Mel Gibson: Drunken, Anti-Semitic Tirade and Cover Up?

I've written here before about the possibility that Mel Gibson holds strong anti-Semitic views, possibly even including Holocaust Denial like his father. He's always denied this, after a fashion, but a recent incident may have forced out the truth: stopped and arrested for drunk driving, Mel Gibson launched into several vulgar tirades against the police. His comments includes anti-Semitic slurs.

TMZ first broke the story and has PDFs of the original police reports.

The actor began swearing uncontrollably. Gibson repeatedly said, “My life is f****d.” Law enforcement sources say the deputy, worried that Gibson might become violent, told the actor that he was supposed to cuff him but would not, as long as Gibson cooperated. As the two stood next to the hood of the patrol car, the deputy asked Gibson to get inside. Deputy Mee then walked over to the passenger door and opened it. The report says Gibson then said, “I’m not going to get in your car,” and bolted to his car. The deputy quickly subdued Gibson, cuffed him and put him inside the patrol car.

Sounds like an episode of COPS. It doesn’t sound like there is a video of this part of the arrest, but they did start rolling the cameras later on because he became so abusive that they felt they needed clear evidence of how they were handling him. There is also an audio tape of Gibon’s tirades:

Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, “You mother f****r. I’m going to f*** you.” The report also says “Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he ‘owns Malibu’ and will spend all of his money to ‘get even’ with me.”

OK, now we’ve moved on to COPS 90210 or something like that. But wait, it gets better...

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: “F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson then asked the deputy, “Are you a Jew?” ...

A law enforcement source says Gibson then noticed another female sergeant and yelled, “What do you think you’re looking at, sugar tits?”

We’re told Gibson took two blood alcohol tests, which were videotaped, and continued saying how “f****d” he was and how he was going to “f***” Deputy Mee.

Not long after it seems like they had to rush Mel Gibson to the bathroom because they thought he was going to urinate right there on the floor of his cell.

According to the LA Times, Gibson has apologized for what he said and did:

Gibson issued a statement Saturday apologizing for his “despicable” behavior.

“I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested,” the statement reads, “and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said.”

Gibson said he has battled alcoholism as an adult, adding, “I … profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health.”

So, case closed, right? Mel Gibson was so drunk that he didn’t know what he was saying and thus his comments shouldn’t be taken as indicative of his true feelings, right? Maybe not. The above sounds an awful lot like a non-denial denial, much like the one he made when asked directly if he denied the Holocaust.

Gibson admits to acting out of control and “said things” which he does “not believe to be true,” but he doesn’t state which things he is referring to. He doesn’t say that all of his comments were despicable and not true. Perhaps he means to include his anti-Semitic remarks and perhaps not. Given the fact that it is precisely those remarks which are getting the most attention and which are causing the most outrage, doesn’t it make sense to specifically mention them just to make sure that there is no misunderstanding?

These sorts of apologies are not issued off the cuff — no, they are carefully crafted with the help of people like publicists and lawyers to ensure that they say the right things in the right ways. Mistakes can be made, sure, but it’s reasonable to think that anti-Semitism wasn’t included for a reason. Since there are very good reasons why it should have been mentioned, there must be even better reasons to leave it out. What might they be, if not that those comments at least he really meant?

According to the Daily News, Mel Gibson wasn’t exactly falling-down drunk at the time:

Gibson, 50, was pulled over for speeding at 3:10 a.m. on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., cops said. The Oscar-winning “Braveheart” star and director was driving 80 mph when he was snared by a radar trap, sheriff’s deputies said. The speed limit in that area is 45 mph to 55 mph.

Gibson failed both alcohol breath and field sobriety tests, deputies said. His blood-alcohol level was .12, Deputy Anthony Moore said. The legal limit is .08 in California.

He was legally intoxicated, that much is obvious, but just how drunk was he? In many states a blood-alcohol level of .1 is still needed before even being legally intoxicated and Gibson wasn’t much above that. If he was also a life-long alcoholic, it’s likely that this level may not cause as much impairment as it would for someone else.

Because of all this, I have trouble accepting that Mel Gibson was so drunk that he was unable to stop from saying completely bizarre and untrue things. It’s possible to be that drunk, but Gibson sounds like he was only at the level where his higher cognitive functions aren’t able to stop him from saying what he’s really thinking. In other words, it sounds an awful lot like this incident showed the world what is really going through Mel Gibson’s mind — and it isn’t pretty.

One further note of interest in this story is that the sheriff’s department is alleged to have tried to engage in a cover up of just how badly Mel Gibson behaved and of some of the awful things he said:

Deputy Mee then wrote an eight-page report detailing Gibson’s rampage and comments. Sources say the sergeant on duty felt it was too “inflammatory.” A lieutenant and captain then got involved and calls were made to Sheriff’s headquarters. Sources say Mee was told Gibson’s comments would incite a lot of “Jewish hatred,” that the situation in Israel was “way too inflammatory.” It was mentioned several times that Gibson, who wrote, directed, and produced 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” had incited “anti-Jewish sentiment” and “For a drunk driving arrest, is this really worth all that?”

We’re told Deputy Mee was then ordered to write another report, leaving out the incendiary comments and conduct. Sources say Deputy Mee was told the sanitized report would eventually end up in the media and that he could write a supplemental report that contained the redacted information -- a report that would be locked in the watch commander’s safe.

