If you haven’t seen the above video yet, you should watch it so you can get idea of what police are like in this country.

The actions of this unidentified Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority officer (the NFTA are protecting his identity) in this video are unacceptable and, more important, criminal. Any non-cop who said this to police would be charged with assault on a police officer and making terroristic threats. The person would likely receive the worst beat-down of their lives, too. On the other hand, we all know how differently the law works for police when they are caught breaking the law, and how ineffective it is to have law enforcement police themselves.

After watching the video, I sent an email to the NFTA to let them know what I thought of this officer’s criminal behavior. I received the following response from Chief George Gast:

Recently a posting was placed on YouTube of a Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Police Department (NFTA-PD) police officer engaged with a member of the public who was video taping the officer.  During the course of this interaction the officer made a highly inappropriate statement.   

The officer involved has been disciplined for his actions and lack of respect for the public.  Additionally the officer will be required to complete additional training in professionalism and dealing with the public. 

The actions of this officer were not, and are not condoned, by the Chief of Police, the Command Staff of the Department, or by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.  Please know that we are fully committed to having the best-trained officers in our department so that we can prevent actions like this from ever happening again.  

Discipline is not good enough. This cop should be charged for his criminal behavior and fired. But the NFTA obviously believes differently and feels comfortable having this potential liability to taxpayers patrolling public streets.

So here’s my question to Chief of Police George Gast:

If an unprovoked member of the public walked up to an NFTA police officer and said he was going to break the officer’s fucking face, what would happen to that person? Would he be charged with a crime? If so, what crime would he be charged with?

Anyway, it looks the NFTA have set a sad precedent by not charging this officer. Which means from now on everybody should walk up to every NFTA officer they see on the street and tell them that they’re going to break their fucking face since apparently it’s not a crime.

Well, at least for cops it isn’t.