-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 5 NYC Cops Sue City for Coerced Rehab Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit A very poor news story. It involves 5 cops but talks about only one case, that of a cop whose domestic dispute ended up with cops being called. He admitted drinking several beers AFTER the incident, but was judged to be "sober" by a brother cop called to the scene. None of the cops was arrested (big surprise). It's hard to feel sorry for any of those involved in this one, the city or the 5 individual cops, and it's not clear -- aside from one the case of the beer-drinker -- if any of them are objecting on freedom from religion grounds or what. It seems that the "farm" they were being shipped off to is apparently the AA allegedly "spiritual-but-not-religious" variety.-NYTransfer NY Daily News - Dec 28, 2005 5 cops sue the NYPD over mandatory rehab BY JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER The NYPD has been slapped with a federal lawsuit that challenges its right to force boozing cops into recovery programs against their will. HipHoppin' Homeboy In Blue BustedOn Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:25:33 GMT, "Officer Friendly" Well there's no question that police departments in general have lowered their standardz in recent years... Four active-duty members of the Police Department and one retired cop charge in court papers that the NYPD's longstanding policy requiring officers to enter rehab or face suspension violates their civil rights. "You cannot confine an employee into counseling against their will, it's illegal and fundamentally wrong," said the plaintiffs' lawyer, Eric Sanders of the law firm of Jeffrey Goldberg in Lake Success, L.I. "Either you go voluntarily or a court orders you to go." sic... this is very unclear. The suit, filed in federal court in Central Islip, L.I., seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress and false imprisonment. All of the cops were ordered to enter a 28-day residential rehab program known in police lingo as "the farm." The orders came after each was involved in off-duty disputes in which authorities claim alcohol was abused. None of them was arrested. Detective Robert McNamara, 40, for example, claims he was "coerced" to go into the program after an off-duty dispute with his wife in which Suffolk County police responded to his home. McNamara admitted downing two or three beers after the incident to cool off, but was deemed sober by an NYPD captain who was called to the scene. He refused to join Alcoholics Anonymous, citing "philosophical" objections to the group's religious references, and then was found guilty at an NYPD administrative trial and docked 30 days' pay. "It's an embarrbuttment to my character that they've done this to me," he said. In response to the suit, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne defended the policy. NYC Transit workers should be fired 796The sales tax, as proposed earlier this year, had rebates for those on the lower economic levels. After someone is making $40K - $50K or so a year (I think it was... "It's incumbent on the Police Department to make sure that officers with alcohol-related problems receive treatment before being returned, armed, to full duty," Browne said. * ================================================================ NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us ================================================================ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU-Linux) iD8DBQFDtY3WgVqEKMbi+yQRAoc3AJ9NWT52zBtcrbscpKFxfqMykSyQqgCggG4E B4qmetmT4vBZfpdGkGHaizY= =SaZf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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