The mad pepper spray wielding cop has been “punished”:
A New York police commander who pepper-sprayed protesters during the opening days of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations last month faces an internal disciplinary charge that could cost him 10 vacation days, the police said Tuesday.
The commander, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, has been given a so-called command discipline, according to a law enforcement official. Officials said investigators found that the inspector ran afoul of Police Department rules for the use of the spray. The department’s patrol guide, its policy manual, says pepper spray should be used primarily to control a suspect who is resisting arrest, or for protection; it does allow for its use in “disorder control,” but only by officers with special training.
The Internal Affairs Bureau reviewed the episode and found that Inspector Bologna “used pepper spray outside departmental guidelines,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. He declined to elaborate.
The inspector can accept the charge and plead guilty, or he can opt for a departmental trial. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly is the ultimate arbiter of punishment in such matters and has wide leeway in his decisions.
Inspector Bologna’s actions on Sept. 24, when he sprayed several penned-in women, were captured on video and spread widely on the Internet. It became a defining moment in the protests.
This just strikes me as an absurd punishment- if someone is so stressed out as a cop they are macing people for no reason, using excessive force outside departmental guidelines, why take away their vacation days? Seems to me a more fitting punishment would be a mandatory month or two of vacation days, unpaid, and with some anger management courses to help work through some of the obvious issues.
Having said that, I’m mildly surprised they even admitted to the wrongdoing.
Rosalita
they had no choice, it was documented on video. no way to sweep it under the rug. it’s all PR. bastards.
phillip anderson
So I assume that Ray Kelly and the NYPD would now like to revise their previous statements describing Bologna’s use of pepper spray as “appropriate” right?
Or do they often take disciplinary action against their employees for “appropriate” behavior?
markg
pretty mild punishment for a criminal assault
Joey Maloney
Did he look stressed to you in that video? To me he looked like he was enjoying the hell out of his workday.
MikeBoyScout
Then again it could cost him nothing. It would be wrong not to speculate.
Violet
The NYPD keep shooting themselves in their collective feet. Responses like this just keeps the story alive. It was police brutality before, now it’s corrupt police cronyism protecting their own instead of the citizens they should be protecting.
Han's Big Snark Solo
Forget about taking away his vacation days, they should take away his gun, tazer and any other form of weapon he carries.
Put him behind a desk for the rest of his miserable life, he is, obviously, a danger to the community. Letting him walk around with a gun is like letting a child molester babysit your children.
cpinva
actually, he should be criminally indicted for assault & battery, under color of law. his “vacation” should be spent in a jail cell, for a year or two.
odd, had i pepper-sprayed those women, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, i’d be sitting in a cell in riker’s island, awaiting a hearing, and facing the prospect of jail time. a cop does it, and regardless of the fact that it’s clearly a criminal act, not even remotely justified by circumstances, and we’re discussing how long he should be on unpaid leave.
had i pulled a comparable stunt like that in my job, i would (rightly so) be facing the prospect of a federal prison, regardless of my job status. in fact, because of my job status, i am expected to display the highest level of judgment. apparently, the nypd has no such expectations of those on its payroll.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
I’ve heard there’s footage of a NY police officer cold-cocking a 20-something female protestor for the gross crime of standing there talking to him and some of his buddies.
The liberal media has yet to pick up on this.
scav
FYI, links a bit wonky (split into one that works and one that doesn’t? something). Anyhoo, poor guy seems to think that his actions where justified
Seems a bit unclear on this whole context of video and entirely unaware of the role the pepper-spraying got the media’s attention in a way that favored OWS. Bad case of terminally clueless. Wouldn’t I like to have a bug behind the closed doors of some of those internal NYPD meetings: I’m somehow guessing the public reproof will be a milquetoast as they can manage (thin blue line, ya know) but the off-the-record one will be a tad bit more medieval.
NCSteve
Dude, he didn’t do it because he was stressed out. He did it because he saw people who were not respectin’ his authoritay. Period. 90% of police misconduct is just as simple as Cartman banging on people’s shins saying “Respect mah authoritay!”
