Arrests have already been made. NYPD are still searching for another dozen people. The crime? Dousing NYPD patrolmen with water. A new video has surfaced of a man spraying to officers with a water bottle while filming himself with his cell phone.

Some New York law makers are finally stepping up to support and protect the members

“We will not wait until these attacks spread like wildfire,” said New York Assemblyman Mike LiPetri, R-Long Island. “This time, it’s water. What’s next? Gasoline? Acid?”

Rallying on the steps of City Hall, LiPetri and Assemblyman Michael Reilly, R-Staten Island, proposed a new law to stop what some call a disgusting trend.

“What we are witnessing in New York City is disgraceful. A culture of blatant disrespect for law enforcement has been fostered and encouraged simply for political gain which has resulted in such despicable acts of hate becoming acceptable in our communities,” LiPetri said.

“New York State must send a message that this will not be tolerated and I am confident that this bill provides law enforcement the tools they need to properly react.”

According CBS New York, the new bill would make it a Class E felony to throw or spray water, or any other substance, against an on-duty police or peace officer. The charge would be punishable by up to 1 to 4 years in prison.

“Our police officers are being targeted for harassment and even assault while doing their job,” Reilly said. “This is the direct result of political grandstanding from politicians like Mayor de Blasio who’ve done absolutely nothing to foster police-community relations, and instead spread an inflammatory anti-cop rhetoric just to score a few points.

As someone who served in uniform, I understand the immense burden our police officers carry with them each day.

I take offense to the narrative created by those politicians and the truth is, Mayor de Blasio was elected to lead a city, not a movement.

It is time for real leadership at City Hall.”

U.S. Courts have recently upheld that giving an officer the middle finger is protected speech. Apparently there are some who believe that as long as the things they say and do aren’t actually dangerous or threatening, then they fall under protected speech.

If they are not communicating a threat or making a furtive gesture, these courts have determined that people can say and do just about anything. But should that include getting doused with water?

For the record, I believe the law should be broadened. While few people are bigger fans of the 1stAmendment than myself, I do believe that there needs to be a limit to how things can be said.

It is one thing for someone to be upset that they were pulled over and received a ticket and then let the officer have it. It is a completely other thing to curse at an officer, simply because he or she is an officer. Certain jurisdictions have other ways to handle these types of issues.

In Texas, the disorderly conduct statute includes using “abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place.” If convicted, a Texas disorderly conduct misdemeanor may be punishable by a fine of up to $500.

In State of Washington v. E.J.J., the Washington Supreme Court dismissed obstruction of justice charges, stating that “obstruction statutes may not be used to limit citizens’ right to express verbal criticism, even abusive criticism, at police officers.” Meanwhile in Florida, the courts have found that mere yelling or swearing that is loud, belligerent or annoying is not enough to support a disorderly conduct conviction.

The issue then falls in the laps of the courts. Cases and lawsuits are being awarded in favor of the verbally assaulting individuals as free speech accommodations. Where do we draw the line between protecting the Constitution and the freedoms it provides and protecting people from other people’s verbal outbursts?

Better yet, should we draw that line?

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Last week, more arrests were made in those water attacks.

Courtney Thompson, Isiah Scott, Chad Bowden… now Robert Perez joins the list of New York City men under arrest after shocking footage of police being drenched by water emerged online.

However, police say Perez wasn’t involved in just one of the instances. It is suspected that he was involved in two of the viral videos.

UPDATE: The 28-year-old man, a known gang member, who was wanted for dumping a bucket of water on our @NYPD73Pct cop in #Brooklyn has been arrested. Actions like we’ve seen in videos recently will NEVER be tolerated in this city. YOU WILL BE ARRESTED. pic.twitter.com/RXNGXa0KOo — Chief Terence Monahan (@NYPDChiefofDept) July 24, 2019

Twenty-four year old Robert Perez has been charged with criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, harassment and criminal trespass. Not only was the behavior incredibly disrespectful towards police – but it was costly as well. Daily News reports that Bronx Assistant DA Melissa Fabi claims:

“The officers were both soaked to the point both officers’ vests were damaged.”

