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Posted on 08/07/2014 2:22:15 PM PDT by bamahead
Role models are so important, don't you think? They model behavior for us so that we know how to conduct ourselves on our twisty, winding path through life. So when Special Police Officer Richard Recine of the Borough of Helmetta, New Jersey, see President Obama decimate the friggin' constitution, he knows it's time to do some decimating of his own.
Writes Sergio Bichao of the Home News Tribune:
A New Jersey police officer was caught on camera telling a resident that police don't have to follow the Constitution because President Obama doesn't, either.
Special Police Officer Richard Recine, of the Borough of Helmetta Police Department, is now the subject of an internal affairs investigation after the video was posted online and was seen by Police Director Robert Manney, who called the comments an "embarrassment."
In the video, taken Monday at the borough municipal building, resident Steve Wronko gets into a verbal confrontation with Recine, who was called to the building because Wronko was seen taking pictures inside.
After Wronko insists he has a constitutional right to record in a public place, Recine responds.
"Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so I don't give a damn," said Recine, who is a retired Franklin, N.J., police officer. "Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to."
Wronko was in the municipal building as part of his ongoing efforts to raise concerns about the local animal shelter. What he got instead was a fascinating lesson in constitutional law from Recine.
Robert A Manney, Helmetta's police director, is understandly upset about the whole thing. Ignoring constitutional niceties is one thing; openly expressing institutional contempt for the Constitution probably pulls the veil back a bit too far.
Recine, who invokes "all the terrorism" as grounds for confronting Wronko, works part-time while collecting a $79,000 annual pension for an earlier police gig. Double-dipping is a time-honored tradition in the state.
The videorecording was made by a 13-year-old, by the way, cuz the kids need role models, too. The fun starts at about the 2:17 mark.
Update: Sergio Bichao, who reported the original story, tweets that Richard Recine is now a former special officer, having resigned his position. Full story here.
“mouth of thugs”?
In before the badge worshippers.
...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ...
When elected officials and bureaucracies act outside the law they are simply lawbreakers. When the majority of the people vote in favor of total lawlessness in the highest office they are withdrawing their consent to be governed by a constitutional government. By what legitimate basis does the United States of America, as a Constitutional republic, still exist?
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
'The People' no longer support that. They voted in support of lawlessness from the highest office on down. They voted against the rule of law. By referendum we now have a banana republic.
Gollygosh!
Ya think Ritchie was the onlyist JBT to think this way?
Ya think?
(Yep, he pulled that veil back more than a tad too far.)
Other officers who think like this will be wise to keep it to themselves unless they are willing to risk losing their jobs. This is a good example of where freedom speech doesn't guarantee immunity from its consequences.
“Free speech!” says his union spokesman.
The police guy was right and wrong.
Only because they were made public.
I doubt cops are trained on the constitution. I’m starting to wonder if maybe they ARE trained not to follow it.
Departments which might sanction this type of attitude risk having personnel successfully sued and convicted of civil rights violations. Such lawsuits or prosecutions can go all the way to the Department Head.
"I doubt cops are trained on the constitution."
When I was in search warrant training, a judge was one of the lecturers. He explained why it was so effective to obtain a search warrant to get the evidence. It eliminated a lot of "motions to suppress evidence." Lawyers who wanted to suppress the evidence had to challenge the judge, and it was nearly impossible to get the evidence thrown out.
If there is no law, there is no law.
If the president can disregard the law protecting the people, the can not the disregard the law protecting the President
Police director if helmetta can be emailed @
rmanney@helmettaboro.com.
Well, that's actually sort of true. You can't have random pockets of society following the document and everyone else not. Either the paper is valid or it's not.
Who said Obama isn’t an inspirational leader?
All kinds of executive orders are possible.
Went to HS with Rich. Actually he’s a Constitutionist. Said a stupid sarcastic thing thatb cost him his job. What he said was correct. If our President no longer upholds the Constitution (as well as our Congress and Supreme Court) then why are the rest of us peons now required to follow it....
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