What did this year's West Indian Day Parade look like in New York City? Well, there were three shooting incidents. NYPD confiscated 14 firearms and made 16 arrests. And now a handful of officers are being investigated for some fun they had during the parade.
Apparently, when beautiful black women in gorgeous, albeit skimpy, ceremonial costumes grind their butts on you while you're in uniform, you should not, under any circumstances, dance back. And especially don't grab their hips and pump your own into their backsides so hard they almost fall over.
“Oh my god,” Laura Grimes, a 26-year-old from Astoria, said. “They're supposed to be looking out for our safety and not dancing with random girls.”
“There's nothing wrong with enjoying your job, and making the most of a situation, but people have problems with civilians bumping and grinding, much less people who are paid by the city to be watching out for everyone's safety,” said Erin Johnson, of the Lower East Side.
One publication says the officers were “grabbing scantily clad female dancers from behind and grinding and thrusting against them as parade-goers cheer,” almost suggesting the police started it. But the video that has been viewed almost 1.6 million times just on the site on which it was released begins with an officer standing still and simply watching a girl grind on him, much to the chagrin of the crowd. Then when women begin lining up to dance with New York's finest, the officers join in on the fun.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said he “would prefer that [the dirty dancing] not have happened,” but he did not “want to make too much of it.”
Mayor Bloomberg is of the same mindset, saying that “on carnival days, people get carried away, celebrate in very demonstrative ways.” He went on to call the officers' actions "poor judgement" and said the city would “admonish" the officers to be more diplomatic in their actions or "whatever the right word is, you fill it in.”
Oh … Mayor Bloomberg, you should know better than to give the press rope to hang you with.
As for the officers' actions no harm, no foul, we say. But what say you?