(Thumbnail Image: Mercury News)

BY JIM FLINK

“If I see you anywhere near my home, anywhere near my daughter.  I will arrest you.  Do you believe me this time?” (Mercury News)

That’s video of a California motorcycle officer -- “fake arresting” a 15-year old boy who had allegedly had sex with his 14-year-old stepdaughter.  The video has become a YouTube sensation, while the discussion has ranged between outrage -- and outright support.

We’re analyzing coverage from The Telegraph, ABC News, CBS News, and The Daily Mail.

The officer staged the arrest in front of the young boy’s parents, who videotaped the whole thing on a cell phone.  Here’s some more of the exchange from YouTube.

“This does not bode well for you.  You know what that means?  No.  Not a good thing that the person you had sex with is a cop’s daughter.”

“Growing up and being in high school, a cop’s daughter is not someone you wanna mess around with.  You’re stupid.”

In the UK’s Telegraph, a lawyer for the young boy’s family says, this cop’s a cowboy, and needs to be reined in.

"Applying force, applying handcuffs, threatening the young man with things such as rape in prison, he acted like a cowboy. He lost it, he came in and he abused his authority."

The mother of the boy tells ABC, while her son may be in the wrong, the officer invaded her home under false pretenses.

“It’s that this person came into his home and he felt that he’s not even safe in his own home.  Because, you know, we couldn’t help him, we couldn’t protect him.  Here this person is standing in our house. You know, Over us.  Our son is handcuffed.  He’s an officer, an authority figure.  The only thing we could do is, we thought our son was being arrested.”  

On CBS News, the cop’s attorney says, the officer never crossed the line.  Despite the fact, he was wearing a gun during the arrest, and had his hand on the weapon from time to time during the five minute long dress-down.

“The officer is clearly in control, and is clearly concerned with the unlawful sexual relations the young man has had with the officers’ daughter.  Every parent would agree this is sage advice and we should not allow this message to be lost because of a misplaced focus on what the officer was wearing.”

And in the Daily Mail, the lawyer says, even the boy’s parents can be heard on the video telling the young man to get his act together.

“At no time did you hear the parents of the young man objecting, getting upset, crying. So the video is absolutely exculpatory from the cop's perspective.  The officer was essentially invited to use 'scare straight' tactics, and there were no objections to the lecture or the handcuffing.”

So what do you think?  Dreadful dad-cop?  Or -- perfect parent policing of pre-pubescent petting?