You Know What Is Next, Don’t You
Now that the cop has been named from the pepper spray incident, and it appears he has had multiple outbursts like this, should he be fired, you know what is going to happen, don’t you?
How long before he is the next Allen West? Macing hippies is almost as sure a vote getter in the Republican primary as torturing prisoners.
September 27, 2011 11:52 am
Posted in: Fucked-up-edness
68 Comments
68 Responses
srv - September 27, 2011 | 11:54 am · Link
I see a medal in this guys near future.
Odie Hugh Manatee - September 27, 2011 | 11:54 am · Link
Presidential material I say! It takes real guts to mace an innocent protester.
Kind of like killing innocent people in the name of justice.
kindness - September 27, 2011 | 11:57 am · Link
Screw that. But I sure would like to meet him in a dark alley.
geg6 - September 27, 2011 | 11:58 am · Link
Now this is where the Free Mumia crowd and I can come together and sing Kumbaya.
Fuck this fucking pig of a cop.
But yeah, he’ll probably get a medal and be offered Ray Kelly’s job when he retires.
mark - September 27, 2011 | 11:59 am · Link
I heard the cowardly cop Tony Baloney said he is now worried for his family.
Tell him to buy them some pepper spray.
MattF - September 27, 2011 | 12:00 pm · Link
Hmm, so… what about that right-wing sadism? Kinda obvious once it’s pointed out, no?
danimal - September 27, 2011 | 12:01 pm · Link
We need to get tough on the DFHs. True Americans don’t protest Wall Street; they support our Galtian overlords in their efforts to reform our pensions and savings accounts into their pensions and savings accounts. It’s the American Way.
Also, too, it seems like Rep. Bologna would be a natural replacement for Rep. Weiner.
Gilles de Rais - September 27, 2011 | 12:04 pm · Link
He won’t be fired. Punching (or macing) hippies is not a crime, at least not to the “law and order at any cost” crowd.
General Stuck - September 27, 2011 | 12:09 pm · Link
OT
Your daily Wingnuts Gone Wild
GregB - September 27, 2011 | 12:10 pm · Link
Bologna/West 2012!
If you can’t beat ‘em, mace ‘em.
Steve - September 27, 2011 | 12:11 pm · Link
“Multiple outbursts” seems kind of truthy, since the link is to a single complaint from years ago where the cop was alleged to have wrongfully ordered someone arrested. Even if it was a wrongful arrest, which is frankly impossible to determine, it’s not an “outburst.” Frankly, it’s not similar to the pepper-spray incident in the slightest.
The guy is on video. It’s pretty much a slam-dunk case. I don’t see how this unproven complaint of a wrongful arrest from six years ago makes the case any stronger, though, even if you call it “multiple outbursts” when that isn’t really, you know, true.
trollhattan - September 27, 2011 | 12:16 pm · Link
If Gulilani or Christie get drafted, I smell running mate. Tough and Tougherer on Crime!
Joey Maloney - September 27, 2011 | 12:18 pm · Link
@General Stuck: It’s just another IGMFY.
El Cid - September 27, 2011 | 12:22 pm · Link
It’d also be a great time for one of the centrist Democrat consultant classes and/or columnists (hopefully not an elected official, but probably too) to call for calmer rhetoric ‘on both sides’.
AliceBlue - September 27, 2011 | 12:23 pm · Link
If the political thing doesn’t work out, I see a gig on Fox.
Less Popular Tim - September 27, 2011 | 12:24 pm · Link
I was thinking about Southern Beale v. Kola N. et al. discussions in the comments about the ethics of outing the cop.
To be honest, I don’t really have a moral problem, in the abstract, and assuming arguendo that the guy didn’t have a family, with publicizing this guy’s personal information, since there is apparently not going to be any legal sanction for his malfeasance, at least not a criminal sanction. I distrust police officers immensely, despite never having been arrested and having perfectly pleasant transactions involving my minor traffic violations.
But as a practical matter, if there was a bit more civil unrest (which I wouldn’t mind having happen(I think)), and bad cops start getting outed, what will happen is that cops will be allowed to conceal their identities by not having their names on their uniforms and by wearing black facemasks like the drug cops in Central and South America do (and hell, probably do in the US when doing paramilitary style raids).
