This kind of thing makes public safety people grind their teeth (and hate citizens/progressives/the media). It’s one of the root causes of police brutality.
Below are links to coverage of the same story by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks and Myrna Minkoff Alyona Minkovsky of Russia Today. [If you aren't watching RT regularly check it out - not unbiased, but excellent news and commentary.]
Long story short, someone created a number of Xtranormal cartoons detailing sheisty goings-on at the Renton, WA police department. While they didn’t name names, the department recognized itself and got a warrant to discover the identity of Mr. Fiddlesticks and prosecute him for “cyberstalking.” Yes, they’re saying someone is cyberstalking a police department.
Maybe it’s just me, but neither reporter linked above seems certain of something I find glaringly obvious — Mr. Fiddlesticks is a Renton police officer.
[Someone posted that the You Tube user who uploaded the videos, Mr. Fiddlesticks, is located in the UK; this doesn't change my assessment of the situation. I'm 100% certain that the maker of these videos is a Renton police officer.]
My first hint was that they’re Xtranormal cartoons. Xtranormal is the official language of Redtruckistan.
Further, the core issues he complains about are nearly universal among not only police, but fire and EMS personnel. (Not the specifics about who did what, but the way codependent crap gets tolerated and good people get prosecuted.) It’s important to understand that police officers, firefighters and paramedics are strictly forbidden from public speech. We do not share the same freedom of speech that everyone else has. IMHO this is a major problem that negatively impacts our society.
Mr. Fiddlesticks is obviously a police officer so disgusted by the agency he works for, and the people who run it, that he is in career suicide mode. Make no mistake. When they find Mr. Fiddlesticks, they will ravage him. He’ll be asking, “Would you like fries with that?” because he’ll be radioactive in public safety.
Public safety personnel are held to very high standards — almost impossibly high. I’ve often wondered if the bar is set that high on purpose, to enable this type of crap. You see, when you fail to be the paragon of virtue that you’re officially expected to be, then “they” have dirt on you, and you will play ball. That’s how we end up with a department full of the egregious nonsense in the Fiddlesticks cartoons.
Somehow, some people manage to be that impeccable warrior that you’re supposed to be. Machiavelli described such a person as an “independent,” a person not motivated by ego, not clutching for money or power, scratching no backs and not itchy, either. Machiavelli opined that there is no greater threat to a prince (all of Machiavelli’s princes being corrupt pricks) than an independent in his court. He recommended making it a top priority to get rid of any nobleman who is, well, actually noble.
While I don’t agree with some of the attitudes expressed by Mr. Fiddlesticks, my heart goes out to him. I would love to see the culture change. I would love it if public safety agencies had a culture that supported integrity and fostered good relations with the citizens. In theory that’s how it is. In practice, it’s Machiavellian.
Cenk and Alyona seem to think some civilian got some dirt on the police, and now their (civilian) freedom of speech is impacted. Note that public safety personnel have even less freedom of speech than you do. It would be a great gesture of support if the citizens could rally around this. Mr. Fiddlesticks isn’t the only public safety worker who sees major flaws in the system, flaws that negatively impact all of us, and can’t say anything about it.
The user comments on the videos linked above underscore the thesis of this blog – there’s frequent use of the phrase “fucking pigs” as though the good guy in this story isn’t a police officer. Even when the police do the right thing at great personal expense they get slammed by the citizens.
Police brutality doesn’t spring out of a vacuum. Aside from the continual abuse hurled at them by the public, inherently stressful work, long hours, low pay, sleep disruption, and general alienation, they get attacked by their own tribe. A goldfish can only be so healthy swimming in sewer water. (UPDATE: Bill O’Reilly is now using his influence to attack a police officer from within his chain of command, because the guy is dating his STBX wife. Blog to come.)
This blog is my message in a bottle to the progressive media. Progressives could stomp some plutocrat ass if our mouthpieces could wrap their heads around this.
Xavier Onassis
September 4th, 2011 at 22:56
[...] blogged about the small amount of media coverage someone in Renton, WA got when he made cartoons airing the [...]
September 4th, 2011 at 22:58
[...] Denis Law of Renton, WA (Mr. Fiddlesticks’ boss) spells it right out in this interview from the Renton Patch: Patch – What if the [Mr. [...]
September 15th, 2011 at 16:21
[...] brief glance at my blog posts with the tag Mr. Fiddlesticks will provide all the information you should need in case you are not familiar with the issue at [...]
September 15th, 2011 at 16:21
[...] brief glance at my blog posts with the tag Mr. Fiddlesticks will provide all the information you should need in case you are not familiar with the issue at [...]
September 19th, 2011 at 12:57
[...] stumbled upon the PBSO site while following up on the story of Mr. Fiddlesticks (or Fuddlesticks). He’s the Renton, Washington police officer who became an unintended whistleblower when his [...]