NYPD Officers Eject Commuter Who Asked Them to Wear Masks

[Demovictory9]

NYPD Officers Eject Commuter Who Asked Them to Wear Masks
Mayor says their behavior was 'unacceptable'

A New York City commuter says two NYPD officers kicked him out of a subway station Tuesday morning after he asked them to obey the rules and put their face masks on. Andrew Gilbert tells CBS New York that after he saw officers on a platform and asked them to put their masks on, "the male officer there basically was playing dumb and pretending he couldn’t hear what I said. You know, he was saying, 'Oh, I can’t hear you with your mask on.'" He says the officer then grabbed him by the jacket, pushed him around 80 feet backward, and shoved him out of an emergency exit door at the Eighth Street station in Manhattan. Gilbert says he didn't touch the officers or do anything else to justify being pushed.



Video of the confrontation was shared widely on social media. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority requires masks to be worn in subway stations and the NYPD requires officers to wear face coverings in public transit settings, though many commuters have complained about officers flouting the rules, the New York Times reports. "It's an endless stream of incidents like this and every single time it’s sort of the same thing," Gilbert tells the Times. "Politicians talk about how terrible it is and then nothing happens, there’s no follow-up." He says officers' refusal to follow the same rules as everybody else "sort of breeds disrespect for the law."

But this time, there will be consequences, the New York Daily News reports. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Wednesday that the two officers will receive command disciplines, which could cost them up to 10 vacation days. Earlier Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said what he saw in the video was troubling. He said he hadn't seen the lead-up to the confrontation, "but I saw the officers not wearing their masks in the subway, that’s evident. That’s unacceptable." He added: "We’ve given this instruction a thousand times: If you’re going to be in law enforcement, you actually have to participate in following the law."

[gopiscrap]

2. fucking pigs

[CentralMass]

3. Your basic assholes.

[Demovictory9]

5. law doesn't apparently apply to them

[ecstatic]

4. smh. If a cop gives me covid, I'm suing.

They don't have the right to accost anyone if they're running around maskless and unvaccinated.

[royable]

6. Fined 10 vacay days? How bout 100 days in solitary? n/t

[brush]

7. Pigs trying to extend qualified immunity to even this.

[Skittles]

8. assholes

call them out, this is ridiculous

I road the DART train to Dallas recently and EVERYONE was masked.

[sakabatou]

9. Once again, here we have cops thinking they can get away with anything

[Demovictory9]

11. and seem to forget that we have these things called cameras on our phones

[Crunchy Frog]

12. That's because they generally CAN get away with anything, up to, and including murder.

[sakabatou]

13. Yup.

[Corgigal]

10. Fire them.

They are not psychologically fit. Save taxpayers money, because if they can over react here, a most pressuring issue is coming. Fire them, seriously.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. Roving bands of armed, lawless thugs, running a protection racket, and answerable to nobody.

Nobody even has the stones to give them more than a slap on the wrist as punishment, or even make a statement that's unduly harsh.

If they weren't a law unto themselves, and basically untouchable, they would be fired for flagrantly violating the mask laws during a pandemic, and then assaulting a citizen.

This is how a police state begins. I expect things to get much, much worse.

[SunSeeker]

15. They should be fired and charged with assault.

[hvn_nbr_2]

16. Scofflaw cops

I think we should use the term "scofflaw cops" a whole lot more than we do.

I wonder how scofflaw cops would react to people asking them to "please obey the law."

[bluestarone]

17. DO NOT let this go away

These assholes need to be watched and FIRED!