N.Y.C. Police Maligned Paradegoers on Facebook

[alp227]

Source: NYT

They called people “animals” and “savages.” One comment said, “Drop a bomb and wipe them all out.”

Hearing New York police officers speak publicly but candidly about one another and the people they police is rare indeed, especially with their names attached. But for a few days in September, a raw and rude conversation among officers was on Facebook for the world to see — until it vanished for unknown reasons.

It offered a fly-on-the-wall view of officers displaying roiling emotions often hidden from the public, a copy of the posting obtained by The New York Times shows. Some of the remarks appeared to have broken Police Department rules barring officers from “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” about race or ethnicity.

The subject was officers’ loathing of being assigned to the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn, an annual multiday event that unfolds over the Labor Day weekend and has been marred by episodes of violence, including deaths of paradegoers. Those who posted comments appeared to follow Facebook’s policy requiring the use of real names, and some identified themselves as officers.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/nyregion/on-facebook-nypd-officers-malign-west-indian-paradegoers.html?pagewanted=all

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I'd rather police express these nasty thoughts than act upon them.

[kestrel91316]

1. I'd rather they express them PRIVATELY, like in private spoken conversation

inside their own home. AND refrain from acting on them.

[virgogal]

2. Why would they be so stupid? Could it be someone else posing as a cop?

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Police, Firemen, City employees and govt workers all should thank their

lucky stars to have jobs. If it weren't for the neighborhood they work in they wouldn't have a job and they would maybe be stealing.

[lynne]

4. The same type of disrespectful stuff that store clerks and -

- everyone else that deals with the general public says behind our backs, no doubt.

The dumbest thing is that they didn't have their FB privacy set to "friends only" so that outsiders couldn't see what they're saying.

[gyroscope]

5. If a store clerk got caught saying stuff like that about customers

they would be fired asap.

[saras]

6. Or pretty much anyone else, really. Unless you directly serve TPTB

Hell, how many politicians have lost their jobs in the last year for racist remarks?

It utterly baffles me why the police are exempt from this judgment. They, more than anyone else in society, NEED to be free of those sorts of hatreds and bigotries. It's not enough to not get caught acting on them. If you believe them you will act on them all the time, in all your interpretations of situations and law. It's not like you can stifle a whole worldview just because you refrain from an overt action or two.

[gyroscope]

10. No doubt

imagine if store clerks used facebook to badmouth their customers in public. the store would have no choice but to fire them. or else there would be a huge boycott of the store, especially in the black community. if the officers involved aren't fired on the spot it sends the message that racism is tolerated and accepted in the police community. but I won't be holding my breath because it probably is.

[BlueToTheBone]

7. Indeed. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. Yes. But if a store clerk thinks you are a savage, they can't beat you to a bloody pulp...

... and get away with it. A store clerk's word isn't considered gospel on a report or in court either.

[gyroscope]

11. Police are above the law apparently

they can do pretty much anything they want and get away with it, even when caught on video.

[No Elephants]

9. Racist pieces of