or or harassing you, and/or shooting you, just so a description gets on the tape.
Exactly so. Of course, now we know that some cops have audiotapes. But how do we know the tape will make it to the stationhouse if it reveals something untoward?
What all this proves beyond any doubt is that Ted Rall is a liar, period. Anytime someone starts by trying to dismiss the recording because it was “seruptitious” is trying to make excuses, he was guilty he got ticketed and that is the facts.
The secret nature of the recording affects how we should listen to it. The cop knew he was recording himself. Knowing he was being recorded, he was highly unlikely to do or say anything incriminating that might be picked up by the tape. And if he did, he could erase or destroy it. I didn’t know I was being taped. If I had, this would have changed things. For example, I might have complained loudly about his treatment of me, so that there would have been an audio record of cuffing me and tossing my driver’s license. See how that works?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Everyone was silent.
The gathering crowd, the police officer, Teddy, the motorcycle cop that arrives.
He roughed up Teddy silently.
He was silently rude.
The cop whistling while he worked was a ruse.
While we think he’s just being a whistling, harmless doofus, writing a ticket, he’s actually drilled a hole in Ted’s tooth, exposing a nerve and plucking it with a dental scraper.
What an asshole cop!!!
Ted didn’t think to cry out because he thought, “there is no recording device, so why bother?”
See how that works?
Rall, you’re a despicable shit.
Surreptitious
Good spelling is party agnostic. Good spelling makes you look smarter.
Now. I wonder why the officer on the tape never said the date or the time on the date. That is required. But it is missing.
I know it’s gotta be tempting for serious LAPD supporters and hard core conservatives to kick a liberal when he looks like he might be down, but really. Christ. Let’s get all the facts. And they sure as shit aren’t in this recording.
P.S. Pal, it isn’t illegal to be beligerant to a cop but it is highly illegal to not obey a lawful order.
Wow. He really did compare himself to a rape victim and people held hostage for days by terrorists in Stockholm. I have been very mad when I got stopped by cops for speeding. It took days to calm down. But I never, ever compared that experience to a person who had been physically and sexually violated.
Didn’t Ted always accuse the tea party of being tin foil hat, black helicopter conspiracy nuts? Just checking.
What a punk.
I like Ted Rall’s work, some of his politics, and don’t think he should have been fired for this: but this entire post is just pure back-to-the-wall ad hoc excuse making. He sounds like a 12 year old whose parents found his stack of nudie magazines.
He’s no different than Brian Williams lying about certain incidences. The LA Times has a reputation albeit not a very good one. Maybe Mr. Rall, this is a good way for you to sever ties with this newspaper. Maybe the LA Times is going conservative this next election and you might offend the other side. Who knows?
Wow Ted, telling the truth about the city’s finest sure does bring out the lunatics, doesn’t it?
I’m sure that you’re pissed as hell and you have every right to be, but the Times will surely rue that decision some day. If they’re not doing so already. My personal online experience, drawn from my only clicking on interesting links, suggests that if nothing else they should be desperate for clicks, but I’m pretty sure that the only ones I’ve given them over the years have been from clicking on links from your stories on aND — if in fact there were any. Let’s be honest, the LA Times is and. has been a historically awful newspaper.
Of course, print still pays, better than any online rag at least, but if there’s anything that I learned in my years in journalism, it’s that getting fired publicly and loudly is a better career move than resigning quietly in protest of just about anything. I’m certain that you’ll land on your feet, and that you will have endless opportunities to satisfy any revenge fantasies that may be swimming around your head at the moment, or to let them go and move on to the more important stuff.
Thank you, Paul, I really appreciate what you’re saying. I also think you’re right. Ha about revenge fantasies! I am seriously pissed off, more so by the day, but my main objective is to clear my name. Those assholes would never admit they’re wrong even if presented with 100% proof.
Check out the dates. Don’t the police know the difference between 2001 and 2002? Doesn’t the LA Times staff?
Grand conspiracy? I doubt it. But it’s interesting that the date error doesn’t bother them. If I’d supplied that, Pringle and Goldberg would have ripped it apart.
