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NYPD officer lands $175K settlement over ‘courtesy cards’ that help drivers get out of traffic stops
AP ^ | September 10, 2024 | Phillip Marcello

Posted on 09/11/2024 4:04:07 PM PDT by xxqqzz

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer has reached a $175,000 settlement with the city in a lawsuit that illuminated the use of the “courtesy cards” that officers dole out to friends and relatives to get out of traffic stops and other minor infractions, according to an agreement filed in Manhattan federal court Monday.

The deal brings an end to a lawsuit brought last year by Officer Mathew Bianchi that claimed he’d been punished by his superiors for failing to honor the cards, though the settlement itself makes no substantive changes to how the cards are used by NYPD officers.

The laminated cards, which typically bear an image of an NYPD badge and the name of one of the city’s police unions, are not officially recognized by the police department but have long been treated as a perk of the job.

The city’s police unions issue them to members, who circulate them among those who want to signal their NYPD connections — often to get out of minor infractions such as speeding or failing to wear a seat belt.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: New York
KEYWORDS:
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Police in NYC give out cards to friends and relatives, etc. to get out of traffic stops. Policeman got moved to night patrols for not honoring them. They are still using the cards.
1 posted on 09/11/2024 4:04:07 PM PDT by xxqqzz
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To: All

Two tier justice system? Say it ain’t so.


2 posted on 09/11/2024 4:08:15 PM PDT by BipolarBob (I survived the WKRP turkey drop contest.)
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To: xxqqzz

3 posted on 09/11/2024 4:12:39 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: xxqqzz

Look up ‘professional courtesy” if you want your blood boil. I don’t come from a cop family but my ex-wife did. My father-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law were police officerr. The fact that police routinely excuses the bad behavior of their ‘brothers-in-arms’ that would land anyone else in jail or a hefty fine is enraging.

Remember, the government police are only as good as the politicians that run them. Under good government police are a good thing, under a totalitarian government the police always act like thugs.


4 posted on 09/11/2024 4:15:30 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
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To: BipolarBob
Your heroes in blue!

Please clap.

5 posted on 09/11/2024 4:18:23 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: xxqqzz

Everyone involved needs a prison sentence, everyone who knew but weren’t involved need to be punished or fired and the union busted, and the main culprits who created this corruption ring receive very long prison sentences.


6 posted on 09/11/2024 4:22:11 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: ansel12

It’s still going on. The policeman got a settlement, but the practice continues.


7 posted on 09/11/2024 4:24:04 PM PDT by xxqqzz
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To: xxqqzz
I knew a woman in Los Angeles in the late 1980s who had family in the LAPD. Her driver's license was set inside a frame that signaled this. She told me that if she showed it to a cop during a traffic stop, she'd be let go "as a courtesy."

I told her, "That's illegal."

She insisted, "No, it's a courtesy!"

She really failed to see that she or her police friends were doing anything wrong.

8 posted on 09/11/2024 4:24:11 PM PDT by Angelino97
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To: ansel12

FAMOUS statement: “Do you know who I Am ?”


9 posted on 09/11/2024 4:25:13 PM PDT by Mark (DONATE ONCE every 3 months-is that a big deal?)
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To: ansel12

It’s still going on. The policeman got a settlement, but the practice continues.


10 posted on 09/11/2024 4:29:35 PM PDT by xxqqzz
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To: xxqqzz

Every time I think New York is at their pinnacle of corruption, they do sometime this to show me the cesspool is even deeper


11 posted on 09/11/2024 4:29:39 PM PDT by suasponte137
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To: wildcard_redneck

This was going on in my hometown in the 60s....and probably much earlier.


12 posted on 09/11/2024 4:30:54 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (mY)
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To: xxqqzz

I’ve had them from a friend who was an NYC cop. Never used them, doubt I ever would. Was kind of cool to have though. He actually gave me a wallet with a small copy of his badge too.


13 posted on 09/11/2024 4:40:47 PM PDT by XRdsRev (Justice for Bernell Trammell, black Trump supporter, executed in the street in broad daylight 2020.)
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To: xxqqzz

When we were very young (early 20s) my brother in law and his visiting best friend and my wife and I went out together, the best friend was a cop from a different city, I didn’t like him and he was one of those crass, simple-minded jerks.

The cop got eggs out of the fridge and I asked him why, he said to egg people which he did, to impress my wife he stopped the car and took some pot from some kids, the cop was also speeding constantly and said that if stopped he would get a fellow cop courtesy as his department did for this city, one benefit of that is that we were drinking as he drove around.

The good part is that I managed to get those two in the front seat into the parking lot of a big Texas barn sized bar without them seeing the big lighted sign on a trailer saying that this was a transvestite entertainer night.

As we sat in this huge bar drinking beers I encouraged the two to really appreciate the foxy ladies on stage and whoop it up to the max, I even had them standing in their seats and making spectacles of themselves, it was about that time that I asked them if they knew that those shaved legs and short skirted ladies up there were guys.

This was in a time when their shame and embarrassment was monumental, and oh so public, they insisted we leave and it killed their mood for the night.


14 posted on 09/11/2024 4:40:51 PM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: wildcard_redneck

Almost as much as inside traders in congress take in billions while M Stuart went to jail.
Same complex though. Your rulers/superiors and well pensioned civil servants just doing what they have always done.


15 posted on 09/11/2024 4:46:34 PM PDT by momincombatboots (BQEphesians 6... who you are really at war with.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
Please clap.

Will you forgive if I don’t? 😀👍

16 posted on 09/11/2024 4:46:35 PM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: wildcard_redneck

Almost as much as inside traders in congress take in billions while M Stuart went to jail.
Same complex though. Your rulers/superiors and well pensioned civil servants just doing what they have always done.


17 posted on 09/11/2024 4:48:23 PM PDT by momincombatboots (BQEphesians 6... who you are really at war with.)
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To: xxqqzz

Just imagine how many such people in government and their friends (aka donors) have an EZ pass transponder associated with an account that is never charged or collected.


18 posted on 09/11/2024 4:53:28 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: fruser1

A while back they found thousands of New York State former workers in the transportation department that had those free transponders.


19 posted on 09/11/2024 4:58:29 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: xxqqzz

my dad was a cop for 34 years... he stomped on God’s law while enforcing man’s law...


20 posted on 09/11/2024 5:00:52 PM PDT by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value and makes people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
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