Asa Coon’s death photo taken by Cleveland cop

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Photo of Asa Coon’s body taken by Cleveland policeman:

The infamous photo of Asa Coon that was taken after he committed suicide was taken by Cleveland police officer Walter Emerick. He admitted to taking the photo with his cell phone and sending it to other people, but claims that he did not post it on the internet. If those other people were outside of the investigation, then what did he expect to happen?

Steve Loomis, the Cleveland police union president, said the union does not condone a crime-scene photo being posted on the Internet.

But officers have legitimate reasons to take pictures of crime scenes in order to recall what they saw, he said. Emerick took other images that were not posted.

Which is a legitimate reason, but if he was sending it out to people for no legitimate reason, Officer Emerick should be disciplined.

Comments

17 responses to “Asa Coon’s death photo taken by Cleveland cop”

October 21, 2007

Jim

dumb cop :-O

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October 21, 2007

ZappaCrappa

Having become more and more cynical of our “men in blue” here lately, I’m just going to assume that he’s another “death fetishist” parading under the guise of “law enforcement.” Not a smart cop.

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October 21, 2007

Trench

Usually it’s EMTs and paramedics who do this kind of stuff.

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October 22, 2007

BelchSpeak

For some reason this doesn’t sound so distasteful to me. In this day and age where there is so much surveillance by CCTV, and everyone has a cellphone camera, there is no reasonable expectation to privacy in public places, not even post mortem.

Especially when you blow your head off on school property after having shot up your school. I don’t even think that what this cop did was unethical.

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October 22, 2007

Trench

So you don’t think that a cop taking a picture of a body and sending to all his friends just for the lulz is unethical?

Hypothetically.

BTW did you ever get my e-mails?

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October 22, 2007

BelchSpeak

Spam filters must be working overtime, sorry I didn’t get any emails.

The ethics of this? Since it was in *public* where the crime took place and this douchenozzle capped his own pathetic self, no, I do not think this was unethical. Many historical photos of the old west showing dead outlaws posed next to their bounty collectors springs to mind. Now with camera phones everywhere this is just much easier.

If Asa Coon did not want to be photographed with an extra hole in his head while lying in the school yard, maybe he should have played hookie that day.

I think it would have crossed the line if sending the photo message distracted him from doing his other duties or put others in an unsafe position.

Or maybe if he was working a funeral detail and opened the coffin to take the photo.

I guess Im a bit heartless when it comes to something like this.

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October 22, 2007

Trench

Ok, say it wasn’t Asa Coon. Say it was a victim of a car crash that was horribly mutilated or a murder victim.

In case you couldn’t tell I just have a thing about people who get off on these kinds of pics.

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October 22, 2007

BelchSpeak

Car crash should be off limits and a murder scene in a private place such as a home should also be off limits.

But in public places, I don’t see how anyone could stop people from seeing things and recording what they see with portable cameras.

And I did read your category on death mutants, and they are some disgusting trolls.

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October 22, 2007

Jim

for those people who think Trench and I agree on everything… I am one of the people who trolls the net looking for death and injury photos. I love cringe and shock.

I don’t think, though, that this cop should have leaked the photo of that fat loser and his extra head hole. It is highly lacking in professionalism on his part and he makes the force look bad. I understand WHY he did it, and had it been someone else like a student or the janitor … I wouldn’t think nothing of it. Its just that a cop on the scene is supposed to be protecting the scene … not leaking info to his buddies. Essentially its a matter that he wasn’t doing his job.

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October 22, 2007

BelchSpeak

Well he may have sent the photo off duty. And he didn’t post it on the internet, one of his buddies did.

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October 22, 2007

Jim

that doesn’t change the fact that he took a photo with his personal camera and used it in an unprofessional manor. Both of which are unbecoming of a police officer.

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October 24, 2007

Soobs

Uh, what does that make me, if I purchased the book _Death Scenes_? I don’t “get off on it,” but I’ve never had an issue with looking at gross pictures (spent dinner as a child looking at a 35 pound tumor once – gotta love dad bring home his work.)

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October 24, 2007

Trench

Soobs, I’m specifically referring to the gore freaks who almost see it as a kind of pron.

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October 24, 2007

Soobs

Okay, that’s not me. Whew! LOL

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October 26, 2007

ERQueen

I’m guilty of taking pictures of the injuries I’ve seen and sharing them with co-workers. I’ve never taken a picture that shows a person’s face and I’ve never taken a picture without the patient’s permission. The majority of the pictures I’ve taken in the ER have been with the patient’s personal cell phone at the patient’s request for their own private use. You’d be amazed at how many people want this kind of ‘souvenir’.
I know a lot of nurses & paramedics who have pictures like this on their cell phones and, yes, I like to look. My reason? I’m still amazed at the injuries the human body can survive.
I’m a gore freak. It’s how I can stay calm and ‘dig right in’ for the next gunshot/stabbing/motor vehicle victim. It’s how I can look down at my shoes and my pants and see their blood, shrug my shouders and go change clothes. It’s how I can go back to do it again tomorrow night.
It’s not porn to me.
I’m wondering if it’s similar for the police.

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November 4, 2007

Chris

In your comment I think you are forgetting this is a 14yr old child. He was obviously being tourmented in school as it is but now after his death to still have to deal with this type of humiliation is very unethical coming from the police.

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February 5, 2008

Steve

I used to look the shit up for fun and when I was suicidal I looked it up to figure what would happen if I did a certain thing. JUst so you guys know Whne I die I don’t care because I will be a better pklace and well hopefully I still got atleast 60 years seeing as I am only 19.

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