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Ray Kelly: Cops Who Made Hateful Facebook Comments May Be Disciplined
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 7, 2011
Modified Dec 7, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 7, 2011
Modified Dec 7, 2011
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NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has issued a statement regarding the infamous Facebook group "No More West Indian Day Detail," which was filled with offensive comments about parade-goers, made by people who appear to be NYPD officers. And though some commenters have argued that police should be allowed to say whatever they want because of the First Amendment, New York City's top cop doesn't seem too persuaded by the old "Constitution" defense.
Kelly's statement says, in part, "It is disturbing when anyone denigrates a community with hateful speech. It is unacceptable when police officers do it. Despite the assertion of First Amendment rights in social media cases, the Police Department reserves the right to discipline behavior it determines unbecoming of a police officer if detrimental to the service, especially when it is disrespectful of communities that officers have taken an oath to protect."
The NYPD Internal Affairs is conducting an investigation into the Facebook group, which has since disappeared (you can read the entire ugly thread here). And although Kelly did not confirm that any of the offensive comments were made by NYPD officers, he said that Internal Affairs investigators had "determined that 20 offensive comments were associated with names that match those of police officers."Internal Affairs is currently "interviewing those officers and, where necessary, subpoenaing computer records."
Bloomberg said today that he'd spoken with Kelly about the Facebook group, and told reporters this afternoon, "It’s totally inappropriate and I can use lots of other words to describe it. Nobody is going to go out and defend it." Clearly, the Mayor is not a regular visitor to the cop message board NYPD Rant, where one commenter opines, "'Anti-racism' is a euphemism for anti-white!"
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west indian american day parade
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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