A startling video posted to Instagram on Friday shows two men brazenly divvying up a quantity of marijuana on the back of an NYPD patrol car.
The video, taken at a playground within the confines of the NYPD’s 83rd precinct in Bushwick, shows a man using a digital scale atop the cruiser’s trunk and weighing the weed while the other records.
The shocking scene emerged a month before the City’s new policy which would issue summonses instead of criminal charges to New Yorkers caught smoking marijuana takes effect.
Officers who viewed the video say the disrespect for the NYPD is palpable.
“This is an all time low,” said a high-ranking NYPD officer who saw the video, the NY Daily News reported. “The department has to step up now. They’re selling drugs on the back of a police car!”
The NY Post reported more stunnned reactions from police.
“Even if it is a prank, the fact that they feel comfortable doing it there shows that there’s no respect for police,” one cop source said, noting that the pot and scale seen in the clip looked real.
“Are you kidding me?”
Said another police source, “I suspect it’s a couple knuckleheads who are trying to make a video because cops aren’t around.”
An NYPD spokesman said the department was reviewing the video to determine where and when it was filmed. “The incident is under investigation,” the spokesman said.
A police source indicated charges could be brought against the suspects for criminal possession of marijuana.
With the new policy on the horizon, Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked if this could this become the new normal in the Big Apple?
“Of course not,” de Blasio said. “That’s someone who thought they were being cute or being cool and they’re not. They’re getting themselves into a lot of trouble for what they did.”
The video was credited to David Jimenez Jr., 29, of Bushwick, who told The Post that he recorded it only “as a joke.”
“I don’t think police should be offended because there was no money exchanged,” he said. “I’m more of a weed activist than a dealer. I was basically giving the weed away.”
“It was just supposed to be a funny joke,” he added. “[But] I could see how people would infer it was a drug deal.”
“I respect police officers, and I respect everything they do for our community,” Jimenez said.
“Someone was killed in the park before, a gang shooting, and everyone had been scared to go in the park, and I just thought that it would lighten up the mood in the area, to be completely honest. I didn’t mean for it to get out.”
One Response
This is the New NYC! Thanks Mr. Deblasio – Mr. LIB.