With a heavy, calculated swing, a cop in riot gear slams a nightstick across the back of a man on a busy sidewalk in Los Angeles.
More officers join in the chaotic brawl captured on video, striking several suspects before cuffing them and dragging them away.
The violent 96-second video clip is featured on the personal Web page of an NYPD police officer.
A photo on the same Web page shows the Brooklyn cop in uniform at his graduation from the Police Academy.
Posted just below the photo is a vintage drawing that shows a cop holding a gun. The drawing reads: "Hi, I'm going to Kick your a-- & get away with it."
"YES ... its true," a computer-generated caption declares beneath the poster.
The Brooklyn officer is one of several city cops who have disgraced their badges by posting violent images, explicit photos and other questionable material alongside pictures of themselves in uniform on their MySpace and Facebook pages, the Daily News has discovered.
When the findings were reviewed by the Police Department, NYPD brass said they would probe the questionable Web pages found by The News.
"The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating these instances," Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said.
NYPD regulations prohibit cops from using the NYPD logo without approval from the police commissioner.
The regulations also ban officers from using NYPD equipment for nondepartmental purposes or wearing their uniforms without approval. But the strict rules have not stopped officers from getting out of line on the Internet.
'Love being the NYPD'
The two attractive women lift their shirts to their chins, expose their breasts and smile for the camera.
More shocking than the public display of nudity is the setting: The women are flashing their breasts while standing just in front of an NYPD cruiser.
And the cop who displayed the photo on his MySpace page seemed delighted.
"Love being the NYPD," Officer Mark Gaiardelli's MySpace page declared below the photo.
Gaiardelli's online site featured several other photos of scantily clad women, as well as photos of bullets and guns, including his NYPD service weapon and his off-duty gun.
A photo of him in uniform also was posted on the Web page.
The photos of the guns and the women flashing their breasts were removed from the site last week shortly after the Daily News contacted the 31-year-old cop, who also is a volunteer firefighter in Selden, L.I.
Gaiardelli's fellow volunteer firefighters and his neighbors confirmed he was the cop in the photos on the MySpace page. But Gaiardelli declined to speak to The News on Wednesday. He also did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
'Attitude adjuster'
Set against a backdrop of motorcycles and flames, the rant against the indictment of three detectives involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell leaped off the Web page.
"3 brave and honorable men were indicted today because they took police action," NYPD Detective Frank Lorello wrote on his MySpace page.
"[T]his decision will cause nothing but doubt and hesitation among this free countries [sic] Police Officers."
"So i tell ya what," Lorello continued, "when you want the Police because someone has stolen your weed, pimped out your woman, BBQ'ed the family pet, lost their OTB ticket stub, thrown a baby in garbage can or simply murdered a ... total stranger because he looked at you funny ... DON'T CALL US ... call a fireman!"
Though much of Lorello's page was a playful tribute to Harley Davidson, Star Wars and his newborn son, it also contained a set of posters carrying questionable captions.
The first showed a cop taking a swing at another person alongside the words: "Protesting: It's just un-American!" The second read "Law Enforcement: Helping 'Perps' slip down stairs since 1776!"
The Web page listed the vice cop's occupation as an "Attitude Adjuster."
The main photo on the site also showed a man pointing the barrel of a gun out toward the camera.
Lorello told The News outside his home in Nassau County last Thursday that he had posted the rant, as well as the images and other information on the Web page.
He declined further comment and later changed the settings on his MySpace page to restrict access to his profile.
'What they do in L.A.'
The wobbly footage of LAPD cops using their nightsticks to hit suspects played on the top right of NYPD Officer Nick Jacobs' MySpace page.
Directly to the left of the video link, a photo shows Jacobs flashing a broad smile, and the page identifies him as an "NYPD officer."
His online photo album includes the vintage poster of a gun-toting cop with words "Hi, I'm going to Kick your a-- & get away with it" and a photo of him in uniform.
When asked about the Web page at his Brooklyn home last Wednesday, the 24-year-old cop assigned to the Brooklyn North Task Force initially tried to explain away the content. He then apologized.
"The reason I put the beating up there is that that's what they do in L.A. and that's what we don't want here," he told The News.
But nothing on the Web page delivered that message.
As for the poster of the gun-toting cop, Jacobs said, "I got it from a college friend, actually."
"It's really not true, though," he added. "Instead of explaining it - I'd rather take it down.
"I think it's a lesson for other people," he said. "Be careful what you put online because people can see it."
Unlike the personal Web pages of several other cops, Jacobs did not post photos of his service weapon or other guns.
"Most of all, don't put pictures up with guns because people can see that and they can get a negative view of the NYPD," he said. "Just make it private."
Two days after the interview, Jacobs restricted the access to his MySpace page so only authorized visitors could view the content. But his profile on Facebook.com remained public. It included a photo from his Police Academy graduation with a caption: "Jail pose for all you b----es!"
The nudie cop
The News found hundreds of other public profiles posted on the Web of people claiming to be NYPD officers, many of them in uniform.
Many of the Web pages also included photos of guns and several featured the same poster of a white man dressed as cop squatting next to a black boy in a plastic toy car with the caption: "Racial Profiling: It Starts Early ..."
NYPD officials said the Police Department has taken action in previous cases, including one instance resulting in the termination of a Police Academy recruit.
"In other instances, MySpacers purporting to be members of the NYPD were not," Browne said.
Career experts told The News it's unwise to post any personal information on the Internet, especially if the material violates work rules.
"Anything that is on the Internet or a social networking site is public domain," said Trudy Steinfeld, executive director of the Wasserman Center for the Career Development at New York University. "Anyone who thinks that this is not is fooling themselves."
Eddie Mallia knows firsthand what can happen to cops who violate NYPD regulations regarding use of the department's uniforms, equipment and logo.
Mallia lost his job as one of New York's Finest in 1995 after he posed in little more than his patrolman's shield for an 11-page spread in Playgirl magazine.