NYC Detectives’ Union To Sue Floyd Rioters Who Attack Officers

A union representing New York City Police detectives has vowed to sue rioters who attacks its members.

“If you assault a New York City Detective and there are no consequences from the criminal justice system, we have to have other means to protect our detectives,” declared Paul DiGiacomo – president of the 19,000 member Detectives’ Endowment Association, adding that he will sue any ‘protester, rioter or looter who does violence against NYPD detectives, according to Fox News.

According to the NYPD, over 350 of its officers have suffered injuries during the protests.

“It’s heart-wrenching because they are out there doing a job under very difficult circumstances, trying to protect the innocent people that are protesting while the criminal element is within that group, assaulting, looting and victimizing not only police officers and detectives out there, but also the people of the city,” he said.

The first lawsuit has been filed against a looting suspect accused of stealing items from a pharmacy in Manhattan and who allegedly attacked Detective Joseph Nicolosi. The detective claimed he was injured in the struggle when the 19-year-old suspect resisted arrest. –Fox News

“They’ve had urine thrown at them, rocks thrown at them, shot at, assaulted. I don’t know how much more they could take a day of putting up with a lot out there. And, you know, they are the finest in the world and they are doing a fabulous job, but they are being demonized by the elected officials,” said DiGiacomo.

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Civil rights attorney Ron Kuby characterizes the lawsuits as unfair given that police enjoy legal protections, such as qualified immunity, which prevents them from being sued.

“If the police want to use the civil law as a tool in their policing, those of us who pay their salaries have the opportunity now to engage in some real reform, which is, stop the indemnification of cops, stop the free lawyers for the police, stop the qualified immunity for the police — and we’ll see how that works out for them,” said Kuby, who added that “This is not a new tactic by the police. This was tried back in the 1990s in New York City, at another time when there was a great deal of unrest and ultimately, it didn’t work.”

Congressional Democrats and some state legislatures have moved to strip the police of qualified immunity, while Kuby notes that officers participating in lawsuits will give up their privacy.

“The cops freak out about their privacy concerns and don’t want their personal history handed over to the very people that they are suing,” he said. “That is another powerful reason not to go through with these lawsuits.”

DiGiacomo, meanwhile, said: “We will be behind our detectives and pursue these cases civilly and send a message to the criminal element, that you are not going to get away with this. If we can’t get you one way, we will get you another.”