Once you have anonymous robocops acting en masse, there won’t be any chance of sanctioning any malfeasance, no matter how extreme. Good luck getting the police department to help you figure out which firearm that unlawfully discharged bullet came from, and who had checked it out that day. You may still have a civil claim against the department, but I don’t think that’s probably as strong of a deterrent as the possibility of criminal charges.
So from a practical perspective, I don’t think the outing is a good idea. At least here there is someone that can be identified as the department is pressured, and patterns of behavior can be tracked, as opposed to an anonymous “rogue” cop in a one-off incident.
So for this and for many other reasons I’m sure we all hope that nothing bad happens to that cop or his family. Er, I mean nothing bad extrajudicially.
James - September 27, 2011 | 12:26 pm · Link
Twenty errant pizzas and a couple of confused rentboys will show up on his doorstep. That’s the only recompense this man will experience.
A few crazies on here will wail and moan about ‘his safety’ and make up stories about Lulzsec Jihadis burning down Tony Baloney’s house, but they’re entirely full of shit.
The Commish - September 27, 2011 | 12:27 pm · Link
Check out this thread on the protests at Officer.com. If you have a strong stomach.
Link.
urizon - September 27, 2011 | 12:27 pm · Link
Doubt he lives in the city. North Jersey or Long Island, likely. With any luck, he lives in a district where he can be a Teabagger challenger to Peter King or Rodney Frelinghuysen.
Ash Can - September 27, 2011 | 12:33 pm · Link
@Less Popular Tim: I do have a moral problem with it, but I think you argued the practical aspect of it very well. I’d also add that there would also be the possibility of collateral damage if some cretin decided to go after this cop at his home—if I were the cop’s next door neighbor, I wouldn’t feel too good about the possibility of getting caught in the crossfire or getting my own home blown up by mistake, or because it was too close to the cop’s.
Publicizing home addresses and other such personal information is not good, regardless of which side does it.
stevie314 - September 27, 2011 | 12:34 pm · Link
1. Lunch with Donald Trump.
2. Meeting with Sarah Palin.
3. Guaranteed prime time speaking spot at the Republican National Convention.
El Cid - September 27, 2011 | 12:42 pm · Link
@Less Popular Tim: Not that I’ve thought about the issue in detail (really I haven’t), but on reading the possibility that cops would begin to disguise the identity I’d then note that there is then a likely risk that they would much more easily be seen as a, well, faceless oppressive force by a much wider slice of the population.
Steve - September 27, 2011 | 12:42 pm · Link
@urizon: I don’t believe NYPD officers can live in Jersey. NYC or surrounding counties only.
cathyx - September 27, 2011 | 12:45 pm · Link
I bet he gets the Joe the Plumber treatment. A national hero.
Gustopher - September 27, 2011 | 12:46 pm · Link
Is it wrong to hope that he writes a book, does a book tour and gets maced at every stop?
urizon - September 27, 2011 | 12:48 pm · Link
Wasn’t true a few years back, @Steve. See: the film “Copland.” This may have been changed, however.
Tomjones - September 27, 2011 | 12:50 pm · Link
@Steve: Get your facts out of this thread. We are on a witch hunt.
James - September 27, 2011 | 12:52 pm · Link
@Ash Can:
Bombs and co-ordinated drive-bys? How’s the weather in crazy-town today?
MattR - September 27, 2011 | 12:52 pm · Link
@Steve: @urizon: New York state law requires all public officers (which includes law enforcement) to live in the state.
NYC has additional requirements that NYPD officers must be able to respond quickly so they must live in NYC or the surrounding counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam)
Poopyman - September 27, 2011 | 12:54 pm · Link
@stevie314: @cathyx: @AliceBlue: et al:
Nope. Not gonna happen. To do so would mean publicizing that the protests happened at all. And that’s not gonna happen. Right now the MSM has pretty much kept the lid on it, and their masters want to keep it that way.
auntie beak - September 27, 2011 | 12:54 pm · Link
speaking of rightwing sadists (we were, weren’t we?), i had one of those internet epiphany moments…
Ryan getting his Thomas Cromwell on
pete - September 27, 2011 | 12:55 pm · Link
@General Stuck: Gov. Paul LePage® — I see what you did there, and even if you didn’t mean to, I like it.
MikeJ - September 27, 2011 | 12:58 pm · Link
If the location of sex offenders is listed on the web, why not the location of people who own firearms and have demonstrated a lack of self control? It seems like a public safety issue to me.
jwest - September 27, 2011 | 12:59 pm · Link
We’re actually trying to get Hippie/Hobo abuse into the next Olympics, as team and individual events.
