FYI
Most of you have seen the assault on the demonstrators by Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna. I say it was an assault because that’s what the New York State Penal Law says it was, and that’s what I would have charged if he had done it in front of me while I wore the uniform.
Now, as a Deputy Inspector he is a political appointee. Patrolman through and including Captain in the NYPD are civil service positions with testing, but ranks above that, and Deputy Inspector is the first rank above, are appointed.
In most departments in New York, the police union only covers the lower ranks. The upper ranks are considered part of management and have either a separate bargaining unit, or none.
From a procedural stand point, he had no business being where he was. The patrol officers were dealing with the situation, and he should have been directing activities, not getting involved.
Since he isn’t in a civil service slot, getting rid of him is simple, and it should be done for reasons of liability. The department doesn’t need the cost of the law suits, and there is no way of interpreting the ‘use of force’ procedures to justify what he did.
2 comments
Bologna got in trouble in 2004 at the protests outside the GOP convention; see the “Update On The Cop…” post on my site.
He isn’t a new problem, he is an expression of the attitude of the NYPD brass, and an element an effective department eliminates to avoid corrupting the lower ranks. They selected him because they share the same beliefs.
The biggest problem for the NYPD at the WTC was communications failure, so that problem wasn’t fixed, but they promoted a lot of militant jerks to make it seem like they were doing something.