NYPD Cops Can’t Stop Drunkenly Shooting at People This Week

There’s a saying that if something happens once
it’s a fluke, twice it’s a coincidence, and three times it’s a
trend. It would seem, then, that the latest trendy thing for New
York City cops is to get drunk and shoot at people. Within a recent
span of seven days:

• On Wednesday, April 23, NYPD Detective Jay Poggi got drunk and
  
  accidently shot his partner in the wrist with a .38 revolver.
  Instead of calling an ambulance, Poggi decided to personally drive
  his wounded partner to the hospital—netting him a DWI after he blew
  a .113 on a blood alcohol test. Investigators
  believe the shooting occurred when the on-duty
  officers, who had just consumed 11 beers apiece, were firing the
  gun in the air. 

• On Tuesday, April 29, NYPD Officer Brendan Cronin got wasted,
  got behind the wheel of his car, and while stopping at a red light
  took the opportunity to
  fire 13 shots at a nearby car for no apparent reason. The
  man driving the other car wound up taking six of these bullets,
  with one just missing his head. (He is now in stable condition.) A
  witness called 911 as Cronin fled the scene with his hazard lights
  blinking. When cops caught up with Cronin not long after, he was
  still driving with the hazards on and said he didn’t remember
  firing his gun.  

• On Wednesday, April 30, off-duty NYPD Sgt. Wanda Anthony
  
  drunkenly shot at a woman’s car outside of New Jersey strip
  club in what’s being labled a “domestic dispute.” 

The week before all these shootings,
another three off-duty NYPD officers were charged with driving
under the influence. In a press conference this week, NYPD
Commissioner William Bratton admitted
that perhaps the department had a “problem of inappropriate use of
alcohol by members of the department.” 

Also last week—right around the time Detective Poggi was tying
one on and firing his gun in the air like some sort of old-timey
prospector—the NYPD’s social media team asked
people to tweet photos of themselves with city cops, using the
hashtag #MyNYPD. They were surprised when the results weren’t
entirely positive.