Cops Punished for Racist Labor Day Parade Comments
Top NYPD brass announced Thursday morning (August 23) they are disciplining 17 cops who made offensive and racist comments on Facebook following last year’s West-Indian / Labor Day Parade in Crown Heights.
Last September, officers assigned to cover the parade on Labor Day bitterly complained on a Facebook page called “No More West Indian Day Detail.” About 250 comments in all were made on the page, including relatively benign grumblings about having to work on Labor Day to more extreme comments calling parade attendees “savages” and “animals.”
“Let them kill each other,” wrote someone who matched a cop’s name.
“I say have the parade one more year and when they all gather drop a bomb and wipe them all out,” was another.
Some comments were written by names that matched registered New York City police officers and others were left anonymously. Some cops claimed they didn’t write the comments and their Facebook accounts had been hijacked.
An Internal Affairs investigation into the matter was launched last September, and investigators found that 20 people who posted in the group matched the names of current NYPD officers.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne announced Thursday that 17 cops in total will be punished for leaving the remarks.
Most of the cops received low levels of punishment, but four officers face more severe punishment: They will stand department trials on misconduct charges.
“It seems the NYPD took this seriously, and I’m glad they did that,” said Councilman Jumaane Williams, who goes to the parade every year to celebrate his parents’ Grenadian heritage.
“It was disheartening (to read those comments) but was it necessarily surprising?,” Williams asked. “The more surprising part was the officers felt this could be said in such an open forum. And my biggest concern is that some policies in the NYPD seem to bear out what the officers said — in stop and frisk, they seem to stop anyone who is black or Latino. If you have a policy like that, and then police officers say things like this, it’s hard not to be concerned.”
Colorful parade, but tinged by violence
The West Indian Day Parade attracts hundreds of thousands of people to Brooklyn every year, and will again be held this upcoming Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 3.
The colorful parade celebrates the food, music and culture of the Caribbean, but the parade has had difficulty shedding a reputation that it can be violent.
It has been marked by violence in year’s past and requires a heavy police presence every year, which many parade attendees say they are glad to have.
Last year, three shootings occurred in connection with the parade.
So glad I-m not a NY Police officer
Punishing the police for “venting thir rage”? Let’s start by asking questions (not loaded ones) instead of making Racist comments. This way there is no possibility of being labeled a racist:
1) At which parades/city events do shootings, stabbings and rapes occur?
2) Of those events, which ones have the most shootings, stabbings and rapes?
3) Have the organizers/leaders of these events done anything to promote safety and discourage future criminal activity at their events?
4) what reaction is expected of Police officers when it’s demanded of them to put their health, lives and wellbeing on the line for those events (given answers to 1,2 and 3).
WHY Punish?
sounds like good ideas!
Your Neighbor
Thank you #1 for asking the objective questions. But let us also address the complicated issue of race. When an African American woman was shot and killed at last year’s parade, there was no cry of outrage from the electeds, no call for greater security or a halt to the parade, but I do recall Jumaane Williams having his feathers ruffled by the NYPD. Williams was right to be upset. The failure of our leaders to address the issue of guns is a shame and a guarantee of more death in the name of celebration and the terror of public officials to dare to question its continuity.
for once the cops are right
Oh, Puh-leeeeeeze! This parade is an excuse for lewd behavior, drunkenness & near nakedness. Move it to Harlem where it belongs, or Bed-Stuy. They won’t care to see men AND WOMEN!! using the street as a public toilet. I have to keep my shades down in case we see this…again. Take it out of our neighborhood.
Anonymous
“Our Neighborhood?” I must laugh. I’m not exactly where you’re from but Crown Heights is a neighborhood that is predominantly West Indian and Jewish. West Indians have all right to have a parade in that neighborhood.
On another note, you said that toy agree with the polices comments. Ok. I understand that maybe you don’t appreciate other people’s culture or the parade ruins you’re sleep (ends at 5pm…? Big effing deal). This is all valid. But to agree with racists comments just because you the parade bothers you is just plain is racist.
By the way, have you ever seen the way Good ol’ wasps behave after their favorite team loses. Yeah, streets burn, riots, drunkenness. Or how serial/mass killers are more than likely to be white? You’ll hardly ever hear a black person make racists comments openly the way whites do (inferiority complex). Maybe you need to spend more time in your neighborhood and get to know the residents. We’re all not savages and animals. We don’t blow up buildings (uni bomber *ahem ahem*). Were actually very pleasant despite racial tensions that white people have.
It’s almost like we took you from your country and enslaved you.
to #2 and #4
While completely inappropriate and at times downright violent behaviour goes on at this parade, this still does not excuse anyone for making such horrible comments as basically wanting to kill thousands upon thousands of people.
What is that supposed to mean? If you don’t like what a group of people do, you should kill them all???
How horrific?
What everyone should remember is that this is many in the African American/Carribean community are raised from birth and as such, in terms of the costumes and dress, it is not wrong in many of their eyes.
Yes, the immodesty that goes on there is horrible, but you need to keep this in mind.
Perhaps the NYPD should make “dress codes” for all NYC parades.
In terms of the violence, that is completely unacceptable and there really is very little the cops can do to make sure 100% that nothing will happen unless they frisk and screen each and every person who is allowed into the parade area. And even then….
My point here is NOT to excuse any behavior that goes on or the fact that it is down Eastern Parkway, but to caution people from thinking that what these cops said is OK.
Today they’ll say it about them, tomorrow they’ll say it about another group they don’t like, and the next day about us.
Just because someone is a cop means that they are an example of how to behave. SOme of them are downright rude and lewd themselves.
mom in ch
Our police are supposed to be a role model. Racism does not belong here. It doesn’t matter the color, nationality etc etc. There are some bad apples but to blame everyone with that skin color is just plain wrong.
I like comment #1
I agree with you 100%
If I was the Mayer, I would make a condition if shootings and rest of the crime won’t stop then this Parade should be discontinued
agree with #7
and they should establish a basic dress code too
PLUS
puuhleeeze
please limit the volume of the music on those trucks
my house litterally shakes
do you know what those kind of noise levels can do to your ears ??????????????????????
and the peeing and etc on our properties need to stop
last but not least, I agree that the organizers MUST do something to ensure safety, morality AND THAT THE PARADE GOERS DO NOT PARK THEMSELVES ON OTHER PEOPLE’S PROPERTY
The parade organizers make A LOT of money of this event. They charge every single float and every single vendor…
Let them do what they need to do to make the parade appropriate and safe, both physically and morally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NYPD sends their cops a mixed message
I always think about this:
If NYPD cops would go in their uniforms to places to see what they end up seeing during this parade, they would be fired.
But during the Labor Day parade they GET PAID to sit and watch a completely immoral and immodest display go straight past them.
Now isn’t that hypocritical!!!
Racist to Admit the Facts
I guess its racist to say what actually happens and its racist to have feelings on the matter
Realist Jews
I agree with number 5, it could also be said about us Jews.