Uhhhh. . . Mr. Rall . . . has it occurred to you that the reason this huge discrepancy didn’t bother anybody was that the incorrect dates are all in January? You know, the first month of the New Year?
Lots of people are a little slow to make the mental transition between, say, 2001 and 2002. Lots of people spend a fair chunk of each January writing dates with the previous year, which they have gotten used to doing over twelve months, instead of the just-changed one.
Oh, not you, of course. Not the Godlike Ted Rall. I’m sure you’ve never done that.
But here on Earth, among us human beings, it’s actually quite a common occurrence. The LA Times staff probably knows this, and that is why “the date error didn’t bother them.” Why should it bother anyone?
When you have to stretch that far to scratch up a talking point, you begin to look a little desperate.
It’s pertinent because the LAT fired me over what they said were the inconsistencies in my story. Meanwhile, they’re ignoring the inconsistencies in the LAPD’s story.
How do you explain the audio tape of your arrest?
I explained it in the above piece.
Get more fierce, Ted.
A LYING DemonNAZI?! See ya Teddy, lol.
Nothing to see here. Just another leftist loon caught lying about police misconduct.
Face it Rall.. You’re just a whiny loser.
They fired you BECAUSE you are a lying askhole, for ONCE in your life, man up and take Responsibility,
Thanks, DAD
What a piece of human excrement!
As long as your stupid ass is out of publlc circulation, I am okay with it.
Not only has this dirty hippy been found a liar but now he’s revealed himself to be a first class whiner as well.
Stop telling stories, clown.
BTW drawing cartoons isn’t journalism, you filthy hippy.
How dare they besmirch a Pulitzer Prize runner up by calling him a liart (sic). Good writing you gutter snipe.
Ah, there is nothing better than Liberal Tears and the finest, most intoxicating are shed by hippies.
Hippies? How OLD are you? Christ? Ted wasn’t even born when there were hippies.
Rall was born in 1963.
and….
You’re fired!
irony much :)
They caught you, Ted. Red-handed. Pun intended.
You, Sir, are an idiot. Maybe romance novels or murder mysterys are more your speed. You obviously struggle to report truthful information. You’re part of the problem, and fortunately you’ve lost your paid pulpit to spew from. I think the Peanuts Gang was looking for a writer of your caliber.
Jesse Moliner, well said. The commenter (_in How) does sound like an idiot. We maybe should give him the benefit of the doubt though. He is probably just drunk. (And the one you should’ve called an idiot is the templar guy below with the filthy mouth.)
Jesse Moliner, well said. The commenter (_in How) does sound like an idiot. We maybe should give him the benefit of the doubt though. He is probably just drunk. (And the one you should’ve called an idiot is the templar guy below with the filthy mouth.)
I see Ted Rall is STILL a whiny douche bag.
I know – like many of these comments, right?!
The cop certainly seems restrained – The ‘cartoonist’ seems to have a pathologically high self importance – which when coupled with his VERY limited drawing ability make a sad self absorbed spectacle – It would would take a heart of stone not to laugh –
Ted should go back to Afghanistan and stay there. He is a big part of what is wrong with America.
Aw, Teddy Boy. Do ya HAVE to be such a whiny pussy?
Geez — you lie, then you’re PROVEN to be a liar. But all you can do in response is cry like a little girl and fall to the floor, stamping your itty-bitty hands and feet while complaining the big, bad, unfair L.A. Times fired your sorry, lying ass.
Please, for ONCE in your loser life, at least TRY to act like a MAN — i.e., take responsibility for your lie and promise to never do it again. That way, people could hold on to maybe a LITTLE bit of respect for you.
His vag is itching real bad right now, like it’s on fire.
Ted Rall is gayer than Lavender Bath Beads.
Ted Rall fired for lying
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I wanted to believe his side but the sheer volume, detail, and deflection of this response makes me tend to believe the opposite–it reads like a 9/11 conspiracy blog. He may very well be accurately recalling this incident but it’s all just too freaking weird.
Rall continues to lie about his police encounter despite overwhelming evidence that he made up the whole story. Amazing! See you on the bread lines, Ted!
