While discussing the Ray Rice domestic abuse case with a reporter, a Texas police officer was caught on tape making sexist remarks by a local NPR affiliate.
KUT News’ Joy Diaz was at the police union’s building, waiting to interview the head of the union. She was approached by Officer Andrew Pietrowski, who began discussing the Ray Rice incident saying that the media blew the whole thing out of proportion.
Pietrowski went on to tell Diaz:
“Now, stop and think about this. I don’t care who you are. You think about the women’s movement today, [women say] ‘Oh, we want to go [into] combat,’ and then, ‘We want equal pay, and we want this.’ You want to fight in combat and sit in a foxhole? You go right ahead, but a man can’t hit you in public here? Bullshit! You act like a ho, you get treated like one!”
Diaz met with Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who said, “Somebody [who] has that mentality has no business being a cop.” He also said that the sexism within the department is alarming to him and that mentality doesn’t help the police gain trust in the community.
Upon learning that KUT did, in fact, plan on playing the his remarks on-air, Officer Pietrowski officially retired from the APD.
This is not the first time the APD has come under fire for sexist comments regarding women who have been the victim of violent crimes.
Just last month, Acevedo suspended two officers after a video released by a local attorney’s office showed the pair making jokes about rape victims. The officers were having a conversation while investigating an automobile accident. One officer can be heard saying, “Oh, you got robbed? You probably deserved it.” They then noticed an attractive woman nearby, and after one of the officers whistled at her, he said “Go ahead — call the cops. They can’t unrape you.”
While Chief Acevedo claims that officers with this type of sexist mentality are the “extreme minority” in the APD, claims like this coming two months back-to-back makes it hard to view them as isolated incidents.
Listen to Pietrowski’s comments at about the 2:00 mark via KUT.
