"I hate corruption and a dirty cop as much as the next guy." - Sen. Frank Blas, Jr.
By Eric Rosario
Sen. Frank Blas, Jr.. who for several hours today grilled the chief of police and his top-two managers, all but told Stephen Ignacio he doesn't buy the line that the right decisions were made by police following the the destruction of Jerry's Kitchen February 25.
"I agree with the community on this," Mr. Blas, a retired police officer, told Mr. Ignacio and Majors Manny Chong and Andrew Quitugua. "I can see their concern. We've all seen the pictures, okay? We've seen the video. You had this red Jeep execute a left turn on Route 1 onto Route 14. It went airborne. And then it rammed into this building. You know? I mean... (sigh)...
"...The three of us went to the same traffic investigators course."
The oversight hearing on police corruption, which Mr. Blas called and is chairing, will continue to a second part after Mr. Ignacio could not answer certain questions.
"We'll continue this," Mr. Blas said. "I know that, for now, there are certain investigations ongoing, and so we don't want to find ourselves in a situation where we inadvertently let the bad guys go free because we let out info prematurely, but let me say this about how we're moving into the next oversight hearing: I hate corruption and a dirty cop as much as the next guy. I walked the line before, and I worked with you guys."
It was a warning, more than a compliment, to police leadership.