“Journalism’s search for truth is sacred to me” – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Everyone (me too) is getting caught up in the “did he or didn’t he” debate, but really, the police side of this is pretty scary.
They presented this tape to refute an anecdote in an opinion piece by a guy they didn’t like, in order to get him fired.
Am I the only one creeped out by this ?
What is scary is that a columnist for a major newspaper would use his position to lie about an incident in which he was cited for jaywalking in order to settle a score with the LAPD.
The ultimate decision to fire Ted was made by the Times, after looking at the evidence, not the LAPD.
You’re creeped out by record keeping?
How hard is it to go to the officer’s filed audio recordings that he has dated and stored?
The cop was smart. He’s protecting himself from closeted fruitcakes, like Ted Rall, who’ve been known to make false allegations to further a political agenda.
Rall got caught doing just that and you’re “creeped out” by refuting evidence.
I guess you would be. It hamstrings your future lies, I guess.
Wasn’t a BlackLivesMatter foot soldier just caught manufacturing a “hate crime” incident from high school?
He said he was attacked by dozens of red necks that stomped him with steel toe boots that required years of reconstructive surgery.
Turns out a friend of his smacked him in the face over a broken CD.
There was no hate crime. And when his mommy took him to the hospital they said he had an abrasion on his cheek.
Sounds like Ted and him are kindred lying spirits.
Plus mr “hate crime” happens to be inconveniently white.
The police side of this is extraordinarily scary.
It seems like a lot of kneejerk joy from conservatives who’d like to see a liberal libertarian like Ted Rall get kicked down. That’s natural. But it isn’t fruitful. And it’s off topic.
I wonder who would have the capability and what tech it would take to really analyze the recording. It is in fact a crap tape.
gs
Listen to the tape. At the end of this harrowing experience, Ted asks the officer who supposedly has just roughed him up, thrown him against a wall, handcuffed him, thrown his license down a sewer and given him an undeserved jaywalking ticket to recommend a place to eat lunch.
Seriously?
Critical thinking? Let’s say the cop HAD been polite and nice. Why would I, after getting that ticket, ask about eateries?
Because you felt comfortable asking him such a question after a reasonably uneventful contact which resulted in you getting a ticket for a minor infraction?
The alternative is that you experienced the world’s fastest case of “Stockholm Syndrome” and felt compelled to make nice with the man who you claim had just brutalized you.
Ted Rall = Dousche
Good God. Why can none of the idiots on here spell?
They attack a Pultizer Prize winning journalist for being talent-less and morality-free. Yet they can’t spell douche?
Horrible, barbaric treatment by the LAPD. They couldn’t even provide the closeted Rall with a good eatery after an uneventful issuing of a ticket.
And how DARE THEY have proof of Rall’s lies. Curses!!!
Your big smoking gun is the dates in the call log? That two weeks into the new year somebody wrote last year’s date? I know you draw your cartoons for knuckle-dragging morons, but give the rest of us some credit.
The fact is, Ted, you suck as a cartoonist. Your drawings are crude, your wording is heavy-handed, your cartoons are unfunny. You are as worthy a successor to Conrad as Nero to Augustus. The Times demeaned itself by running you, and we all are the better off without you.
The RFK Journalism Award? More like The Teddy Kennedy Chappaquiddick Bullshit Story Award.
Oh Ted. I’ve liked you for some time, but have often questioned your tendency for “truthiness”. This really looks bad. It does. The tape is not high quality, but I could hear the entire interaction without any problem. Unless you have further evidence to refute it, it stands.
In addition, do you have proof for the headline? Do you have evidence that the LAPD convinced the LAT to fire you? It sounds like the editors made that decision themselves. There’s that “truthiness” again.
At this point you have lost me as a reader. This is a sad day Ted, and I mean that. I simply cannot read your work again.
Wow. At first I couldn’t understand where all the police-state looney-toons were coming from… and then I saw that Breitbart (Motto: Working Hard to Out-Faux Fox News. Also, Chem-trails!) had a piece covering this. So I suppose that explains that.