Most cops with street experience come, not unreasonably, to associate displays of disrespect for their authority with personal danger. Some cops internalize that into a subconscious fear response to displays of disrespect for any authority. Bad Things often follow and those Bad Things frequently involve reflexive misuse of one of the pieces of gear on their belts.
Betsy
Actually the loss of ten days’ vacation is probably meant as a nominal penalty – about as minimal as possible. Cops may accumulate so much overtime that they have vacation or comp time they can’t use — like a lot of government employees.
Typically if you’re a government employee and your excess vacation goes unused from year to year, it gets rolled into your retirement credits for years of government service at somewhat of a discount.
So if his patterns are typical of government employees (an assumption), he’s probably losing nothing but 6 or 7 days’ worth of service credit toward his eventual pension.
cervantes
It seems to me a more fitting punishment would be criminal prosecution for assault and battery. That’s what would happen to anybody who did what he did, who didn’t happen to be a police officer.
singfoom
So, I was wrong, we don’t have a 2 tiered justice system. There’s 3 tiers. The first tier, for the rich, allow them to commit crime and use their wealth to hire top-flight attorneys to make sure they never actually pay for their crimes. There’s also an ultra-version of this tier for corporations so they can use our system to socialize their losses.
The second tier is for police, who don’t get charged when they commit criminal acts that would get any normal citizen charged.
And the last tier, the rest of us, subject to the whims and arbitrary nature of the police who “enforce” the law.
Thanks NYPD, for clearing that up for me.
kc
if someone is so stressed out as a cop they are macing people for no reason, using excessive force outside departmental guidelines, why take away their vacation days? Seems to me a more fitting punishment would be a mandatory month or two of vacation days, unpaid, and with some anger management courses to help work through some of the obvious issues.
It seems to me that a more fitting punishment would be criminal charges for assault and battery. You know, like what would any one of us would face if we walked up to a cop and maced him in the face.
Waldo
In a perfect world, the women in the video would each get a chance to blast Tony Baloney in the face with pepper spray. They would of course decline to stoop to such barbarism, thus compounding Inspector Baloney’s shame and public humiliation.
Cermet
@Betsy: Can’t speak for NYPD but for fed employes there is no such ability to save vacation to apply later; use it or lose it (after a set time period.) The days you speak of are long (and thankfully) gone. That is one good thing that was done (as a fed employee, I agree with this policy change 100%.)
MattF
It’s just an ‘enhancement’ of well-established crowd control techniques. And I’ve got this lawyer right here who says it’s policy and therefore no one may question it. Any questions?
cpinva
@scav: well yeah, that orange plastic fence could have been seriously injured by those women! think of the children!
maya
Hey! He could have gotten two Our Fathers and a Hail Mary from the NYPD chaplain, Capt Fr. O’Malley.
feebog
The punishment meted out here is absurdly light. I am a hearing officer and Arbitrator in the public sector, and I have heard a number of police disciplinary cases. I can tell you that many of these officers have received far more severe discipline for far less. This guy should have been subject to a discharge. At the very least a demotion is in order.
Rafer Janders
Seems to me a more fitting punishment would be a mandatory month or two of vacation days, unpaid, and with some anger management courses to help work through some of the obvious issues.
Umm, seems to me a more fitting punishment would be arrest for assault, then a trial, and then, if convicted, a prison term commensurate with sentencing guidelines for similarly-situated offenses.
Because I can assure you that if I were to walk up to a cop and assault them as Bologna assaulted those helpless women, the Manhattan DA wouldn’t recommend that my punishment would be me being forced to work through vacation.
cat
feebog:
I have heard a number of police disciplinary cases. I can tell you that many of these officers have received far more severe discipline for far less.
John X.
Cermet,
Yeah. It’s always awesome when employers decide that they can unilaterally claw back benefits earned by employees. Maybe they can give them access to your bank account, so they can take back the pay you don’t spend, either.
Benefits are earned, part of the compensation package. CEOs sure as hell understand this. Servants like yourself obviously do not.
