While YouTube is great fun for silly cat videos and clips of kids freaking out after the dentist, it’s also fertile ground for angry, arrogant, illiterate people. Exhibit A:
“your a dick ? what would u wanna video/pictures? a dead guy.. what the fuck are you gona do with the video of a dead guy.. get a life you fuking cunt,”
Interestingly, the comment was left by AbawiTariq, a sergeant with the LAPD, according to his YouTube profile.
Nothing but the best in Los Angeles. Seriously, Chief Beck – that is who you want representing your force?
boywithgrenade.org 
You don’t actually believe this guy do you? Look at his profile info. Twenty years old, a Staff Sergeant in the Army and a Sergeant with LAPD. I don’t think so! You have to be 21 to join the LAPD. Even if it were possible to be on the LAPD at that young age he would never be a Sergeant. It takes years to move up through the ranks of the military and police and fire departments. Just another want-to-be and you guys were stupid enough to fall for it!!!!
And you believe the age is real and current? Even so, I think the larger point here is that the guy is scarily unhinged to be leaving comments like that. What has this world come to?
Eric
That may be true, however, Abawi and I have been communicating through email since this comment so I’ll see what I can find. That is, whether or not his claims are true. He’s also stating that he’s a member of SWAT and has saved hundreds of lives trying to be a hostage negotiator. You do realize that not all info on YouTube is accurate, such as age. But that also contradicts what I’m saying because that means I’m saying his profile description is accurate, but his age isn’t. Anyway, I’ll figure this out.
Now he’s a SWAT member and a hostage negotiator. Two more positions that take years and years of training and experience to achieve. Anybody that has the least bit of common sense and can think logically would know that all his supposed qualifications are pretty much an impossibility at the age his profile says he is.
You’re blaming us for something you’re doing yourself. Which is taking a piece of information and using it. Is it possible that the age is not accurate? Yes or no? I intentionally enter inaccurate information online all of the time. Are you not guilty of doing the same yourself?
But since you seem to have a lot more common sense than us and can think logically then maybe you should take over. How about you do some investigative work to discover whether not, the age is accurate instead of simply claiming that it is not correct without truly knowing. We look forward to your findings.
I’m not the one that posted to their blog that “LAPD Sergeant Fires Away on Youtube”. You invited comments on the post and now that I’ve come out in disagreement you think I should do the investigative work. It should be your responsibility to do the investigative work before you gleefully post something that denigrates police officers.
I also wonder if your correspondence with him shows the level of illiteracy that’s evident in his youtube comment and his “about me” profile.
It’s my opinion that after you read the youtube comment you were only interested in getting to the last line of your post, “Nothing but the best in Los Angeles. Seriously, Chief Beck – that is who you want representing your force?”.
You wrote that without truly knowing whether ol’ Abawi was an LAPD officer or not. Since this is your web site and I believe that the burden of proof lies with the author, keep in touch with him, do a little more leg work and I’ll look forward to your findings.
I’m not the one questioning whether or not Tariq is LAPD or in the military. If someone is going to claim they’re in the military and a member of LAPD then I will believe them. If it’s not true, then he’s just another whack job who really needs to see a psychiatrist. However, I don’t see the age issue as big a deal as you do. People lie online all the time.
On the other hand, on your website you claim you’re a firefighter—should I not believe you? You came on to our site calling us stupid, lacking common sense and the ability to think logically. You’re web persona doesn’t really jibe well with the image of firefighters that’s been forced feed to the public since as long as I’ve be alive.
And were not denigrating police officers, meaning all police officers as you are inaccurately suggesting, but rather one signal individual claiming he’s an LAPD Sergeant who left the above comment. We’re not even denigrating him. So don’t spin this. You’re a firefighter. You’re better than that.
And yes, parts of his emails could use some grammar work and some of his story is questionable. Like the IED that he dismantled that could have killed hundreds, even though there is no evidence of any IED ever killing hundreds of people in a single blast. IEDs really don’t work like that. Plus, he admitted to exaggerating that part.
And he has not responded to my question where I asked him how old he is because of the age discrepancy on his YouTube profile. Maybe he’s been out fighting Iraqis or dismantling IEDs? Maybe he’s lying.
But again, is it possible that the age is fabricated? Yes or no?
And is it possible that Tariq is in the military, LAPD, and SWAT?
Yes, it is very possible that the age is fabricated. It is also possible that he is in the military but not LAPD if his age is accurate. To be believable, he should have thought it through a little better. If when I read his profile and it had said that he was 35-45 I wouldn’t have bothered to comment. I would have thought like you that it was a shame the LAPD has an officer that acted that way.
You, on the other hand put his profile out as proof of him being what he claims and I just can’t believe you weren’t posting it to cast a bad light on him and the LAPD given the nature of your web site. I also believe that if there is definitive proof of a bad cop, fireman or military personnel, blast ’em. They don’t deserve to wear the uniform.
I can obviously see that we’re not going to agree on this, but know that I enjoy reading your site and “War on Photography” and “PINAC” but when I see something in black and white as fact that doesn’t add up, it’s just my nature to question it.
