Posted on 06/17/2010 4:58:50 AM PDT by Sergeant Tim
NYPD officers, while knowing no crime had been committed, "put the fear of God" into a man who voiced his opposition to the Cordoba House mosque being built at Ground Zero by telephoning Community Board 1 members. DNAinfo has the story:
"The guy used four-letter words and said I should die a horrible death,” the board member said. “He just launched into an attack, screaming at me.”The board member called the police, and they tracked down the harassing caller, who had used a cell phone with a 347 area code.
Since the caller had said, “You should die,” not, “I will kill you,” he was protected by the First Amendment, officers told the board member. So instead of arresting him, the officers talked to the man and “put the fear of God in him,” the board member said. The calls stopped.
The same caller also harassed Dr. Lewis Gross, a TriBeCa dentist and former CB1 member.
The caller first told Gross, 58, that he’d been selected as a New Yorker of the week and asked whether he was a community board member. The caller then asked what Gross thought of the mosque.
When Gross said he had mixed feelings, the man “started screaming and cursing and going off the wall,” Gross said. “I said it’s a free country. He didn’t like that.”
NYPD officers are not Saudi Arabia's religious police or Barney Fife of Mayberry.
The officers involved had no legal authority and they damn well knew better. If the board member felt harassed, the officers should have suggested they ask a judge for a protective order.
People should not tell someone "you should die" anymore than Muslims in Queens should burn the American flag yet that is only my opinion.
But NYPD officers taking sides in a 1st Amendment protected debate or putting the fear of God (or Allah) into a non-criminal when some muckety muck complains is not their job.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is not going to be happy.
One final point: DNAinfo got their headline wrong; non-threatening calls are not "Threatening Phone Calls." [quotation marks mine]
Ping!
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Kelly will do anything Mayor Bloomberg tells him to if he wants to keep his job.
The police would not behave this way without a wink and nod from "His Dis-Honor".
Sad when police act like politicians.
To the STupid NYPD individuals...
You’re supposed to say ALLAH uAkbar before you do something that stupid. That mosque will not stand... unfortunately, I don’t have the technology or the ability to do that
I disagress; Ray Kelly is an honorable man and will not tolerate this behavior. Stay tuned and you will soon see that I am correct.
Anecdotally, I attended the protest at the WTC, and witnessed several police officers calmly explaining to a demonstrator that they “agreed with him”, but he had to stand on the sidewalk, and off the roadway.
The NYPD puts their lives on the line everyday in this nasty, urban cesspool- they are union, so they got that going AGAINST them, but they seemed to be quite sympathetic to the protestors at Ground Zero.
“they seemed to be quite sympathetic to the protestors at Ground Zero.”
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I imagine many of them had friends who died on 9-11. It sounds like they’re quite professional.
That’s the thing; agree or disagree, the overwhelming majority of NYPD officers would known better. (I was at the protest as well.)
If they do start construction on the mosque, I would bet that there wiil be plenty of patriots around to tear it down as it is being built. Islam is a seditious political system that has no place in our country.
So glad you went Canedawg!
Pointing out what the First Ammendment says is puting the "fear of God" in this person? What a timid individual.
He probably ought to re-think his status as a public representative... or even leaving his home daily.
He serves at the pleasure of the Bloomster. Enough said.
Don't you remember when the latest failed terrorist attack occurred in NYC just a few months ago. Bloomberg stated that he assumed the attack was made by someone upset about the recently passed OBAMACARE Bill with Ray Kelly standing right behind him.
Bloomberg doesn't know a thing about either gun control or islamofacist terrorism but he sure knows how to judge his sycophants like Kelly.
That is when he is not too busy pretending to be Snoopy in his private airplane.
There are just way too many examples to show that your assessment of Kelly is wrong. One example is it Kelly soon debunked Eric Holder asserting the NYPD had been consulted in the security arrangements for the proposed 9/11 conspirators federal trial in Manhattan. And I have very good and trusted friends, senior people that worked with Kelly in the past, who say he is solid and a patriot.
It is OK for a rat congressman to say that a BP CEO should die but no free speech for the little guy.
I'm thinking of Islams history in every nation that they have conquered of erasing every trace of any other religion, hence the Temple Mount in Jerusalem now sports the Dome of the Rock, and Al Aska Mosque. So intent has been their determination to erase all trace of Jews that they have destabilized the land by under ground demolition to the point that the Dome of the Rock now has cracks in the ceiling? They are also building a Mosque over the tomb of Joseph.
They even destroyed the centuries old statues of Buddha carved into limestone. Attention must be paid to what the building of a Mosque means to the Islamic religion. It is certainly not the same peaceful meaning as building a Baptist Church.
I concede that you are right about Kelly.
I know I am right about the Bloomster.
Stay well.
I am no expert on the Koran yet Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes are. They’d point you to the many Islamic scholars who interpret it to say mosques are Muslim ground or Islamic embassies that must be defended.
Can’t someone sue for abuse of power?
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