Entertainment
Florida mayor slams cops’ treatment of ‘scared’ supermodel
A Florida mayor has heavily criticized his city’s police department for their treatment of Gisele Bundchen after the supermodel burst into tears publicly released bodycam footage from a traffic stop earlier this week, RadarOnline.com has learned.
“I was appalled yesterday to see a video interaction of one of our residents speaking with one of our police officers,” the mayor of Surfside said. Charles Burkett wrote in a letter to the interim police commissioner Henry Doceand called the incident ‘completely unacceptable’.
The officer stopped Bündchen for driving erratically while trying to avoid a paparazzo who was “stalking” her. “I’m so tired,” said an emotional Bündchen. “Everywhere I go, I have these guys following me. Nothing protects me. I can not do anything. I just want to live my life.”
The officer let Bundchen leave with a warning, but told her he couldn’t help. “There’s nothing I can do about that,” he said. “I can’t stop them from doing their job, which is taking pictures.”
“As you watch the video, it is clear very early on that the resident is distressed and scared,” Burkett wrote in his letter. “The scared resident tells the Surfside officer that she thinks a stalker is following her and that she is scared. In response, the Surfside police officer says, ‘I can’t do anything about that’ and discuss your problem with Miami Beach.”
“This response is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the values, judgment and service that residents expect from their police,” he continued. “On the contrary, the most important task of our police is to protect our residents! The dismissive attitude toward a resident who is clearly in need is everything we do not want to see in the way our police interact and serve our residents.”
“I have always supported our police department and all the men and women who choose to serve honorably. What I saw on that video and the actions of the Surfside union boss at our recent meeting indicate that the former command staff leadership and the unions lost sight of their mission. We are all counting on you to refocus the primary mission of our police department on serving our residents.”
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Doce, talking to Local 10 Newsadmitted the traffic stop could have been handled better.
“I would have liked to see more empathy at the initial contact with what was going on,” Doce said, adding that the officer who stopped Bündchen is “phenomenal.”
“Could we have done better?” he asked. “I think it’s a learning opportunity to understand what the dynamics of that situation are.”
