Cops Mock Poor People, Calls Prosecutors "Pieces Of S--t," Claim Ticket-Fixing Is Just The Way It Is

By Christopher Robbins
Gothamist
Oct. 30, 2011

As 16 NYPD officers were arraigned at a Bronx courthouse yesterday to face charges related to the department's massive ticket-fixing probe, around 500 off-duty police officers, including paralyzed NYPD officer Steven McDonald, showed up to voice their support for "professional privilege." According to the Times, the officers shoved away television cameras and jeered at people receiving public assistance at a benefits center across the street. According to the Daily News, some of those assembled shouted "you piece of sh*t!" at prosecutors. Ahh, the sweet sounds of CPR.

While many off-duty officers and PBA members held signs that bore slogans of, "It's a Courtesy Not a Crime," ticket-fixing charges weren't the only ones aired in court: grand larceny, drug charges and unrelated corruption were also found in the probe. Four of the policemen charged helped a man escape assault charges. Flatscreen TV-loving Jose Ramos, who is at the center of the probe and was the only cop charged who remained in jail on $500,000 bond, was caught on a wiretap saying, "I stopped caring about the law a long time ago."

When some Bronx residents, who were waiting in line for government assistance next door, shouted "Fix our tickets!" the officers and supporters responded with a ugly chant of "E.B.T." "To be ridiculing people in the welfare line across the street doesn't endear you to the public eye," an unnamed official said.

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