I just love this.
The Kern County, California, Sheriff's Department orders plain white patrol units and has the graphics applied locally. In this case, what they ordered was not quite what they got. This car was driven for 1 week before an officer noticed what the Graphics company employee did on the passenger side of the car. The employee did this on his last day working for the graphics company before he retired.
Y'know, I always thought I would do sumpin' crazy right before I retired, but I wimped out and went gently into the night. I did get some money to shut me up, though.
Posted by denny at May 21, 2005 09:49 PMThe "we'll kick your ass" part? That, the cops did on purpose. Someone actually thought it would be funny. When the picture was taken, the PD had a bad PR day.
I had thought the doughnuts part was made up, but I don't really remember for sure.
Posted by: Rick C on May 21, 2005 10:13 PMI live in Kern Co. and believe me this has given our Sheriff more than 1 headache.
The story is he saw this in a law enforcement book,liked it and had a decal made to put on a patrol car. Even had it photographed and shared it as a morale booster.
When the photo got on the net and started making the rounds with law enforcement it eventually ended up in the paper and alot of protest from the community ensued.
At first the sheriff denied knowing about it. It finally came out that he did and now it will be ammo for anyone who runs against him when he tries to get re-elected.
The doughnut addition is new but not as accurate as the We'll Kick Your Ass.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/kern.asp
Origins: This is a tricky one to explicate. The picture displayed above is "False" in the sense that it has been manipulated — someone has added the "And take your doughnuts too!" legend with a photo editing program. But the picture is also "True" in the sense that at least two Kern County Sheriff's patrol cars did bear "We'll Kick Your Ass" decals back in 2003. Determining exactly who was responsible for the decals proved a bit difficult, though.
The Bakersfield Californian reported that Kern County Sheriff Mack Wimbish said he knew nothing about the "We'll Kick Your Ass" signs and thought the pictures were doctored photos. But Wimbish also told Bakersfield TV station KGET that "he didn't have anything to do with it but that when he saw the decals he found out who was responsible and had them reprimanded." (If he'd reprimanded the person responsible for the stickers, then clearly he knew the pictures weren't "doctored photos.") Wimbish and Assistant Sheriff Mike Lafave maintained that the sergeant in charge of vehicles was the person responsible for the decals. The sergeant in charge of vehicles claimed he could not recall who told him to put the questionable decals on the cars (except that it was not Sheriff Wimbish), but then Assistant Sheriff Lafave said the sergeant had suddenly remembered that the commander in charge of vehicles told him to make up the stickers and place them on two patrol cars. The commander in charge of vehicles, Chris Davis, told KGET that "there never was a direct order to pull off this gag."
The best explanation seems to be that Sheriff Wimbish showed a magazine drawing of a similar joke to people in his department because he thought it funny (perhaps expressing that he found it a "good idea" or that he "liked it"), and his subordinates (reasonably or not) interpreted his statements as a request (or order) to place similar decals on Kern County patrol cars. As KGET reported:
"Basically when a supervisor says I like this, we do it," said Cmdr. Davis. "Perhaps he didn't realize the power he has as sheriff with a few words."
. . .it may be that the sheriff and assistant sheriff are blaming a commander who speaking publicly at some risk says they are wrong.
"Something that started out as a cop joke in house, ends up hurting a lot," said Cmdr. Davis.
One thing is for sure, The sheriff admits this was his idea in a way, because he walked around the department showing off a magazine drawing of a similar gag and said he thought it was funny.
It may be another ill-fated example of a relatively new sheriff trying to win over his reluctant command staff, nearly all of whom supported Wimbish's challenger in the election.
Department insiders describe Wimbish as the odd man out, he may just be trying to fit in, with a little locker-room humor and cop-shop shenanigans.
Last updated: 31 August 2004
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/kern.asp
There may be even more to this tale. I seem to recall that a couple of years back a sherrif in NC actually had the "We'll Kick Your Ass" part put on his own police car. The guy was a real nut who thought he was another Buford Pusser and had a reputation for brutality. This guy dressed in black tactical gear and went around armed to the teeth. His idea of law enforcement was pure intimidation. I think there was a recall election or he resigned or something along those lines. That may be how the picture got into the law enforcement magazine.
Posted by: Ric on May 24, 2005 01:32 PMYa everyone blamed Mack Wimbish for it, personally I liked it. Now if the Bakersfield p.d would put on their car " if you run away we'll shoot you in the back and hi-fives all around" I'd feel better. I live here in Bakersfield this place is tough for big-hick town, in fact I stopped listening to my scanner for this reason I was amazed at the violence here. Shoot 'em all worry later.
Posted by: craig on May 27, 2005 12:14 AMSuddenly the police advertise the truth and all they get is grief. My feelings - put it on the cars for everyone to see. At least you know their modus operandi :-)
Posted by: Gary on May 27, 2005 02:43 PM