Get The Picture? Image conscious departments discipline cops

A couple of recent, thematically related items cracked me up.

In the small, Southeast Texas town of Taft, a couple of officers will be disciplined but not terminated (after threats to do so and much media hoopla) for participating in a (very bad) faux gangsta rap video put out by some local wannabes. Watch it here - town fathers were particularly upset about the cop and local police car that appear in the video in closeup at the very end, and at the city manager who'd approved filming at various landmarks around town. See also a video commentary (NSFW -includes blue language and some un-funny prison sodomy jokes) critiquing everybody involved that I thought was dead-on hilarious for the first two minutes (deteriorating thereafter in search of cheap laughs). The piece closes by advising that the next time cops want to help someone with a music video, they should "make sure they're at least, at LEAST a William Hung-level celebrity."

I'd have probably let that story go by, though, if I hadn't then seen this item about three of Sheriff Gary Painter's deputies out of Midland who are on the hot seat for taking the above picture of Daisy Duke a Round Rock waitress with an assault rifle posing on the back of their squad car. The funniest part is that these were Sheriff Gary Painter's boys - he's a particularly self-satisfied fellow (his bio on the Midland Sheriff's website calls him a "born leader of men") who's quite image conscious and regularly works the local media. I'll bet he was apoplectic when he saw that photo.

Makes you wonder: Is there anybody left in this country who doesn't want to participate in a rap video or aspire for their life to resemble a reality TV series?