Apparently not being familiar with the cost of professional gear, Perez’s court appointed defender Alyssa Work is incredulous saying “hard to believe that water to a police vest would cause $250 in damage.”

Robert Perez is currently out of prison on probation following an unrelated felony conviction, according to Daily News. Work claims that the $3,500 bail set by judge is unreasonable and has racist intentions as she cries:

“Demanding our client be sent to Rikers Island or else pay thousands of dollars for his freedom when all he’s being accused of is playing with water is an outrageous and disproportionate response… [bail is] another example of how there are two tiers of justice in this city — one for black and brown people, and one for everyone else.”

Perez isn’t the only one of the four with a record. NYPD Police Chief Terence Monahan announced on Twitter:

UPDATE: The 28-year-old man, a known gang member, who was wanted for dumping a bucket of water on our @NYPD73Pct cop in #Brooklyn has been arrested. Actions like we’ve seen in videos recently will NEVER be tolerated in this city. YOU WILL BE ARRESTED. pic.twitter.com/RXNGXa0KOo — Chief Terence Monahan (@NYPDChiefofDept) July 24, 2019

“UPDATE: The 28-year-old man, a known gang member, who was wanted for dumping a bucket of water on our @NYPD73Pctcop in #Brooklynhas been arrested. Actions like we’ve seen in videos recently will NEVER be tolerated in this city. YOU WILL BE ARRESTED.”

While four arrests certainly sounds like progress, two of those arrests are of men who did not actually partake in drenching the officers. They were present at the Harlem incident but did not dump any water on police. They were arrested for getting a bystanders wet and, in turn, damaging her cell phone, according to NBC 4 New York.

President Trump has joined the voices of Dan Bongino and Rudy Giuliani in calling out Mayor De Blasio for allowing behavior to escalate to this point. The President tweeted:

…What took place was completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated. Bill de Blasio should act immediately! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2019

“We love our Law Enforcement Officers all around this great Country. What took place in NYC with water being tossed on NYPD officers was a total disgrace. It is time for @NYCMayor@BilldeBlasioto STAND UP for those who protect our lives and serve us all so well” The President also said “What took place was completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated. Bill de Blasio should act immediately!”

In a juvenile response, Mayor De Blasio responded to the President:

Crime’s gone down year after year in New York City and it’s not just because you finally left town. https://t.co/sJXqu6hRY5 — Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 25, 2019

“Crime’s gone down year after year in New York City and it’s not just because you finally left town.”

De Blasio also took to Twitter blaming former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the divide between communities and New York’s Finest. Rudy Giuliani has not been a mayor in 18 years. Robert Perez would have been only 6 when Giuliani last held the office in New York.

Bongino, a former NYPD officer, defended Giuliani in an interview with Fox News saying:

“There was this top-down mentality in the Giuliani era, it’s not an ‘us versus them,’ we work for the community but we are not going to be crapped on either. That is gone….” However, Bongino didn’t stop there. He further says “De Blasio is a coward… There are empty seats at Thanksgiving every year because we lose cops. Kids have lost their fathers and you never back them up. It’s this guy’s fault.”

The focus on arresting these criminals came from NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed cop who was so angry about the water attacks on cops that he’s vowed to find out who did it and arrest them.

In case you missed it, they soaked officers in Brooklyn and Manhattan with buckets over water over the past couple of days as a new challenge to douse police has started spreading.

“Our detectives — and our detectives are the greatest in the world — are looking and we will identify who was involved, and arrests will be made,” said a visibly enraged Terence Monahan.

He made the comments at a One Police Plaza ceremony honoring veteran cops.

“That is not acceptable to our men and women who are out there.”

The city’s biggest police union on Monday said New York politicians and their “anti-police rhetoric” were to blame.

#BREAKING PBA Statement on “Water Bucket” Attacks on Police Officers pic.twitter.com/i8O2Ke59c5 — NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) July 22, 2019

“As it was 30 years ago when you came on this job, being a cop is a tough job,” Monahan told the crowd of longtime law officers. “It’s not easy. It wasn’t easy back in 1989, it’s not easy right now. All you have to do is pick up today’s papers to take a look at what’s going on.”

