Enraged that a citizen would dare question his actions, a Connecticut state trooper was caught on video Monday unleashing a stream of profanities and threats at a man who asked why he was tailgating another car.
It does not appear as if trooper Matthew Spina was aware he was being recorded because the phone was lying on a car seat while he was blowing his top. The video is now going viral and he has been placed on paid administrative duty where he no longer has contact with the public.
“Who the fuck do you think you are worrying about what I’m doing?” Spina yells at the man who goes by C.O.P -Civilian on patrol on Youtube but has been identified by the Hartford Courant as Kevin A. Jette.
“It just never fucking ends in this fucking job,” he says at another point point. “I got 14 months. I can’t fucking wait to be done.”
And his parting words that were captured on video were, “Don’t you ever fuck with me again!”.
But Spina did not arrest Jette nor did he even bother asking for his drivers license. He did throw his legal marijuana on the side of the road then stomped on it because Jeffe had it stored in a container different from how it was dispensed which is an arrestable offense.
The Connecticut State Police issued the following statement regarding the video.
The Connecticut State Police has been made aware of a video posted on social media involving one of our Troopers. While the Trooper’s behavior in the video is disturbing, it is not indicative of the great work of the women and men of the Connecticut State Police and their dedication to protecting and serving during this pandemic.
We hold our Troopers to high standards and the behavior displayed in the video is not reflective of the values of Commissioner Rovella or my administration. An internal affairs investigation has been initiated and the Trooper has been placed in an administrative capacity which does not allow him to interact with the public.
We do recognize that all of us everywhere are under extreme stress during this pandemic. For our troopers, they are dealing with the impact on their personal lives along with workplace stressors of being on the frontline. While not an excuse, we are sensitive to this and also referred the trooper to our employee assistance program. We have also recently launched a resiliency program to help all our employees dealing with this pandemic.
We will release more information as it becomes available.
Jette posted the video to Youtube with the following description.
This trooper was driving erratically and I flipped him off and threw my hand out the window (I did not realize it was a State trooper driving like that until he passed me, I was just flipping off someone I thought was driving like an asshole and putting other motorists in danger) *Take note that he didn’t ask me for my license my registration or my proof of insurance. Nor was he wearing gloves or a mask there for risking exposing me to covid-19
Jette also said that Spina told him that “if I ever come across you again you are going over that bridge” as he was standing handcuffed near the bridge but that part is not audible on the video which can be viewed below.