Are the stories of a cover up true? Well, the initial statement to the media was that Mel Gibson was arrested “without incident.” Even if you ignore all of the vulgarity and anti-Semitic statements, does the above account of his arrest really sound like it was “without incident”? Of course not — not unless that sheriff’s department has a really high standard of what qualifies as an “incident.” I suppose that’s possible, but it doesn’t sound very plausible and I can’t bring myself to believe it.

Despite denying that Mel Gibson was given any preferential treatment, even his mug shot is being kept hidden:

The sheriff’s department has previously released mug shots of other stars arrested for drunken driving, including actress Kim Delaney in 2002, but Gibson’s booking photo “was not available,” according to department spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Sheriff Lee Baca personally ordered Gibson’s mug kept under wraps, a deputy told the Daily News.

The California Highway Patrol, which has busted stars including Nick Nolte and former “Growing Pains” cutie Tracey Gold for DUI, routinely releases stars’ mug shots, no matter how unflattering.

Right, no special treatment there. None at all... and I’m sure that none of this has anything to do with it:

Gibson has had a close relationship with the Sheriff’s Department. He served in 2002 as a “celebrity representative” for the L.A. Sheriff’s Department’s Star Organization, a group that provides scholarships and aid for the children of slain sheriff’s deputies.

Gibson donated $10,000 to the stepdaughter of a deputy shot and killed in the line of duty and filmed public service announcements for Baca’s relief committee dressed in a sheriff’s uniform.

Note carefully the that the deputy’s hand-written notes, which are the basis for all of the reports thus far, were not officially released. They were leaked to the press and currently the sheriff’s department is investigating who leaked them. The notes have been verified as authentic, by the way.

 

Let’s recap: Mel Gibson only had a blood-alcohol level of .12 and he has been associated with anti-Semitism in several ways, but his nasty anti-Semitic comments were because .12 made him too drunk to know what he was doing. He apologized for his saying awful things, but he doesn’t specify his anti-Semitic slurs as being among the awful things — despite knowing full well that those are the comments which everyone will focus on.

The sheriff’s department insists that Mel Gibson wasn’t given any special treatment, but they refuse to release his mug shot and initially said that he was arrested “without incident” despite the fact that he clearly made a huge incident at the time. The arresting deputy’s notes describe a man making all sorts of awful comments and according to someone (perhaps the person who leaded the notes), that deputy was told to sanitize the arrest report.

Am I the only one who thinks that there is more to this story than what we are being told by those involved?

 

Update: with regards to the possibility that Mel Gibson was given special treatment by the sheriff's department, TMZ reports that there were allegedly two past cases of reckless driving when exactly that occurred:

TMZ has confirmed that approximately three years ago, Gibson was driving 74 miles per hour on Pacific Coast Highway, one mile from his house, when he was pulled over by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy. Sources say Gibson avoided eye contact with the deputy during the stop and even though the deputy was suspicious of Gibson's sobriety, he let him go.

Approximately one year ago Gibson was stopped again, after driving 64 miles an hour on Pacific Coast Highway -- where the speed limit is 45. Sources say that Gibson was so cocky that he was on his cell phone the entire time he was detained by the deputy. Ultimately, the deputy decided to let him go without giving him a citation.

Mel Gibson has admitted to not only having had alcohol and drug problems in the past, but also to having driven his car while impaired. This means that not only are the above stories credible, but that it's also credible that he may have been impaired during one or both incidents. If he was given a free pass those two times before, isn't it more believable that he was given special treatment again this time?

 

Update 2: Mel Gibson issued a second apology in which he specifically included his anti-Semitic remarks as something inexcusable. He even asks to meet with Jewish leaders, perhaps in recognition of the fact that he has a long-term problem with anti-Semitism of which this latest incident is the latest but worst example. Of course, the second statement was crafted by a publicist just like the first one. To what extent to such statements ever reflect the true feelings of the person who hired the publicist? That's never easy to say, this case included. Some feel that this second apology is too little, too late.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says that this same publicist said that Mel Gibson wanted to meet during the height of the controversy surrounding his Passion of the Christ film, but that no meeting ever occurred. So, to what extent is making a statement requesting a meeting just a publicity ploy?

 

More details about an apparent effort to cover up the worst of the arrest have also been released by the Los Angeles Times:

The officials ultimately decided to place a portion of Deputy James Mee's report under lock and key in an effort to prevent immediate public disclosure, the sources said. They declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case. "They were like chickens running around with their heads cut off," said one source, who was at the station and witnessed the discussion in the hours after Gibson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. [...]

"There was some pressure being put from sheriff's headquarters" to downplay Gibson's behavior, one source said.

As a result, the sources said, officials locked up the deputy's narrative describing Gibson's outbursts, leaving only the arrest's basic facts in a report readily available to station personnel. They planned to provide the full arrest report — including the narrative — to prosecutors, the sources said. But the document would have become public only if prosecutors introduced them in court. The pages that were set aside included the deputy's account of Gibson trying to escape arrest and then allegedly threatening to "get even" with him.

I have to wonder what other incidents might have been covered up by local police around Los Angeles in recent years. Granted, everyone suspects that stars might get privileged treatment at least sometimes, but things like this which confirm suspicions can seriously harm the credibility of police at all levels.

 

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• Roman Catholicism
• Antisemitism