NYPD union slammed after 'accidentally' posting video of two men having oral sex on subway platform
New York City's second-largest police union, The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), sparked massive outrage online over the weekend when its official Twitter page used a pornographic image to protest congestion charges in the city. In the tweet, SBS condemned New York Major Bill De Blasio as well as other officials for the part they played in increasing congestion charges to "repair subways and quality of life". They also called the motion a "total disgrace".
The New York Daily News reported that attached along with message was a video that showed a man performing oral sex on another man on the platform of a Harlem subway station as commuters were seen walking past. The tweet read: "Our political leaders have the AUDACITY to implement congestion pricing to repair subways & quality of life is a total DISGRACE."
It continued: "Thank you Mayor deblasio [sic] and Gov. Cuomo. You have done nothing but ruin a city & the Police Commissioner remains your puppet."
SBA President Ed Mullins told the Daily News that the clip was accidentally attached to the tweet by a junior staff member.
Mullins also insisted that the video was not meant to imply anything about the relationship between Major De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, as Twitter users had theorized. He told the outlet: "We took it down fairly quickly. The incident is legit. It happened around midday recently. The point was this occurred in the NYC subway system and a hands-off policing policy is simply unfair to the citizens. And where is the accountability from the governor and the mayor?"
The post may have only appeared on the Twitter page for a short time but it was enough to cause outrage among social media users. One user wrote: "Obviously, I am going to report this video. Posting it is actually a crime. Cops should know better. I try at all times to respect and to be supportive of police, police unions, and organized labor. You should be ashamed of posting filth like this"
Mullins also called the City's congestion pricing "a discriminatory policy". He told the Queens-Ledger: "The heat and energy in the Democratic Party may be with the young activists driving the political media maelstrom the chattering class obsesses over, but there are vast parts of New York City separate from that self-referential space that, speaking plainly, are getting screwed here."
Statistics show that over half of the 35,000 officers in the NYPD live in New York City. The congestion plan that was passed in the state legislature this spring would only apply to drivers who pass below 61st street Manhattan.