NYPD Officer Stripped of Gun, Put on Desk Duty After 'Act of Cowardice' Is Caught on Camera: Report
CORRECTION, Nov. 30, 2023: Lt. Gypsy Pichardo is the New York police officer who was attacked. An earlier version of this article had a different name.
Where have all the heroes gone?
In New York City, a uniformed police officer in the Bronx was caught on video standing and watching as a fellow officer was beaten by two thugs on a subway, according to the New York Post. It didn’t take the NYPD long to figure out who the bad guys were. One of them was a cop.
An officer who was caught on video watching as his brother-in-arms was ruthlessly beaten was put on desk duty and had his gun taken away until the incident can be sorted out, officials said.
Police officer Manual Morales has almost 20 years on the job. Did all that experience make him a coward? Morales can be seen in the video “holding a subway door and watching from the platform as Lt. Gypsy Pichardo was beaten,” the Post reported. The incident occurred on Nov. 11 at the 238th Street No. 1 train station, police said.
Morales and Pichardo were responding to a reported knife fight around 9 p.m. The thugs were told to get off the subway. Instead of complying, they allegedly attacked the 53-year-old Pichardo.
The video documents two men striking Pichardo in the face and body in a subway car.
Marquise Webb and Brian Innocent, both 24, were subsequently arrested for the alleged attack, the Post reported.
The suspects were charged with assaulting a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Morales isn’t getting much in the way of backup from his fellow officers. He was suspended two days after the incident. What goes around comes around.
“The officer is currently [on] modified [duty] pending an ongoing internal affairs investigation,” an NYPD representative said. “The lieutenant is recovering at home from his injuries.” Pichardo needed eight stitches to the face, according to WPIX. He was cut up with a box cutter. It’s not a far stretch to say his life was in danger.
Fellow officers were quick to call out Morales, according to the Post.
“That’s an act of cowardice,” a veteran police officer who viewed the footage said. “He shouldn’t be on the job if he’s not going to help other officers.”
A veteran NYPD officer who tells younger officers to do whatever they have to do to help other cops who are being attacked said the video was “embarrassing.”
“Pull their hair if you have to,” the veteran stated he tells younger officers. “Kick them if you have to. It’s a full fight.”
That’s the hero spirit!
“He [Morales] oughta retire now,” the officer said. “Apparently, he didn’t even call for help. He claims he did but there were no radio transmissions. He didn’t have his body camera on.”
Another senior officer blamed the City Council for Morales’ apparent lack of courage. “I’m not saying what he [Morales] did is ok, but they made it this way,” the officer said. The City Council makes the rules that dictate how cops can make arrests. The Civilian Complaint Review Board takes cops to administrative trial for doing their jobs.
Is the senior officer saying that Morales feared helping Pichardo because he was afraid he’d get in trouble? That’s not much of a defense. It would be like a man refusing to save a drowning child because he was thrashing around in a private pool and the man didn’t want to be charged with trespassing.
Lou Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, said since criminals know they probably won’t get in much trouble for mixing it up with cops, they have no fear. “I’m shocked by the video but I’m not surprised,” he said. “We’ve been witnessing officers being assaulted and we see it more and more.”
The bigger equation is has there been more accounts of officers standing by as their colleagues are beaten? Cowardly cops are an entirely different kind of problem. It means society is decaying from the inside out.
Records show Morales made $144,986 in 2022, according to the Post. NYC subways are a jungle. People are afraid to use them. What is Morales getting paid for? If he won’t even try to protect his fellow officer, why would he protect the law-abiding citizens he swore to serve?
Where have all the heroes gone?
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