Anyway, most of these people doesn’t seem to have bothered to listen to the audio. The quality is pretty bad, but I don’t ‘see’ anything about it that directly contradicts Rall’s story (not that it directly *supports* it either). Regardless, being somebody who was also needlessly handcuffed and charged with a misdemeanor by the LAPD, I am inclined to believe him, as experience dictates his side to be more likely. Plus, the cop sounds more smug than a person who is supposed to be “serving” has reason to be.
No stupid.
This isn’t “police state looney tunes,” it’s normal people giving Ted Rall what he deserves.
Most people do not like when somebody who is itching to jump into the SJW fray, but without anything to offer, simply embellish a nothing burger incident into a civil rights violation.
Rall is a moron and has undermined people with legitimate claims with this idiotic made-up story.
If you want to defend that, go ahead. It just makes you shitstain.
After reading this gibberish of an excuse for embellishment and out right lies, I have come to understand why you’re work so utterly stupid and ugly.
Glad at least for a few weeks we’ll be spared your trash.
Not to worry Ted. You don’t need another job. This is Obama’s America where you get free food, free housing, free utilities, free phones, free Internet, free medical care and go from being human to being a house pet.
That’s funny. No one hates Obama more than Ted, as all of you who’ve ever read his essays or cartoons well known. There’s ignorance, a ton of it, in this discussion. But humor, too.
Nice, ArmedAndFemale!
That’s funny. No one hates Obama more than Ted, as all of you who’ve ever read his essays or cartoons well known. There’s ignorance, a ton of it, in this discussion. But humor, too.
Nice, ArmedAndFemale!
Really? Where do you sign up for this socialist utopia? Oh, that’s right–the military.
Sue S
My, what childish, angry voices. I once got stopped by LA’s finest – just for walking down a street at night. A 60’s hippie – with a target on his back. I was treated with the same anger and disdain Ted was. Asked for my ID, a cop grabbed my wallet out of my hand. He ripped the stitching out, looking for… what? Two guys, very intimidating and bullying. I do thank the 2 guys who stopped, just to be a witness to whatever was about to happen. I guess this is a common courtesy in LA? It may have helped.
They were nothing more than dicks with guns, and allowed us to move on. I was travelling from San Francisco, with a friend I had met. When we got to LA, he said we needed to exchange last names, in case one of us got busted. He was older, and wiser than me. We were just normal guys – not carrying drugs or planning nefarious activities. Welcome to LA, boys!
I don’t doubt Ted’s story at ALL! It sounds very typical. I hope he can sue the city and the paper.
What did California law in 2001 say about surreptitiously audio recording someone? (I know it’s illegal now.)
Ted, one thing you very conveniently failed to explain is at what point did you get handcuffed? At about 6:45 the officer introduces himself to you and explains the reason for the stop. He then asks to take out your ID at about 6:55, so it’s to assume your hands are still free to do so. At 7:07 the officer asks if “that’s your current address. Then there is silence until 7:31 when the officer beings to briefly whistle. There is no wrestling noise, which you would think would be caused by the officer removing handcuffs from his carrying case and putting his hands on you to handcuff you. There isn’t any interaction and very little noise while the officer is writing the ticket until 11:27 when the officer says “Alrighty sir.” Seven seconds later the officer says “here I’ll take that,” which lends to belief that your hands are free to hand something to the officer. You are able to heard every other slight movement made by the officer, but you mean to say that being handcuffed and unhand cuffed made absolutely no noise?? Not once do you question being “handcuff.”
Please explain how this magician, who is also working as a police officer was able to remove your cuffs so quickly and without making any type of noise.
You were caught flat out lying and now you are paying the consequences. Oh and you are full of crap!
Is Rall black? He must be, at least in his own mind (a la Rachel Dolezal). Everything he says is exactly like what I’d expect from a black person following an encounter with police. In other words, his version of events is not REMOTELY believable. Sheesh! He must be even dumber than he thinks we all are. BTW, it’s worth noting that he apparently paid the ticket rather than contesting it in court. Clearly, he’s just a desperate LIAR, and his termination is justly deserved, given his evil political agenda. (P.S. He was banned last year from posting at DailyKos due to credibility problems. Although it’s rare that liberals will eat their own, his forced departure from that site was justly deserved too.) Lastly, his talent for drawing ‘toons is pathetic, as are the political points he tries to score. Why he was ever hired in the first place is a mystery. Hopefully no other publication will make that mistake in the future.