“May I suggest you use your nightstick, Officer?”
slag - September 27, 2011 | 1:10 pm · Link
@jwest: Nice to see you show yourself for who you really are, jwest. So as to leave no possible doubt remaining.
catclub - September 27, 2011 | 1:12 pm · Link
@auntie beak: Oliver
Cromwell? I read it and knew it was wrong ( unless you are thinking of a different Lord Protector of the Realm.) but Oliver did not spring to mind until google pushed it.
Steve - September 27, 2011 | 1:17 pm · Link
@urizon: I’ve never seen that movie, but it seems like an odd source to get factual information one way or the other.
jwb - September 27, 2011 | 1:28 pm · Link
@Poopyman: The MSM has a really hard time not putting hippie punchy on the air. It’s just too tempting. They can’t help themselves. And it’s playing according to script, except that the earlier indifference to the protests has destroyed any credibility that the protesters constitute a threat. So the narrative as presented is incoherent and the police brutality angle comes through despite everything.
urizon - September 27, 2011 | 1:30 pm · Link
@Steve, it is a well-known fact that NYPD officers haven’t always had to live in the city. I lived in NYC on and off for most of my life (I’m still in the media market). Not sure whether this has been changed, though I seem to remember a stink about this 15-or-so years ago. And the film is based upon real experiences, in this case, corrupt NYPD cops basically running a town in NJ. Willing suspension of disbelief aside, no one would make a major movie like this whose entire premise is based upon such an egregious error. Or are you just trolling?
Enhanced Voting Techniques - September 27, 2011 | 1:32 pm · Link
@catclub: No Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII chief toady, which is a good parallel to Ryan. Oliver Cormwell was effective, what ever you think of his policies.
SnarkyShark - September 27, 2011 | 1:37 pm · Link
@Less Popular Tim:
The hooded narco cop ninja thing is gonna happen anyway. Which negates your well thought out original posts.
Whatever your nightmare police state vision is, it will be worse.
Maybe Anonymous is a weapon that will have collateral damage, but not nearly as much as a nice drone strike. You think that wont be coming to a neighborhood near you?
They always try it out in the military and if they get away with it, it goes into the civilian control bag.
So best use the weapons you do have.
Stan of the Sawgrass - September 27, 2011 | 1:38 pm · Link
@Ash Can: Less Tim:
On the “outing” front, this may provide some “both sides do it” when a Serious Pundit needs an example:
North Miami Beach: Threatening Blog Post Traced To Police Computer
If you don’t want to click thru, a comment submitted (not posted: moderator got it) defending the NMB Pleece and badmouthing a proposed reduction in the force. After this spew, said commenter badmouthed two DFH’s who routinely show up at council meetings to whine about brutality, incompetence, etc. Said commenter helpfully included DFH’s addresses, and urged Criminals to have a go at them.
The comment was traced to a police computer at police hq in NMB.
Investigation, Police Chief outrage, etc. Should be fun.
shano - September 27, 2011 | 1:41 pm · Link
I really think there would not have been such a fuss if the victims had been males. But here you had a group of nice looking females, and one of them DEAF, to boot, it smacks of sadism.
Her is Digby on the police procedure for pepper spry:
Patrol Guide 212-95 lists five situations in which an officer may use pepper spray. Pepper spray may be used when a police officer “reasonably believes” that it is necessary to: 1) protect himself, or another from unlawful use of force (e.g., assault); 2) effect an arrest, or establish physical control of a subject resisting arrest; 3) establish physical control of a subject attempting to flee from arrest or custody; 4) establish physical control of an emotionally disturbed person (EDP); and 5) control a dangerous animal by deterring an attack, to prevent injury to persons or animals present. The Patrol Guide states that officers should aim and discharge pepper spray into a subject’s eyes, nose, and/or mouth in two short one-second bursts at a minimum of three feet for maximum effectiveness.
The Patrol Guide prohibits the use of pepper spray against subjects who passively resist (e.g., going limp, offering no active physical resistance. It further cautions that if possible,pepper spray should not be used against persons who appear to be in frail health, young children, women believed to be pregnant, or persons with known respiratory conditions. In situations where pepper spray is used, the Patrol Guide stipulates several guidelines to ensure the safety of the subject.
