This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Laura Weintraub, a former Santa Paula volunteer reserve cop and possibly the world's most irritating human, has resigned after posting a video about running over bicyclists that was meant to be humorous. Weintraub's 'Cup Holder Commentary' videos appear to be a blatant attempt to cash in on Jenna Marbles' YouTube fame, offering satirical commentary from the passenger seat of a vehicle. But being shot in portrait when everyone in 2014 knows you should shoot in landscape is the least egregious crime in her 'Bicyclist Edition' video.
The video goes on and on about the cyclists they pass, who, for the most part, aren't doing anything out of the ordinary. She criticizes biking for not being a real sport (the L.A. Times reported that she's also a personal trainer) and asks her driver (also known as her husband) how much it would cost for him to hit a biker. (A dollar; he said it would cost one dollar.) She makes fun of cyclists who wear spandex, then later makes fun of cyclists who don't wear spandex. She gets mad about a cyclist who is signaling to get over, but then, in her increasingly annoying lilt, encourages a cyclist to play 'Frogger' with traffic. The video ends with a photo of a car crashing into a group of cyclists with the caption "Like you've never thought about it." In the end, she sums up cyclists as a reason not to live in Southern California—she claims she's going to move somewhere snowy.
Weintraub's video ended up not being very popular, probably because lots of cyclists are killed in SoCal. Weintraub's commentary resulted in a flood of criticism to the Santa Paula Police department's Facebook page, and Weintraub was later placed on leave. She also issued an apology, then resigned, according to a post on the department's page from Police Chief Steve McLean.
Her apology:
"I would like to apologize to all those who have been offended by what was intended to be a satirical video on cyclists. The response from the cycling community has made me aware of the sport and its safety issues and challenges with drivers on the road of which I was completely unaware."
Volunteer officer Michael Gray, who defended the video using the department's Facebook page, has also been placed on leave pending an investigation, and has also apologized.
Maybe it's a little harsh to judge someone on one video. So here are three more: Here's one where Weintraub makes a #humblebrag video while driving. Here's one where she lists four rules of the road. The third rule is that you should drive 20 miles over the speed limit in the fast lane, and the fourth rule is that you just shouldn't drive a Prius. Maybe what she really hates is the environment. Here's one in which something terrible happens: she goes to get coffee when the clerk palms the lid of her cup to ring it up, meaning she has to change the lid to avoid getting, I don't know, probably ebola. Then she goes on about how much she loves Daniel Tosh, and suddenly, everything she thinks about humor and satire makes sense.
