January 12, 2022

Greetings fellow Bizarros:

Being a cop is a stressful job. Officers need to destress and you could argue that playing a virtual reality game like Pokemon Go is a better relief valve than, say, cocaine and alcohol. But there is a time and place for everything, and the middle of your shift is probably not the time time to be playing Pokemon Go, especially when you're being called to a robbery in progress.

A California appeals court has upheld the firing of two Los Angeles police officers who were caught playing Pokemon Go instead of responding to a robbery at the Crenshaw Mall in 2017, court records show. The California Court of Appeal in its ruling affirmed an earlier decision by a lower court that the Los Angeles Police Department's decision to fire the two officers was justified.

Based on the interviews and the DICVS recording, Detective McClanahan concluded the petitioners willfully failed to respond to the robbery call and attempted to conceal the fact by 'placing themselves 'Code 6' somewhere else.'

After carefully listening to the DICVS recording a number of times, Detective McClanahan also became concerned that petitioners were playing 'the Pokemon Go video game' while on duty the day of the robbery.

For approximately 20 minutes the DICVS captured petitioners discussing Pokemon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their mobile phones.

Bizarrely,
Lewis

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Questions? Comments? Email: lewis@gophercentral.com

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