Officers are required to request the response of the EmergencyMedical Services (EMS) once the situation is under control. If tactically feasipble, according to the Patrol Guide, the subject should be removed from the contaminated area and exposed to freshair while awaiting the arrival of EMS or transportation to a hospital or station house. The PatrolGuide warns that the subject should be positioned on his/her side or in a sitting position to promote free breathing and that he/she should “never be maintained or transported in a face down position.”
Now look again at the video and tell me if that looks like procedure was followed…
And the police did not call the medics to treat victims, they were helped by volunteer medics connected to the OccupyWallStreet protest.
murphoney - September 27, 2011 | 1:51 pm · Link
Maybe he’ll run against Charlie Rangel. That would be fun.
handsmile - September 27, 2011 | 1:53 pm · Link
Last night on his program, “The Last Word,” Lawrence O’Donnell delivered a ferocious denunciation of actions by certain members of the NYC police force during the “Occupy Wall Street” protest march. Several video clips, some slowed down to pinpoint specific acts of brutality, were broadcast.
Coldly asserting that absolutely no penalty would be exacted upon these officers for their behavior, O’Donnell extrapolated this incident to the culture of impunity that characterizes police aggression against citizens throughout the United States.
O’Donnell was a champion last night, though I daresay his boss at MSNBC must have had an uncomfortable conversation with NYC police chief Ray Kelly this morning. An episode well worth watching.
Link to “Rewrite: Police vs. Protesters”: http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/
Elie - September 27, 2011 | 2:15 pm · Link
@General Stuck:
Hahaha! Lordy—that is funny….
“By their own acts, thy shalt know them”
catclub - September 27, 2011 | 2:19 pm · Link
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Thanks! Know your Cromwells is the lesson of the day.
slag - September 27, 2011 | 2:24 pm · Link
@handsmile: That was a really good episode! But I had to laugh a little at this:
The fact that Lawrence O’Donnell was right is enough reason to believe that the NYPD doesn’t care at all what he says. They are immune from recourse and they know it. So, why even bother talking to anyone at MSNBC?
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 3:04 pm · Link
@mark:
I heard the cowardly cop Tony Baloney said he is now worried for his family.
I’m worried for my family as well. I’m worried they’ll get assaulted by an out of control cop, merely because they’re out exercising their constitutional right of free speech and assembly.
WaterGirl - September 27, 2011 | 3:15 pm · Link
@handsmile: Thanks for posting the O’Donnell segment. I am so mad about this that I keep flashing back to memories from the 1960s – events like this are why people called cops “pigs” and it took an awfully long time for society to come back to thinking that cops were good guys. Maybe this is part of the great overreach by the radical right wing republicans – I surely hope the pendulum has swung as far as it can go and will start coming back toward sanity.
Maybe I’ll re-think this tomorrow when I’m not so angry, but if these cops don’t want their names out there, then maybe they shouldn’t be acting outside the law. Especially because it seems like the police department is standing by these unnecessary attacks on citizens.
Edit: maybe it’s time for some extra donations to the ACLU. I hope these cops get sued.
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 3:52 pm · Link
I’d also add that there would also be the possibility of collateral damage if some cretin decided to go after this cop at his home—if I were the cop’s next door neighbor, I wouldn’t feel too good about the possibility of getting caught in the crossfire or getting my own home blown up by mistake, or because it was too close to the cop’s.
Oh come on. Seriously. What are the real world odds that someone (who???) would actualy shoot at or bomb this cop’s home? Zero? Less than zero?
We have genuine war criminals like Alan West and John Yoo walking around the US, their names and faces and jobs are well known, and yet no one has taken revenge against them yet, despite them being responsible for various acts of torture, murder, etc. If they’re perfectly safe, I think this cop is too.
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 4:00 pm · Link
@urizon:
Willing suspension of disbelief aside, no one would make a major movie like this whose entire premise is based upon such an egregious error.
They make major movies based upon egregious errors all the time. All the time. Just one example, 1997’s “Murder at 1600”, with Wesley Snipes. A presidential aide is murdered in the White House, and two DC homicide cops investigate. Despite, of course, the fact that the White House is federal property, so any crime committed there would be handled by the FBI, not by DC police, who don’t have jurisdiction.
I actually knew one of the producers of this movie and pointed the mistake out. She had no answer to explain it—apparently it had never come up during the years of development.
