Cop on video to pedestrian: Stay out of Philly

This comes to you from Philly Confidential guest blogger and Daily News staff writer William Bender:

Update: Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman, said an "active investigation" is underway by Internal Affairs. He said the investigation, not the video, would determine whether the officers "acted appropriate in all aspects of their job." A source identified one of the cops as Officer Philip Nace of the 25^th District. I just called over there and was told that Nace is "on the street." No doubt treating all pedestrians with the utmost respect.

This disturbing video of two Philadelphia police officers berating two men on the street was brought to our attention following today's Daily News story about ex-cop Herbert Spellman and ongoing problems with Philadelphia's stop-and-frisk policy. We'll update this post when we have more information about the stop.

The YouTube video, which was filmed Sept. 27 according to accompanying text, starts with one of the cops calling out, "Yo, my man," and the man responding, "How you doing, sir?" And it goes downhill, quickly. An officer threatens to one man that he'll "split your wig open" and calls one a "f---ing dirty ass." When they complain that they haven't done anything wrong, the officer responds: "Why don't you shut the f--- up! Everyone thinks they're a f---ing lawyer and they don't know jack sh--."

"You're jaywalking, by the way," the second officer adds.

The first officer later says: "Don't come to f---ing Philadelphia, stay in Jersey."

"I have family out here," the man responds.

"Yeah, don't come over here," says the cop. "We don't want you here, anyway. All you do is weaken the country."

"How do I weaken the country? By working?" the man asks.

"No, freeloading," the cops says.

When the man says he's a server at a country club, the officer responds: "Server. Serving weed?"