A top NYPD official has warned officers not to wear their police uniforms or department logos in public following back-to-back assassination attempts on cops in the Bronx.
Hazel Jennings, chief of the Department of Corrections, issued a memo on Sunday night essentially urging officers to hide their police affiliation to avoid being targeted.
The memo came after a career criminal carried out two separate attacks on officers in the Bronx in the span of just 12 hours, leaving two officers injured.
Robert Williams, 45, was taken into custody on Sunday after he allegedly opened fire on a police station in the Bronx shortly before 8am. He struck Lt Jose Gautreaux in the arm and narrowly missed other police personnel before the running out of bullets, lying down and tossing his pistol as he was swarmed by officers.
Hours earlier, Williams approached a patrol van in the same part of the Bronx late Saturday and fired at two officers inside, wounding one before escaping on foot, police said.
The suspect – who was out on parole after a 2002 attempted murder conviction – was seen handcuffed to a hospital bed on Sunday in photos obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com. He is expected to be arraigned on Monday morning.
Authorities said they brought a woman in for questioning who is believed to be Williams’ girlfriend Liza T Valdez, a communications technician for the NYPD.
New York City leaders held a press conference on the case on Sunday afternoon, where NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the attacks on an anti-police atmosphere fueled by recent protests.
Shea hit out at criminal justice reform activists who’ve held demonstrations against use of excessive force, referencing a protest on January 31 in which dozens of members of a radical police-hating group stormed Grand Central Terminal chanting anti-NYPD slogans including ‘F**k cops!’ Cops
‘These things are not unrelated. We had people marching through the streets of New York City recently,’ Shea said. ‘Words matter. And words affect people’s behavior.’
Shea didn’t offer any evidence that Williams knew of those protests or was influenced by them.
De Blasio, who was elected partly on a promise to reform overly aggressive policing of minority communities, also suggested that anti-police sentiment had gotten out of hand.
‘Anyone who spews hatred at our officers is aiding and abetting this kind of atmosphere; it is not acceptable,’ de Blasio said. ‘You could protest for whatever you believe in, but you cannot vilely attack those who are here to protect us. It creates this kind of dynamic.’
Read the rest and see the pics here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/breaking_news/article-7985655/NYPD-head-warns-officers-not-wear-uniforms-department-logos-public.html
Which means anyone now in NYC can claim to be a cop and shoot at or beat the nonsense out of anyone (including cops) because he or she doesn’t have to identify as a cop but can claim to be a cop. You can’t fix stupid…
they brought this on themselves ..couldnt have happened to a better bunch of tyrants …now they dont have thier extra rights suits to wear anymore..oh lord who will take them seriously now
lol
badges?
we ant got no badges !
we dont have to show you any badges
we dont need no stinking badges
shut the Fck up pig and get out of my way