Nine Port Authority Police Lose Jobs Over Drunken Graduation Party
BY Herschel Smith
10 years ago
Nine rookie Port Authority cops were fired for “running wild” at a drunken graduation party — where some of them grabbed a woman’s butt, disobeyed their bosses and arrogantly flashed their badges to get out of trouble, sources said on Friday.
Dozens of freshly minted PA Police officers flocked to Texas Arizona Bar and Grill in Hoboken after a Police Academy graduation ceremony at Dunn Sport Center in Elizabeth on Aug. 22, Port Authority police sources told The Post.
But the celebration turned into a booze-soaked mess when some of the newbie officers got drunk, hopped behind the bar and began pouring their own beers while still in uniform, the sources said.
Other officers trashed the bathroom and touched a female’s behind “inappropriately,” the sources said.
When a bartender asked them to calm down, the cocky rookies flashed their badges and explained they were allowed to act like jerks because they were cops, the sources said.
The bartender called Hoboken police, but the revelers were so out of control, they had to summon PA cops to the scene, sources said.
Even then, the rowdies ignored their supervisors and acted “drunkenly defiant,” according to a PA source.
“They were running wild…They brought shame and disrespect to the department,” the source said.
Not long after, investigators demanded some of the officers hand over their cellphones, some of which had been used to record the post-graduation shenanigans. Nine of the officers, some of them women, have since been fired.
Three supervisors — including a lieutenant who was also drunk — also face disciplinary action following the drunken celebration. Three other rookie officers were also suspended without pay for 30 days, the sources said.
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“Let the message be clear…police officers will be held to a high standard of conduct befitting their roles,” Port Authority Chairman John Degnan said.
Yea, they’ll be held to a high standard, except for those cops who were suspended without pay, and those officers who, God surely knows, shouldn’t have to lose a great career serving and protecting the public just because of public drunkenness and grabbing a little ass from unsuspecting patrons every now and again.
Laws are for little people.
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