Did he get a new drivers license soon after the incident? If it got thrown in the gutter he needed a replacement. Should be easy enough to check.
No matter what explaination you attempt we all know the kind of person you are and you are a LIAR, the audio tape has proven hat beyond any doubt, hence why the (LIBERAL) LA Times has fired you pal.
“But you can’t see him smirking as he tosses it on the ground.” Err, you meant “sewer,” right, Ted?
Ted, one thing you very conveniently failed to explain is at what point did you get handcuffed? At about 6:45 the officer introduces himself to you and explains the reason for the stop. He then asks to take out your ID at about 6:55, so it’s to assume your hands are still free to do so. At 7:07 the officer asks if “that’s your current address. Then there is silence until 7:31 when the officer beings to briefly whistle. There is no wrestling noise, which you would think would be caused by the officer removing handcuffs from his carrying case and putting his hands on you to handcuff you. There isn’t any interaction and very little noise while the officer is writing the ticket until 11:27 when the officer says “Alrighty sir.” Seven seconds later the officer says “here I’ll take that,” which lends to belief that your hands are free to hand something to the officer. You are able to heard every other slight movement made by the officer, but you mean to say that being handcuffed and unhand cuffed made absolutely no noise?? Not once do you question being “handcuff.”
Please explain how this magician, who is also working as a police officer was able to remove your cuffs so quickly and without making any type of noise.
You were caught flat out lying and now you are paying the consequences. Oh and you are full of crap!
LOL, couldn’t have happened to a bigger jackass. Look forward to hearing about Rall jumping off a bridge or drinking himself to death.
Ouch, I hadda do some serious scrolling to avoid Rall’s art! Gawd, it actually makes me physically ill, no lies, I can’t look at it for more than a few seconds. {shiver} In a huge display of nationwide schadenfreude, Danny Hellman and several hundred cartoonists are toasting Rall’s dismissal to the strains of “Karma Chameleon” by The Culture Club.
Rall, an African-American in spirit like the former head of a certain NAACP chapter, is just joining his brothers and sisters in their #BlackLiesMatter campaign.
If you mean that I support #BlackLivesMatter, yes, absolutely. Sorry that that offends your racist sensibilities.
No, I meant “#BlackLiesMatter”. You know Ted, the lies you help to propagate without any regard for the facts. Michael Brown was shot in the back with his hands up, Travon Martin was an “innocent angel” rather than a violent thug who was upset that he didn’t draw enough blood from someone he’d assaulted in school, blacks are in real physical danger from whites (who are victims of black violence at a rate 21 times higher than the inverse)….you know Ted, anything that helps engender hatred toward white people or this country you loath.
The cops and pro-fascist trolls are out in force on these here comments. I believe you Ted, and the cleaned up audio proves the lapd lied and the latimes wanted to believe the lies.
Ralls Balls =) I can draw better then Rall with one arm tied behind my back TCJ represent.
The LA Times didn’t throw you under a bus; you dove there head-first. The puerile rants, attacks, and excuses you’re posting makes it clear that the LA Times made a wise decision.
Civil suit,please. Set up some kind of donation thingie for it.
Thanks for all your great work,
Sue S
Scary what’s happened to newspapers, and journalism, over the past twenty years..Believe there are now six “media corporations” which control the whole of US information dissemination. Rall was among the last of the progressive columnists in a mainstream paper, and LAT’s excuse for his ouster is beyond ridiculous. If this comment board, which I only discovered by searching for stories about Rall’s expulsion from the LAT, is any indication what direction this country is headed(off a cliff)), we’re all in very deep trouble. These are the people who defend police violence, support overt racism and militarism, and who, unfortunately, control the US government from both “sides” of the aisle.
Sue S
Ha ha! “Why would I lie???” And why would a Liberal white woman pass herself off as black?
It’s a Liberal thing. When you can’t get what you want you lie and lie loudly until everyone believes you.
SMH. Apparently Karma does exist even if it took 14 years to get here!