Watch: Homophobic policeman caught on camera
By Will Stroude
A Philadelphia policeman has been removed from active duty after footage of him using homophobic language and trying to extort a driver during a car stop was posted online last week (August 21).
Officer Matthew Zagursky stopped the driver – named only as ‘Rob’ – last Thursday after noticing his car was unregistered, and was secretly filmed threatening to impound the car unless the driver bought tickets to a police fundraiser, philly.com reports.
Zagursky was also filmed using a slew of homophobic slurs during the encounter: When the driver jokes that he would rather take his girlfriend to the fundraiser than his male passenger, the 24th District officer tells them: “You don’t want to look like two fruitcakes”.
He goes on to comment on the car’s pink, “faggot-ass wipers”, which the driver explains are because his grandmother suffered from breast cancer.
“Can’t you support breast cancer in another way? You look like a fruitcake,” Zagursky says.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has responded to the footage, but said it was not for him to decide what action would be taken against the 32-year-old officer.
“No part of that video is good,” he said. “It’s just bad all the way around.”
He went on: “He used the tickets as a lever to not do his duty; that’s extortion.
“Whether or not it’s criminal is a decision above my paygrade.”
More stories:
Watch: Who wants to see Christiano Ronaldo take a cold bath?
One Direction refuse to comment on split reports