NYPD officer punished for wearing pro-Trump patch on uniform
Members of the NYPD must remain apolitical.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The NYPD is disciplining an officer who wore a "politically-oriented patch" while on duty — a day after video surfaced of a sergeant sporting a "Trump Make Enforcement Great Again 2020" patch at a Brooklyn protest.
The female sergeant was spotted at a Black Lives Matter demonstration Friday night outside a precinct in Ft. Greene, wearing a patch which plays off former President Trump’s "Make America Great Again" slogan, video posted online from the event shows.
The patch featured the skull emblem of Marvel Comics character The Punisher — tweaked to sport a Trump-style coif.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GRAPHIC LANGUAGE WARNING
The cop, identified by the Sergeants Benevolent Association on Twitter as Dana Martillo, wore a second patch featuring the Punisher skull.
The NYPD said Martillo has "received an initial discipline" and that an investigation is ongoing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Members of the NYPD must remain apolitical," Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted Saturday afternoon.
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"It’s essential to public trust & officers’ ability to perform their jobs."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The commissioner’s tweet met with angry replies both on and offline.
The Punisher logo is popular among the far-right so-called "Three Percenters" movement, some observers noted on Twitter.
"Where the HELL were HER bosses?" tweeted @JaceSister, who self-identified as a "former police dispatcher married to [a] police chief. "CONDUCT UNBECOMING! She must go!"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But SBA President Ed Mullins said the cop should have simply been told to remove the patches.
"With all the stuff that’s occurring in the city right now, we’re worried about a patch?" he said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You know how to fix that problem. You say, ‘It’s not authorized. Take it off.’"
Besides, Mullins continued, morale in the department is "terrible."
"Shea should be out defending his cops," he said.
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