I have stayed publicly pretty apolitical in my response to yesterdays and todays peaceful protests in NYC. This being stated, as an emergency first responder and a Federal DOT Certified Emergency Vehicle Operations instructor for EMS/Fire/Police myself, I find it totally unacceptable and hypocritical that I have witnessed numerous NYPD officers in privately owned SUVs with New Jersey license plates driving lights and sirens through my neighborhood tonight above the speed limit and blowing red lights. These relatively small and very peaceful protests are not a city nor tri-state wide level one response. This is a fact. There is no immediate threat of any mass casualty incident. This is a fact. This is not a 10-13 response. This is a fact. The off duty NYPD officers who are doing this are blatantly disobeying the law and putting lives at risk while doing so. It is a criminal act far more dangerous than selling untaxed cigarettes on the street. The blind eye all of us neighborhood residents are watching the police force, including the brass, turn to this behavior is looking really awful and its being noticed. At a time when an us and them attitude is causing protests, at a time when the police attitude seems to be that if any laws are broken civilians should expect to be possibly forcefully detained, this could not send out a worse message. And quite frankly, it is disturbing the peace in a much more dangerous and illegally self entitled manner than any protester is doing. It simply has to stop. I dont want to have to care for an injured or dying struck pedestrian because of an unnecessary and unlawful jacked up response by off duty officers. Period. There is no good excuse for this whatsoever.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 04:17:11 +0000