Philly cop in hot water over slur, hawking fundraiser tickets

Zagursky continues “Either you buy these, or I take your vehicle because it’s unregistered”. “Ten bucks each, man”.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told Action News that Internal Affairs is investigating the incident involving the officer, 32-year-old Matthew Zagursky.

A Philadelphia officer is in deep trouble after videos of him harassing and coaxing a driver and his friend went viral.

“You don’t want to look like two fruitcakes, you know”, Zagursky replies before making several homophobic comments, especially directed at the driver’s windshield wipers, which were so decorated to support breast cancer. In reply, the sunglasses-wearing Zagursky says, “You don’t look like a couple of fruitcakes”.

Later on, Zagursky asks the driver for $30, and the driver seems surprised, saying, “I don’t wanna take this guy”, about his passenger.

The interaction was posted on Facebook by a user named ‘Rob Stay Faded.’ The fundraiser alluded to is the Hero Thrill Show, which raises money to pay for college tuition of children of Philadelphia police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. Zagursky doesn’t have a listed phone number. Instead of taking your s**t and you two walking. “That’s totally inappropriate, and it could very well be illegal”, Ramsey said.

Philly.com, which carried a transcript of the exchange caught on video, reported that Commissioner Ramsey sent an email to all departments Friday to “ensure that no other officers pressure people to buy tickets to the October. 10 fundraiser”.

“Breast cancer I can understand, but can’t you support breast cancer another way?”

Police Chief Charles Ramsey denounced the officer’s behavior and said the matter is under investigation.

Ramsey said he does not know when the traffic stop occurred, but he said the tickets displayed by the officer have been available for only about a month.