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Ever-classy NYPD threatens to sue Occupy Wall Street protesters
By Alex HeiglOctober 28th, 2011, 11:30 amComments (9)
Will Smith, decorated movie veteran of various interstellar conflicts, once said that NYPD stands for "[K]nock yo' punkass down." That line has started to seem less and less in funny in the wake of the NYPD's behavior as of late, which, if we're just limiting it to Occupy Wall Street-related malfeasance, has included pepper-spraying, scooter hit-and-runs, and good ol' face-punching.
The NYPD's take on things? Sue those fuckers.
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association:
"New York's police officers are working around the clock as the already overburdened economy in New York is being drained by 'occupiers' who intentionally and maliciously instigate needless and violent confrontations with the police"
Claiming that "over twenty police officers have been injured in 'Occupy Wall Street' related incidents," (while declining to provide details), Mullins said that the SBA would pursue the "harshest possible civil sanctions" against protesters should any police be injured.
I agree that the NYPD is over-burdened by the demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I mean, there's so many better things they could be doing with their time, like gun-running, "frying n**ers," making tickets disappear for their powerful friends, and having their own officers attempting to expose corruption committed to mental institutions. There's only so many hours in the day.
And I'd like to offer the caveat that I'm not trying to imply that all NYPD officers are bad people: I live in New York, and I've run into several that are decent and hard-working. And some of the Occupy Wall Streeters do engage in deliberate, obnoxious cop-baiting. But seriously, suing them? I mean, you could just keep pepper-spraying them — that seems a lot cheaper and more cathartic than a court case.
Besides, all it's going to get you is ten fewer vacation days and a shorter commute.
Tags
Occupy Wall Street
Commentarium (9 Comments)
Suing people with no money really makes sense.
OWS has 500K in the bank. So its ok to paint the NYPD with the bad acts of a few, but not the protesters?
The fact that the NYPD is an organization that hires and then trains professionals on keeping the peace with standard issue firearms seems to have escaped you. And there seems to be more than a "few" bad acts from these trained professionals, the one particular "act" from their Oakland peers hospitalizing an Iraq vet who, last I checked, was in critical condition.
You have to have your head pretty far up your ass to believe that bit of spin you just typed.
Hmm. It seems that the SBA is saying that if an OWS protestor injures a police officer, then the SBA will support civil action against the protestors on behalf of their injured officer. Is that unusual for a union to do?
If an OWS protester injures a police officer, isn't he going to have more trouble on his hands than just a law suit?
Almost certainly there will be criminal charges, assuming the injury was intentional. So, yes, I'd say the OWS protester would have more trouble than a civil lawsuit. The civil lawsuit would be, I think, intended to recover damages for the officer.
Note that this is some union flunky speaking, not the NYPD. This guy is just mouthing off to impress his membership and justify his salary. I wonder when the next SBA elections are.
He's in solid. The NYPD is hating the OWS d-bags. It's going to get ugly and soon.
Typical blame-the-police, reactionary, thoughtless nonsense.
All we ever hear from braying, ignorant 'journalists' (and I use the term loosely in this case. . . shouldn't you be writing a column about the top ten Lesbian movie scenes or something? You seem out of your depth here, Nerve) is accountablity for the police. God forbid we hold anyone else accountable. You know, like the 'protesters' who CHOOSE to be there.