New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned that “any NYPD Officer pushing any political agenda while on duty will face the consequences”.
While retweeting a New York Police Department (NYPD) post saying that “police officers must remain apolitical”, the Mayor said on Sunday: “We will act fast here, and this will not be tolerated,” Xinhua news agency reported.
On Sunday, NYPD News retweeted a video in which police officers in Flatbush, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, were allegedly saying “Trump 2020” repeatedly on their patrol car’s speaker when the early voting of the general election started in New York City on October 24.
“We are aware of this video, and it is under investigation by our Brooklyn South Investigation Unit,” said NYPD News.
The video was first tweeted by Talia Jane, who identifies as an independent reporter, saying that the police “stopped when someone started filming but couldn’t resist one more — in violation of the NYPD’s policy against endorsing candidates on duty.”
Last week, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan had said that the department was devoting more resources to the election this year than in previous years because of the nature of the current presidential race.
Officers were dispatched to monitor 88 polling places offering early voting. They will be dispatched to 1,201 polling stations around the city on November 3, Election Day, including 708 public schools and new polling sites at Madison Square Garden and Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Nationwide, early voting rates have dramatically surged this year, as President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, campaigned for the White House.
