If you're one of the "special people" in rabidly anti-gun Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York City who "are the only ones professional enough" to carry firearms, you can consume mass quantities of alcohol on your extra-long noon break and then get to return to your armed job guarding courtrooms and transporting prisoners in the afternoon. According to one news report, that's exactly what's happening.
Anyone else see some sort of problem with this?
Inside Edition, a TV program, has video footage of bailiffs in the Big Apple drinking their lunch on several occasions, and not just a short beer, either (all emphases mine):
"One of the officers, identified as Steven Zera, drank up to six beers during his lunch hour on 13 occasions, the report says.
The program said Officer Christopher Furlani was seen drinking on seven lunch breaks, knocking back as many as three beers and two shots in 90 minutes."
That's not just drinking. That's drunk, and being in such a condition while carrying a firearm can result in a regular peasant rightfully going to jail and losing their permit to carry - if they're in a place that allows them to do so in the first place, that is, unlike New York, where only cops and celebrities get that privilege. Why aren't these city employees immediately suspended and investigated? Because they're in "the club", it seems, where the rules are different than in the rest of society.
Astoundingly, even though drinking alcohol while on a break is against official policy, some numbnut with the police union actually goes on record and defends the officers' behavior:
"Dennis Quirk, of the court officers union, said he spoke to members seen on the show 'and they said they had a beer or two. If they had that over two hours and had their lunch, they would certainly not be intoxicated.'"
Mr. Quirk, you are an idiot of the highest order. The officers are not allowed to drink during their workday for a very good reason, as they are public safety officers charged with protecting the legal system, as well as moving violent felons from place to place, and you're going to quibble over how much they actually drank?
Why do the officers get two hours for lunch, anyhow? Oh, that's right, the peasants are paying all of the salaries here, so it's OK to take a long, fun-filled siesta before going back to the job where split-second life or death decisions may have to be made. Stress relief, you know.
If a courtroom tragedy happens to occur in that city in the near future, we'll know exactly on whom to pin the blame - these unprofessional, lawbreaking "safety" employees.
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9 comments:
as a former new york state court officer I am offended by your anti officer post...though the actions of these officers are unacceptable I find it funny how you feel it is ok to judge 3000 officers based on the actions of a few..I also find it curios how the liberally biased media only reports negative stories about officers and never covers positive acts..like the time 2 of my coworkers pulled people out of a burning building on their lunch hour or the 3 court officers who were killed on 9-11 yet never are mentioned during memorial services..furthermore I find it funny how inside edition neglects to report on the politically hooked judges and lawyers who drink on their lunch breaks and then return to work and decide on how much or how little jail time people get..maybe you should change the name of your forum to the shit stirrer or the incomplete story because you clearly have an axe to grind and clearly have no problem judging the character of many(3000+ officers) based on the actions of a few..
as a former new york state court officer I am offended by your anti officer post...though the actions of these officers are unacceptable I find it funny how you feel it is ok to judge 3000 officers based on the actions of a few..I also find it curios how the liberally biased media only reports negative stories about officers and never covers positive acts..like the time 2 of my coworkers pulled people out of a burning building on their lunch hour or the 3 court officers who were killed on 9-11 yet never are mentioned during memorial services..furthermore I find it funny how inside edition neglects to report on the politically hooked judges and lawyers who drink on their lunch breaks and then return to work and decide on how much or how little jail time people get..maybe you should change the name of your forum to the shit stirrer or the incomplete story because you clearly have an axe to grind and clearly have no problem judging the character of many(3000+ officers) based on the actions of a few..
Anonymous, if the other officers aren't raising Hell over this, then they deserve the criticism.
Sorry; how many people could die if one of these drunken bailiffs got out of hand, or worse yet lost his gun to a perp? The union should be raising Hell over this, not defending the drunks.
I'm not defending them and trust me quirk may not do it publicly but in private he'll do more than raise Hell, the point I'm trying to make is that this is a small percentage of the job and if you look at the way it's reported its as if all court officers are drunks, it's not fair to judge the many based on the actions of the few. And as far as the union goes , it is a group funded by dues all officers pay and its job is to protect its members not apologize for them. I for one find it funny that just because we as officers wear uniforms we are not allowed to have problems that civilians have such as alcoholism..do you mean to tell me that you could hire a department of 3000+ and they'd all be angels?once again the many are being judged by the actions of a few.
Anonymous,
I am not judging all of the officers. I'm sure the vast majority are professional, honest people who are good at their jobs, which is a sentiment that I constantly reinforce in my writings here. If you poke around the site some, you'll see that. I am judging these two, however, which is why I listed their names publicly, in order to highlight the wrongdoers in your former profession who are giving the rest of the officers a bad name.
"trust me quirk may not do it publicly"
Then he might as well not do it at all, as far as I'm concerned. Any defense of behavior like this speaks volumes to the rest of the union members.
Funny how "the actions of a few" (permit holders who commit serious crimes, which are vanishingly rare) are fair game when legislators wish to list reasons for denying people their Constitutional rights, yet official wrongdoing by people given special privileges denied to everyone else, and who are sworn to uphold the very law that they are breaking, is given a free pass, just because every group contains a few bad actors, and we're not supposed to make inferences, except when the legislators and police brass do it about law-abiding permit holders.
If you have evidence of judges and attorneys who drink during their workday, let me know the details and we'll gladly publish their names as well. We're equal opportunity offenders around here.
Thanks for your comments. I hope you stick around for a while.
Oh, and by the way, the Post article reported that Inside Edition caught sixteen officers working out of that office drinking on duty. The two that were named were just the worst offenders.
I would argue that sixteen is more than "a few" in anyone's book.
(I can't stand that Blogger won't let you edit comments.)
Anon, until the union and the rank and file speak up against this practice, the public can and should assume that a lot of those 3000 men and women bear a degree of guilt.
for the record all officers involved were suspended for six weeks and stripped of their guns and shields, which in turn means these officers will never be allowed to work overtime for the rest of their careers
Good start....but quite frankly, if someone's coming to work both drunk and armed, I would hope that they're not getting "regular time," either, if you catch my drift.
My carry permit instructor addressed the subject this way; he sighed, and said "we should not have to discuss this". It should be this obvious in a courtroom, too, and in the bailiffs' union hall to boot.
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