Sunday, May 06, 2007
New Jersey cops arrest the First Amendment
The cops are resentful, and they have to take it out on somebody:
Some state troopers, feeling they have been publicly ridiculed for the accident that almost killed Gov. Jon S. Corzine, appear to be plotting a ticket blitz against the public this month, followed by a slowdown in June, according to a chilling series of anonymous online postings.
And the state's top trooper says he won't tolerate it.
"Great idea," wrote a person posting under the name "soundsgood." "Absolutely hammer everyone (obviously except cops and family) who does 1 m.p.h. over the limit. . . . Let's really give them something to complain about."
"I am all for the May 1st blitz. . . . Better start pre-signing my summonses," wrote another poster going by the handle of "reckrids."
"Everyone has to take part in this," wrote "20alphabravo." "We are taking an absolute beating from the public and media, and the so-called "officers' are doing nothing about it to protect or support us in any way. . . . May 1st. Spread the word. It's go time."
The comments appeared on a password-protected section of the Web site for the state troopers' union, the State Troopers' Fraternal Association.
The union, meanwhile, says it is "irresponsible" for the media to report these threats:
Union president David Jones issued a lengthy statement, saying it was irresponsible for the media to traffic in the postings.
"Nothing written on that bulletin board, which is anonymous, can be taken as fact or as the opinion of the STFA as a result of the postings of authorized and unauthorized individuals," Jones said.
He wrote that the idea troopers would "engage in a ticket-writing assault and or slowdown on the public is false and without merit."
But State Police Superintendent Col. Joseph "Rick" Fuentes took the postings seriously enough to order commanders to try to make sure troopers don't launch the ticket storm. "He made it clear to the command staff, what is posted there he won't tolerate," said Capt. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the patrol.
It is beyond outrageous for the police union to attack the media for reporting indisputably true facts about the cops. Coming as it does from the elected leader of the state troopers, this seems like a rather egregious assault on the First Amendment. Every newspaper in the state should call for David Jones to retract his statement or resign.
One thing is for sure -- anybody who gets a ticket in May and wants to fight it should demand to depose the cop who wrote it, and ask him whether he made these statements or agrees with them.
CWCID: The irrepressible "larwyn."
2 Comments:
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Sun May 06, 06:01:00 PM:
It is beyond outrageous for the police union to attack the media for reporting indisputably true facts
But entirely predictable. The officers involved in the original crash should have been taken to the woodshed.
There are two sets of people with police -- "us" and everyone else. The particular strata of society they deal with all the time tends to leave them jaded about what the makeup of the rest of the public is actually like.
By 
, at
Sun May 06, 06:37:00 PM:
Screw the media. Cops are killed in the line of duty every day. Not the media. The media slants the news against the cops as a matter of course.
Come to think of it, you're doing the same thing. At least wait until they do something before you condemn them, for god's sakes.
