... are the two NYPD plainclothes narcotics officers who cursed out and arrested apartment security guard Anyeris Reyes, causing her to fracture her ankle in the process, for the "crime" of not leaving her assigned post to assist them in arresting a drug suspect on the street outside her building:
"Reyes said a cop scolded her, 'You stupid b---h, why didn't you help me?'
Reyes, who says she's not allowed to leave her post, told the cop: 'I'm not a police officer, just a security guard. ... I'm not even allowed to step out of the building.'
Five minutes later, Reyes said a sergeant walked in and told her, 'Yo, b---h, get up. You're coming with us,' before cuffing her hands behind her back and placing her under arrest."
Reyes was charged with "'refusing to aid a peace or a police officer,' a class B misdemeanor", even though she is quite correct - the job of a security guard (confirmed by her boss) is to observe and report on her assigned area, not take actions that would subject her and her employer to danger and legal liability, as the arrest wasn't taking place in her building.
Since New York makes it basically impossible for private guards (or other peasants, for that matter) like Reyes to carry self-defense weapons the cops should rightly be the ones taking all the risk.
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4 comments:
It's right there in the New York Penal Code:
§ 195.10 Refusing to aid a peace or a police officer.
A person is guilty of refusing to aid a peace or a police officer
when, upon command by a peace or a police officer identifiable or
identified to him as such, he unreasonably fails or refuses to aid such
peace or a police officer in effecting an arrest, or in preventing the
commission by another person of any offense.
Refusing to aid a peace or a police officer is a class B misdemeanor.
A class B can get you, at most, 90 days in jail ( http://law.onecle.com/new-york/penal/PEN070.15_70.15.html ).
So the question is this: is it "unreasonable" for a morbidly obese woman -- one too fat to get into a police van -- to refuse to get into a wrestling match with a suspect and two cops?
I'm going to say no, but I predict her charges will be dropped in exchange for dropping complaints the officers.
We have that here in Minnesota. My own personal policy is that it's unreasonable to aid badged people I don't know, unless and until I can, at a glance, tell the difference between a good, solid, service-oriented cop and a thug that's got a badge.
I won't hold my breath.
Oh: and having a gun with me wouldn't make a difference. I'm not disposed to, say, use my bare hands or gun — even sans risk — to interfere with, say, Phil Sosnowski or Tami Reece's karma. Not my department.
Personally, given the lethality of many modern criminals, I think it's entirely reasonable to not want to get into the line of fire if one can avoid it, even if one is armed.
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