NYPD Officers Fight Each Other at Tense Union Meeting: "It Got Ugly"

Yesterday 7:00pm

It turns out the seething, misplaced rage of the NYPD that has been brewing since the murder of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu last month isn't directed solely at the citizens of New York City and Mayor Bill de Blasio. Today at a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association meeting in Queens led by union president and spoiled ham sandwich Patrick Lynch, members of New York's finest turned on each other, shouting and shoving each other over whether or not the department should be waiting around for an apology from de Blasio.

According to the New York Daily News, Lynch told the officers that he was waiting for de Blasio to apologize to the NYPD for his perceived lack of support for the force in the wake of citywide protests following the non-indictment of an officer in an unarmed black man's death. De Blasio had also previously rankled the force by admitting that he had talked with his biracial son about being wary of the police.

The Daily News' witness told the paper that one cop responded by telling Lynch that he was focusing on a matter immaterial to the day-to-day lives of officers, which sparked the face-off between pro- and anti-Lynch factions within the NYPD.

    "This is what my members want: they want more cars, better vests, more manpower," one cop shouted, according to the sources. "They don't want an apology."

    Another union member told Lynch: "I don't care about an apology. I want to know what you're going to do to protect us."

    Lynch said he disagreed about the importance of an apology, according to the sources.

    The meeting then disintegrated into a physical conflict between cops who support Lynch and those who don't, the sources said.

    "They were screaming," one source said. "Lynch's guys got up and there was shoving and pushing. It got ugly."

If the citizens of New York can't break the NYPD apart, maybe they'll just end up doing it themselves.