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 4:02 pm · Link
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
You should read Hillary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall”, told from Thomas Cromwell’s point of view. Whatever else he was, Cromwell was far from ineffective—in fact, he was probably the smartest, most ruthless and most capable and effective man in England politics at the time.
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 4:07 pm · Link
Willing suspension of disbelief aside, no one would make a major movie like this whose entire premise is based upon such an egregious error.
“I Am Legend” with Will Smith, which opens with the US government quaranting the island of Manhattan after a plague breaks out. Ignoring, of course, the fact that several million commuters stream in and out of Manhattan every day, making a quarantine entirely ineffective and pointless.
El Cid - September 27, 2011 | 4:09 pm · Link
@Stefan: The vampires who were scaling skyscrapers and passovers and parking decks in the rest of the movie were apparently powerless to clime the 15 foot wall around the area.
El Cid - September 27, 2011 | 4:15 pm · Link
@El Cid: Pfffft. “Climb.”
Sophist - September 27, 2011 | 4:48 pm · Link
Then explain the existence of the movie “Double Jeopardy”.
Jenny - September 27, 2011 | 4:55 pm · Link
/fixed
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 5:00 pm · Link
@El Cid:
And why didn’t Will Smith just row over to Governor’s Island or Liberty Island? The vampires wouldn’t have followed him over there, as they didn’t seem to have the ability to handle boats, and there’d be no reason for them to swim that far. He would have been completely safe there every night.
JGabriel - September 27, 2011 | 5:01 pm · Link
@The Commish:
Makes you wonder if those guys are unionized, and who they think is gonna be supporting their protests the next time GOP governments try to shaft them.
.
Valenciennes - September 27, 2011 | 5:08 pm · Link
Right now I’m watching live footage of the wall street demonstrators supporting a postal worker protest. It’s honestly beautiful to see such a diverse array of increasingly marginalized groups coming together.
It doesn’t hurt my impression of it that, to me, the destruction of the post office is one of the most galling, infuriating, petty parts of this whole pillaging process.
Stefan - September 27, 2011 | 5:10 pm · Link
@Sophist:
Exactly! Exactly! A woman is falsely accused and then convicted of murdering her husband, who in actuality has faked his own death. After she gets out, she plans to kill him, figuring that she can’t be convicted twice of murdering the same man due to double jeopardy (the legal doctrine that you can’t be tried for the same crime twice), and therefore she is now legally untouchable.
Except, of course, that there are two crimes, so double jeopardy doesn’t apply. The first was the crime she was falsely accused of. But her plot to kill her husband after she gets out qualifies as an entirely separate crime. The entire movie is complete nonsense, and yet somebody wrote the script, somebody else bought it, somebody else green-lit it, somebody else shot it, etc.
Librarian - September 27, 2011 | 6:31 pm · Link
Unless I’ve missed something, it is my impression that Sully has not said one single solitary thing about the Wall Street protests. This from the “color me shocked” file.
Steve - September 27, 2011 | 7:47 pm · Link
@urizon: According to Wikipedia, you are correct that the film is based on real events, except those real events occurred in the director’s hometown in New York – not New Jersey.
I’m just really surprised that you think some movie would necessarily be accurate in depicting the NYPD’s residency requirements. Movies invent details like that all the time. If you’re really curious what the residency requirements are, I’m confused as to why you’d rely adamantly on a movie rather than just checking the NYPD’s website or some other authoritative source.
auntie beak - September 27, 2011 | 7:56 pm · Link
@catclub: dammit, catclub, i’m a graphic designer, not a historian.
an historian.
i’m not a proofreader, either. [g]
OzoneR - September 28, 2011 | 1:07 am · Link
Pretty sure Tony can win a House seat in Queens and Southern Brooklyn.
anitamurie - September 28, 2011 | 9:30 am · Link
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Absolutely, It’s already obvious the man loves torture and even better than Cheney et al has the balls to do it himself (although, I wonder if given at chance at the ol’ waterboard “the man Cheney” wouldn’t have got his rocks off even more-seeing there’s no danger to his chickenhawk self-if he’d been able to shove a rag down some guy’s throat) He’s proven his hatred of liberals. As long as he’s got a real lust for blood, power and money and an I.Q. below freezing, he’s perfect GOP presidential material.
EJ - September 28, 2011 | 2:20 pm · Link
If my name was Tony Bologna I’d probably be seething with barely-repressed rage all the time as well.
Good god, imagine going through elementary school with that name.