Police News Roundup (Weekend Edition)
NY1 reports that the City Council is seeking to reinstate the commuter tax. Although not directly a police issue, the commuter tax may be critically important to the upcoming labor negotiations between the municipal unions and the city, since it provides a source of revenue. Like many others, I thought is was kind of lame when Mayor Mike said he'd like to give the cops a raise but he simply couldn't afford it. The City Council loves this tax since it doesn't directly take money out of the pocket of city residents.

The Police Department is very, very sorry that it mistakenly raided the apartment of an elderly couple in Brooklyn rather than intended apartment of a local drug dealer. Apparently members of the precinct sent Mr. Goldberg, 84, a fruit basket and sent an orchid to Mrs. Goldberg, 82, who is still recovering in the hospital from the scare. Base10 suspects that the city will be giving this couple much more than a fruit basket very soon.

The Times has a report that the murderer of Police Officer Edward Byrne will not be able to keep $237,500 he was awarded after suing the state for suffering mental distress after being wrongfully held in solitary confinement. (You know it's just shocking that a convicted cop killer might be put in solitary confinement. The poor thing!) But as the article points out, there is a recently amended Son of Sam law that prohibits him from collecting a cent. Oh well!

The Post reports the unfortunate demise of a customer at the Metro Lounge in Ridgewood. In the early morning hours on Saturday, he was shot in the back of the head after a group of patrons engaged in what was described as "celebratory gunfire." Base10 will pass on that party and suspects this place will be shut down in the very near future.

Newsday reports a demonstration in Queens in support of a recently suspended Queens detective in the 102 precinct in Richmond Hill. Basically the detective is accused of accepting gratuities for giving special treatment to members of the business community and apparently mishandling claims of destroyed passports (I don't get how), of course a no-no if true. The interesting thing about the story is the ethnic groups involved--members of the 102's Sihk, Muslim and Indian communities--are not usually seen in these kind of demonstrations.

On the fire beat, a firefighter is facing criminal charges for obstructing governmental administration and grand larceny after getting involved in an altercation with a PD Traffic Enforcement Agent. After his illegally parked car got a summons, he stole the agent's radio and threw it onto a nearby rooftop. There's no mention in the story about his suspension. I wonder why, since the conduct alleged is a felony.

On the subject of misconduct and criminal charges, the off-duty cop on trial in Brooklyn for criminally negligent homicide after striking a motorcycle rider with his car at a busy Bayridge intersection was found not guilty. While a Brooklyn jury acquitted the cop of criminal wrongdoing, this does not mean he will not have to face Department charges, and he will quite possibly lose his job. This case has some similarities to the Neri case. It happened after Grey, and the news reports revealed many discrepancies in the prosecution's version of events. But nobody from the Department or the press ever even suggested that a jury might agree with the cop.

The erstwhile Lenny Levitt reports that cops are not happy with the return of Charles DiRienzo to the PD after having served as superintendent of the Port Authority Police. He suggests that Commissioner Kelly came to a gentleman's agreement with DiRienzo to stop hiring NYPD cops after over three hundred of us defected to the PA after 9/11. (Hey, the pay and benefits are something like double that of NYPD). Levitt cites a seeming increase in rejections of NYPD members on medical or psychological grounds. Such an arrangement would of course violate the law.

And in the "that's not funny, that's sick" department, an Oswego man playing a practical joke on his ex-wife wound up being arrested on Thursday after he faked his own hanging. Apparently the man called his ex and asked her to come over and then hanged himself from a tree using a harness to prevent actual injury. The ex-wife called police, who were likely not as amused about the situation as the ex-wife was. I guess this is another example of a breaking "noose" story.

- posted by Base10 @ 4:58 PM