Rafer Janders
This is an outrage. An absolute outrage. That a high-ranking NYPD officer can be witnessed on video by millions of people assaulting several non-violent New Yorkers in broad daylight, for no cause or provocation, and then be let off with less than a slap of a wrist, is a scandal and a crime. There is no justice.
tkogrumpy
Well, I guess the years have beaten down my expectations, but I was amazed and pleased that the powers backed down so quickly on such a high profile case and served up this officer some crow.Anyone who expects an officer of the law to face the same punishment as a civilian is seriously deluding themselves.
tkogrumpy
@Rafer Janders: Welcome to the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. Dick Cheney is still free,also too.
JR in WV
Not having read all the comments, won’t this action by the NYPD provide valuable support to the civil suits filed by the victims against this sadistic monster?
Shouldn’t there be suits filed by NYC residents to force the NYPD to treat this incident properly, as criminal police rage against helpless, restrained victims?
Won’t this soon-to-be-ex police officer have all his possessions confiscated in order to make payment to his victims? Shouldn’t senior police officers who don’t recognize this as criminal behavior be relieved of their positions?
Just askin’…
JR
handsmile
But wait, it gets better. This is a key paragraph in the article:
DKF
I think they should take away his employment altogether, to remind him that he, also, is one of the 99%.
Ella in New Mexico
@Betsy:
OMGOMGOMG!!!! No it doesn’t–that’s just another Federal Employee Urban Legend. The policy is called “Use or Lose”and if you accrue a certain amount you either find away to take those days or you lose them.
Chris from Arlington
@Rosalita
Jump a little lighter? Senorita come sit by my fire?
Sorry, had to go there.
Tlazolteotl
@handsmile: Oh, good, I’m glad I’m not the only one to see the humor in his name.
Tlazolteotl
@Ella in New Mexico: You lose anything above 204 hours if you have more than that amount of annual leave accrued at the end of the calendar year – 204 hours is the maximum rollover. In some circumstances, lost leave can be reinstated, but it takes a lot of paperwork! Many federal employees, as a result, are basically gone for a good part of the month of December, as they take leave that they would otherwise lose.
There is some difference between the CERS and FERS retirement systems for federal employees in how any accrued, unused annual leave is compensated for retirement. Sick leave may be accumulated without any ceiling, and unused sick leave is paid out at retirement. Sick leave, but not annual leave, may also be transferred to other employees. If someone is experiencing an extended illness, there will often be a call for employees in the agency who wish to, to donate leave to them.
Mark
Based on this guy’s history I doubt that “if someone is so stressed out as a cop they are macing people for no reason” is the case. I think it is more likely that he is a sadistic sociopath who enjoys hurting people and no amount of “anger management” will help. He needs to retire to Florida.
Joel
How about firing?
Rafer Janders
@tkogrumpy:
That’s what they’re counting on, our outrage fatigue. And I admit, my ability to get mad and stay mad was severely tested in the Bush years. But the second we stop getting outraged, they’ve won.
Rafer Janders
@Mark:
As has been pointed out before, if he was willing to assault several young white middle-class women, in broad daylight, on a city street, in the middle of a crowd, while knowingly being videotaped, what has he been doing over the years to young black and Hispanic men, at night, in back rooms or dark alleys, without anyone watching? It’s impossible to believe that this is his only instance of felonious assault on his fellow citizens. This is just the first time he got caught.
Nicole
NYPD anecdote from years ago- I was rollerblading to work in the bike lane on 6th Avenue and was knocked right off my wheels by a squad car as I skated through an intersection. The two officers got out of the car, and tried to get me to say a van that had turned left behind me had struck me. “No, officers,” I said. “It was your squad car.”
I didn’t file a report or anything, as, while I was badly bruised, I wasn’t seriously injured, but I’ve never forgotten them trying to get me to finger the blame on some poor innocent schmo.
So the possible “punishment” levied on this cop doesn’t surprise me a bit.
Skippy the Wondermule
The cop’s name is Anthony freaking Bologna?
Look, I believe we should all take responsibility for our actions, but if my parents had named me Tony Baloney, I would be a serial killer by now.