Why aren’t officers wearing masks?

This may be pile on the NYPD day, but as long as we have to live with City Hall Park and surrounding streets cordoned off, and the dozens of officers it seems to require to complete that task, it is a mystery to me that police officers are not wearing masks even when they are speaking to residents or clustered in groups themselves.

One neighbor who makes daily trips down Broadway from Reade to Murray has made it a game with her kids to count the masks — or lack of. The count for this past week: 0 out of 14; 0 out of 12; 8 out of 40; 0 out of 31; 1 out of 29. On my tour, I got 5 for 32.

These are public servants, supported by public tax dollars, and they should be required to do what we all are being asked to do. Compare them to every restaurant delivery person, making no doubt just a few bills a day, who are diligently masked even while biking the streets.

Of course I am not the first person to notice this; The Times was told in June that wearing masks is the least of the department’s troubles these days, dismissing any criticism as petty. “Perhaps it was the heat,” Sgt. Jessica McRorie of the department’s press office told The Times. “Perhaps it was the 15-hour tours, wearing bullet resistant vests in the sun. Perhaps it was the helmets. With everything New York City has been through in the past two weeks and everything we are working toward together, we can put our energy to a better use.”

But I would argue that the coronavirus is indeed the MOST of our troubles, especially as we inch toward the first day of school. And the NYPD should get that. Their members have not been spared. I’d like to think New Yorkers know better.

 
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15 Comments

  1. Whenever I see 10 or more police officers together without masks, I call 311 & let them know the exact location of the group not in compliance with mask & gathering orders.

  2. Maybe they are purposely trying to get it and go on disability and collect their $ and not have to deal with being shat on every hour of every day ?

    • No police, anywhere in the city, wear masks. They are conservative Republicans, macho, who probably don’t believe that the virus will ever affect them or make them sick. This is not just by City Hall Park.

      The mayor is doing absolutely nothing about the mask situation (or anything else NYPD). He stopped them from enforcing social distancing, early in the pandemic, because 80% of the people that they went after were black or Hispanic. Yes, they are racist.

      To give you a sense of how bad the police are, they are suing the city for banning chokeholds. I know this has nothing to do with the coronavirus, but somehow it seems relevant.
      https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-grandstanding-on-police-reform-so-cop-unions-file-lawsuit-reports

      • A, I guess the next time you need help from the police you won’t call them?

        • I do not believe that is what A meant. We get the police force we
          deserve through inaction and rhetoric. It takes three years to become a police officer in Germany and a cop first goes out on the beat in NYC at 11 weeks. They receive virtually no training on mental illness. Dinkens who hired the 6000 new police officers Giuliani gets the credit for and was crucified for trying to pass a oversight mandate. It is good to see more women and POC in uniform to be sure but our force needs better training which I believe will help root out more racist cops. We the tax payer should not be beaten while expressing our first amendment rights in a passionate non violent manner.

        • Yes deflect instead of addressing the issue of maskless cops ????

          I’m sure since you can’t defend police brutality, you deflect with this beauty of a statement as well ????

  3. Can we just give the police a break? It is 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. Why are we so hard on them? They are out there trying to keep us safe and keep NYC functioning. This just seems like piling on.

  4. The police for most part do not wear masks. It is not political as some are saying. It is just stupid.

  5. I make it a point to go up to the police officers around Erricson Place and ask them why they’re not wearing masks. I always get the same answer: “We aren’t required to.”

  6. There are a hundred or more most days in the area around 1PP not wearing masks. I have to walk in the street to avoid them. It’s absurd that they care so little for the safety of the city. And it’s absurd that people are making excuses for them.

  7. I walk around City Hall every morning with my dog… Do the loop and you probably see 100 officers (area included the courts).. no ONE, and i mean not ONE are wearing a mask. Many have them hanging off their badge. I actually thought it was an organized protest.
    This isn’t a knock on the police, but just like everyone else wear the DAMN mask. We want this cr-p to be over.
    If it were a bar they would be on social media and Cuomo would be b-tching them out.

  8. Why are the NY police unions endorsing Humpty Trumpty? Aren’t the police trained to detect liars and corruption? Guess there needs to be some additional training. #RetrainThePolice

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