I’ve also enjoyed going back and forth with you about this, and just out of curiosity, what is the image of firefighters that you and the public have been force fed since you’ve been alive?
I’m doing more online research but this was his response about this age. And it’s exactly what I expected and have been saying to you.
“Ok, where do i start from. Firstly. I never write my appropriate age on any websites, not even my email. On my email account my age is like over 90.”
Is he still lying? Who knows, but he definitely loves to preach to me about how great he is, and how bad I am simply because he’s a cop and in the US Army. I need to do some research on a Corporal Hanks who was apparently killed, that he keeps mentioning all over the internet. Yes, if you do track him via the web, you’ll see that he’s posting the same stuff everywhere.
But you shouldn’t be surprised by Abawi’s behavior. Cops act like this all the time. Just read the comments on my YouTube videos. The cops and the former marines are the angriest and most threatening. Have you not seen the latest video of the Denver cop beating the shit out of the kid talking on the phone to his dad who is a county sheriff? Just google Denver cop beats guy with cell phone. The cop lied saying the kid tried to hit him, but that’s not what the video shows at all. And the city manager is defending the cop/liability for the city, arguing that excessive force was not used. Bullshit. It’s amazing how everybody else disagrees with him.
Google cop websites and join their message boards. You’ll quickly be surprised by the amount of angry, self-righteous, asshole cops that exist in this country who are a threat to the public. You do know that it is a proven fact, that law enforcement is one of the professions that attract the most individuals with various degrees of psychopathy, right? Google that too.
And it’s great that you found our sites, but our site is not PINAC. We’re not anti-cop, and those sites aren’t either. But that’s how you’re labeled when you post on topics that show cops doing bad things. We are anti-bad cop! Which, everybody should be, especially the good cops. However, the good cops don’t seem to exist because you never hear them speaking out when one of their colleagues does something seriously wrong. Anyhow, we don’t post about cops being caught on tape abusing people unless there is an issue where the videographer or cameraman was threatened. Our site is about photographers’ rights and interesting photography that we find on the web. It’s also about our on work too.
As far as this is concerned:
“…what is the image of firefighters that you and the public have been force fed since you’ve been alive?”
No disrepect, but the idea that every single veteran, cop, and firefighter is an automatic hero and should be dipped in bronze and put on a pedestal that we all worship is specious. Not every cop, firefighter, or veteran is a great guy, nor a hero. Some of them are real assholes. I can certainly attest to that and I’m sure you’ve known a few assholes during your twenty years as a firefighter. Cops, firefighters, and veterans shouldn’t angrily demand our respect, or expect the public to kiss their ass because they made a choice. That’s not how it works. Respect must be earned and just because you’re wearing a badge and a uniform does not mean you earned the public’s respect.
In the past two years I’ve had two veterans screaming at me at the top of their lungs, in public, about how great they are because they served this country for my ass. My grandfather was a veteran. His ship sank in WWII. He saw his buddies get eaten by sharks. He was awarded the Purple Heart. We still have it and ss long as I knew him he never pontificated about his service, or how great he was because he served. He was a real veteran, these two guys were just assholes, terrorizing the public. Nowadays, there are more veterans and cops like these two assholes, than there are ones like my grandfather.
I’m glad you’re enjoying this.
Since I have been a firefighter for more than 20 years, I’ve known a lot of cops, but I can only think of one that I knew personally that was “bad”. Believe this or not, my wife of 24 years has been a cop for almost 25. Maybe that’s why I question things more before I jump to conclusions and give cops the benefit of the doubt. I know there are bad cops, but it’s my opinion that the majority are decent, hard working, caring people who want to do the best job for the citizens they protect and serve.
Back to my wife, we got into one of the biggest arguments we’ve ever had because of this, check it out. http://carlosmiller.com/2009/12/11/award-winning-videographer-arrested-in-w-v-after-photographing-santa-in-shopping-mall/#more-9025 She was siding with the police officer because she knows him and knows how he acts toward people. I sided with the photographer because his story sounded believable, his credentials showed him to be a professional and I know how police officers act and what kind of attitudes some of them have. Anyway, we had to just agree to disagree on that one.
As for veterans, police officers and firefighters demanding respect just because. That really burns me up too. It angers me the same way that some minorities demand respect just because they are minorities.
I don’t know about you but I think we’ve just about worn this out. 🙂
Agreed.
However, I found Corporal Hanks who was stationed at Camp Pendleton and died in Falluja. Which, is what Abawi has been claiming all along. He’s written about Hanks multiple times on different websites.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/dates/2004/nov/17/michael-w-hanks/
So the evidence is starting to indicate that Abawi’s claims are true, and he is just another example of an angry, arrogant, illiterate cop who really shouldn’t be a cop.
The public needs to watch out for this guy when he returns to LAPD.
You got that right!
It’s kind of like that, but not quite. Because I don’t mind if non-cops refer to me as a cop. “This is my friend Peter, he’s a cop in Baltimore.” I got no prlobem with that. As long as people don’t get my attention by yelling, “Yo, cop!” I got another question. Why do cops always call me “Pete” and everybody else in the world call me “Peter”? I don’t really care if people call me Pete (any more than if they call me a [former] cop), but I never introduce myself as Pete.
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