Monahan described the water attacks in greater detail, starting with the Harlem incident.

“There was cops responding to a disorderly group, chased them away from a hydrant,” said Monahan. “They dispersed, [and the cops] see a guy was wanted on a warrant. They know him, because they know that neighborhood.

Some people think it’s fine, he said. It’s not.

“As they’re making that arrest, there were a couple guys who thought it was all right to throw water and a bucket at the cop,” said Monahan. “Well, that ain’t all right.”

The group took off, but the police know where to look, he said.

“As usual, they scattered, but we have good information,” he said.

Monahan said the Brownsville incident played out the same way.

“They were responding out there, dealing with an incident. As they’re walking away, someone thought it was all right to take a bucket of water and toss it over the top of a cop’s head,” said Monahan. “That’s not all right.”

Hours after the videos surfaced, NYPD brass told cops they should not “tolerate” such behavior. They also went on to outline “enforcement options” available if the same thing happens to them.

“[P]olice officers are not expected to tolerate conduct that may cause risk of injury to themselves or the public, interferes with performance of their duties, or tampers with or damages their uniform, equipment or other department property,” said the department-wide memo.

According to the letter, cops may charge the offenders with obstruction of governmental administration in the second degree, third-degree criminal tampering, second-degree harassment and disorderly conduct. If their equipment is damaged, they can also charge the suspect with criminal mischief.

The letter clarified that charges such as harassment and disorderly conduct can’t be applied when someone is spewing “offensive or derisive speech” at police.

“[S]everal courts have found that police officers are expected [to] endure a higher level of offensive language than ordinary citizens.”

In one of these dousing incidents, the dripping-wet officers simply walked away and showed incredible restraint.

“Any cop who thinks that that’s all right — that they can walk away from something like that — maybe should reconsider whether or not this is the profession for them,” advised Monahan. “We don’t take that.”

Monahan didn’t comment on the fact that trying to get charges to stick to a bad guy in New York is like trying to build an igloo in Florida – good luck with that.

“Everybody’s outraged,” an NYPD source said. “It’s disgusting, embarrassing. There’s lawlessness around here now.”

Monahan posted a still image of the ricocheting bucket on his Twitter account on Monday, where he called the video “reprehensible.”

The videos of cops being doused with water and having objects hurled at them as they made an arrest in #Harlem is reprehensible. NYC’s cops & communities have made remarkable progress — together — but EVERY New Yorker MUST show respect for our cops. They deserve nothing less. pic.twitter.com/mPtPPbUSGZ — Chief Terence Monahan (@NYPDChiefofDept) July 22, 2019

“NYC’s cops & communities have made remarkable progress — together — but EVERY New Yorker MUST show respect for our cops. They deserve nothing less,” he wrote.

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Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the NYPD Police Benevolent Association called the water bucket attacks “the end result of the torrent of bad policies and anti-police rhetoric that has been streaming out of City Hall and Albany for years now. We are approaching the point of no return. Disorder controls the streets, and our elected leaders refuse to allow us to take them back.

As police officers, we need to draw a line. In situations like this, we need to take action to protect ourselves and the public. The politicians may not care about the dangerous levels of chaos in our neighborhoods, but police officers and decent New Yorkers should not be forced to suffer.”

In one video, the person taking the footage is shouting and cursing, encouraging the young men who were assaulting officers. The police officers in each video showed incredible restraint and didn’t strike back at their attackers – perhaps that is the trap these people were trying to set.

In an even more violent attack on police, PBA President Lynch erupted in reaction to the exceptionally light sentencing of a man who dragged a police officer with his car.

Brooklyn teenager Justin Murrell, who dragged a cop for blocks in a stolen car, was sentenced to only 16 months to 4 years in prison last week – Murrell drug Officer Dalsh Veve. Veve hit his head, suffered severe brain damage, and now requires 24-hour care. Veve spent almost a year in rehab, and still can’t speak in complete sentences or walk on his own.

