Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Laws are for the little people

New New York mayor already throwing weight around. [Link]
A politically connected Brooklyn pastor was arrested for a pair of open warrants — but was spared a night in jail after Mayor de Blasio called an NYPD boss to inquire about his close pal .
Hours later, Bishop Orlando Findlayter was yukking it up with Hizzoner at the head table at a Bed-Stuy breakfast Tuesday with guest speaker Rev. Al Sharpton and 200 other pastors.
Findlayter — the head of Brooklyn’s New Hope Christian Church who was instrumental in delivering the black vote to de Blasio — was pulled over at 11:21 p.m. Monday in East Flatbush for making a left turn without signaling, police said.
Cops ran his license plate and discovered two outstanding warrants, issued Jan. 16, for failure to appear in court for prior arrests at protests. He was hit with the traffic violation and charged with driving without a license.
Findlayter was looking at a night behind bars because the arrests came too late for him to be arraigned.
So his clergy pals reached out to the mayor and the NYPD.
De Blasio admittedly called a top police spokeswoman, Kim Royster.
“The mayor reached out to Deputy Chief Royster to get clarification on word that there had been an arrest of a respected local clergyman,” said de Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak.
Around the same time, the 67th Precinct’s commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lehr — who also knows Findlayter — went down to the station house to personally spring the bishop and tell him to be in court Tuesday.
A police source said Findlayter later appeared before a judge and the warrants were tossed.
Lehr, as commanding officer, was allowed to free Findlayter at his discretion if he believed the bishop didn’t pose a threat, said top NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis.
But Sgt. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevelent Association, cried foul.
“If a guy has a warrant, you don’t let him go. Period,” he said. “There is no ‘discretion.’ What if you release him [and] he drives a block, blows a red light and runs somebody over and kills him? As a [police] supervisor, you have a lot to answer for.
“He just confirmed that it really is a ‘tale of two cities,’ ” referring to de Blasio’s campaign mantra.
De Blasio was outspoken against the NYPD cops who were caught up in the Bronx ticket-fixing scandal, but went to bat for constituents when he was on the City Council to get parking tickets and garbage fines tossed or reduced, public records show.

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