A California appellate court has endorsed the firing of two Los Angeles police officers (USA) that ignored a robbery alert for playing catch Pokémon in 2017.
According to court documents, the California Court of Appeals has endorsed a decision of a lower court: it accepted the dismissal of both officers.
The agents in question, Louis Lozano y Eric Mitchell, were on patrol in April 2017 when the robbery alert was issued. By not responding to the alert or subsequent radio calls, his sergeant decided to investigate the reason for what happened. In their first explanations they pointed out that they were in a park, where they were mingling with local people who had loud music, so they could not answer. This version did not convince his superior, who decided to check the cameras of the police vehicle, according to the Los Angeles Times newspaper.
In the video, the sergeant was able to verify that the agents heard the call, debated and decided not to answer it. “Ah, that the den”Lozano said, according to court documents.
Instead of doing their job, the agents were playing the app Pokémon Go: specifically, they were on the hunt for a Snorlax, one of these monsters, which was rare and had not previously appeared in the area. For twenty minutes after the alert, both agents discussed Pokémon and went in the patrol car to different locations where, presumably, there would be new copies.
The court has rejected the allegations of both dismissed officers and considers that the use of the internal cameras of the vehicle was correct.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
