New NYC Schools Chancellor Pulled Over By NYPD

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nyc-school-chancellor-dennis-walcottTwo New York City police officers ran into some unexpected trouble when they pulled over a vehicle carrying one of the city’s more powerful officials, schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.

Walcott was a few blocks from his Queens home just before midnight Thursday when his city-owned vehicle was pulled over by plain-clothed officers in an anti-crime unit. Walcott was a passenger.

The chancellor’s spokeswoman, Natalie Ravitz, said the driver hadn’t done anything wrong, and Walcott spoke up.

“When Chancellor Walcott asked the officers to please tell him why they had been pulled over, the officer responded that they had failed to use a turn signal,” she told the New York Post. “Chancellor Walcott told the officers that this was incorrect as he heard the turn signal.”

After Walcott identified himself, the officers ran a license check and let the vehicle go without writing a ticket.

“There was no traffic violation, and at no time did Chancellor Walcott ask that any ticket be waived,” Ravitz told The AP in an email. She said Walcott asked one officer for her badge number, but neither she nor the other officer identified themselves.
The Post said Walcott later complained to the police commissioner.

A department spokesman, Sgt. Carlos Nieves, said the internal affairs bureau is reviewing the incident.

Like other police departments, the NYPD has been criticized over the years by black motorists who have complained about being stopped for minor or nonexistent violations. In 2008, a white officer was disciplined by the department after he unknowingly confronted a black motorist parked on the street who turned out to be a high-ranking NYPD commander.

Walcott, a former deputy mayor who worked with the police department in the 1990s on improving community relations, is black.
Asked whether Walcott believed race was a factor, Ravitz declined to comment. She also declined to disclose the driver’s name, saying he had done nothing wrong.

“NYC has the best police force in the world, and Chancellor Walcott has a long history of working with the NYPD and respects that the police were there to protect the neighborhood,” she said.

Walcott took over after former chancellor Cathie Black resigned on April 7.

{CBS Local/Matzav.com Newscenter}


7 COMMENTS

  1. It’s not just blacks who are being pulled over for no reason and ticketed. My son-in-law was driving in Williamsburg andwas given 3 tickets – for driving “recklessly” (in bumper to bumper traffic?)for talking on a cell phone (my son-in-law turned to show the officer the hands-free device that was in his ear, and for attacking a police car (he knocked on the window to get the cop’s attention.) The cop told him was lucky that he wasn’t arresting him. The judge will likely claim that since it’s one’s word against the other’s, and a cop has no reason to lie (hello! How about the ticket quotas the cops need to fill, as we all know – that’s plenty reason!) he’ll probably rule in favor of the cop. A prime example of American Justice!

  2. You don’t like American justice? Try Syria. This country may not be perfect, there may be individual officers, or even some police departments, that have serious problems, but at least there’s the belief that law should rule. We don’t have secret police, “disappearances,” or political persecution. Don’t compare getting a ticket with being thrown into Lubyanka prison.

    Yes, some things should be changed, but don’t condemn the country as a whole.

  3. Rav Avigdor Miller ZT”L said the same thing (in other words). This is all part of the Bloomberg Machine! Get that ticket at all costs! Now it happened to one of Lord Mike’s boy’s. Gee, I wonder how it feels? Tickets & fines are men’t for us little taxpaying citizens, not City employee’s!!! But I do feel safe, as Lord Mike looks out from his ivory tower & tells us to watch our sugar intake & ride our bikes! Thanx Mayor! We coudn’t exist without you!

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