Comments on: ”Councilman Dan Halloran has traffic ticket tossed and cop who gave it to him demoted to foot patrol”

By: CIDU Bill

CIDU Bill — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:13:24 +0000

True, Meryl, but there’s one thing you have to say in the News’s favor: they’re not the Post.

By: Meryl A

Meryl A — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:07:38 +0000

It’s the Daily News. It’s not the Times. If you are from NYC area you know the Daily News is trash.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:38:28 +0000

I’m just glad I wasn’t around.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:17:58 +0000

Father Bruno Di Frocco (21) - I don’t even have a peter and I would be inclined to do the same thing. Thanks for the laugh.

By: Father Bruno Di Frocco

Father Bruno Di Frocco — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:28:09 +0000

Misleading headlines? You betcha, but sometimes they’re purely accidental. In Ohio some years back, I covered a murder case in which a guy named Peters was denied bond at his initial hearing. My headline read “Judge Orders Peters Held.” The next morning, I was met at the courthouse by a dozen county officeholders (including two judges, two commissioners, and the county sheriff) who were lying in wait for me. All of them were grabbing their crotches.

By: Paul G

Paul G — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:29:42 +0000

To be a bit fair to the article, if you were familiar with this story already, this wouldn’t be too misleading. I knew about the story ahead of time, but didn’t know that the guy involved as a Councilman (nor did I remember his name), but as soon as I opened the link and saw the picture of the cop, I knew what the story was about. If you already knew what was going on and were following the story, the headline wouldn’t seem out of place. Though, of course, they could have written it in such a way that people not familiar with the story wouldn’t get the wrong impression.

By: MB

MB — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:29:55 +0000

Hmmm.

The headline gives one the impression of an out of control city councilman who used his position to get a ticket tossed out and demote the cop who dared give it to him.

The article makes it clear that it was the traffic agent (he’s never referred to as a cop. Is there a difference?? I’ve never heard of a ‘traffic agent’ separate from a police officer) that was in the wrong, and it was a judge who tossed out the ticket and other who demoted the him.

I think that the incidents of out of control cops seems to be increasing. Some have made the case that its the ‘militarization’ of our cops that is partially to blame (ie, use heavy handed swat-style tactics when its unnecessary).

By: Pinny

Pinny — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:39:57 +0000

David A. Rooney (#11) wrote:
“Too often in my job I run into people who don’t seem to bother to read what you give them. And they vote.”

Sounds like an accurate description of the current Congress:

“It’s going to be very, very exciting…But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”
- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on March 9, 2010, re: the National Healthcare Bill
http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1576

By: zharris

zharris — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:24:04 +0000

Lalloran should have returned the reporter’s calls

By: Ian Osmond

Ian Osmond — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:29:03 +0000

Gilgamesh: my impression has been that the decency of police officers varies greatly by jurisdiction. Here in Melrose, ten miles north of Boston, I genuinely like every Melrose police officer I’ve met — they’re uniformly polite, competent, and generally decent.

My brother-in-law quit his job as a vice cop in St Petersburg, Florida, because he was sick of being the only honest and competent officer in the department. Oh, the system was broken all the way up — corruption went all the way through the administration to the mayor’s office, but it was rare to find an officer who was both competent AND honest. He switched over to the Sheriff’s department, where they actually did policing.

So different departments have different degrees of competence, politeness, and brutality. You can’t make generalizations about “police” — but you can come closer to making generalizations about specific police departments. Some units are really culturally sick, in which honest officers are the exception, not the rule.