“I’ve never been so angry in my entire life. I’ve never sat in a courtroom where a judge sat and looked at a police officer confined to a wheelchair, heard the [wife] speak of how their lives have changed,” PBA President Pat Lynch said afterwards.

His anger was echoed by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez:

“Officer Veve put his life on the line for the people of Brooklyn when he responded to a call of shots fired. This defendant then callously dragged Officer Veve at a high rate of speed for several blocks, showing an appalling and intentional disregard for human life. Officer Veve suffered catastrophic injuries from which he will never recover.”

I’ve rarely been more outraged, mainly because I can easily see this escalating rapidly unless checks and balances are in place. Once it turns to a game and no one respects officers, their lives are essentially worthless.

These are stunning videos, and anyone in law enforcement and anyone who is a law-abiding citizen should be angry beyond belief. One clip even shows a soaked cop getting beaned in the back of the head with an empty red plastic bucket while the cop and his partner were handcuffing a suspect on the hood of a car.

One supervising officer relayed, “Today it’s buckets of water, next time it’s buckets of cement,” referring to an incident where a bucket of plaster was dropped from a high-ride window onto the head of a housing authority officer, killing him.

Brothers Before Others, a national organization that supports law enforcement, put out a scathing press release – pointing the finger at failed leadership.

“Make no mistake, these officers were only protecting their livelihoods by not attempting to take the necessary and needed police action in the current City of New York atmosphere and command structure. We expect nothing less from the shell of a cop who is now, at best, described as a puppet, Commissioner James O’Neill.

However, for uniformed leadership like Chief of the Department Terence Monahan, and Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison, these are your men and women who now simply walk away as victims of Aggravated Assault because of your cowardice leadership and lack of command support.

We also praise the work of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the Sergeants Benevolent Association for calling out the Mayor and Police Commissioner for their lackluster leadership, we stand with you.

For those who question these officers actions, we can agree that honor has no price tag. What needed to be done, regardless of gutless supervision, and a weighted system, still should have been done, but bare with us here.

These thugs who attacked these officers had the willingness and perception that they could assault uniformed officers in broad daylight and, had these officers appropriately defended themselves and attempted to arrest these individuals, they would have resisted necessitating force.

The media would have then portrayed the officers as aggressive because “it was only water”. The mayor would have condemned the officers judgement having never worn a uniform as overzealous.”

Brothers Before Others points out that the leadership failed from the top down and it’s leading to complete lawlessness.

“The District Attorney would have dropped all charges, and the civilian and civil complaints would have run rampant in search of the NYPD lotto payday. All the while, NYPD leadership would have likely walked silent.

We at Brothers Before Others, will always live up to our mission, where by, taking care of each other. As a result, we will be better able to take care of the public we serve. These videos are a travesty, but a true picture of the decline of modern day society within the City of New York under Mayor William de Blasio.”

They then call for the NYPD Commissioner to resign:

“Commissioner O’Neill needs to step down as he no longer commands the confidence and respect of, not only the rank and file of the NYPD, but also the members of law enforcement across the nation.

As for the top uniformed members on the NYPD, CoD Chief Monahan, and CoP Chief Harrison, we suggest the next time you pin those 4 stars to the uniform you proclaim to honor, and square your hat away, you take a second and reach lower and ensure you have a pair prior to attempting to lead your department.

Because, from the outside looking in, it’s becoming harder to tell. To the Men and Women of the NYPD, stand strong and stand tall. We are with you. Honor doesn’t have a price tag, and the law is on our side. We have use of force guidance and training for a reason.

Articulate why we take action and justify the necessary force needed to achieve such ends. The sun sets quickly on faux leadership who are more concerned with perception and politics then law and order. Never forget that YOU are the backbone of the NYPD. Stand together, stand strong, honor yourselves and your oath.”

Local and state leadership needs to band together with the entire police department and put a stop to this before it turns routinely deadly. A brick, a rock, or a pipe is just as easy to pick up as a bucket of water. It’s time to regain control of the streets.

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