Former Chief Counsel To NY Police Says It’s ‘Repugnant’ For Cuomo To Try To Evict Occupy Albany

[EFerrari]

By Zaid Jilani on Nov 1, 2011 at 5:20 pm


New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has been trying to evict the protesters of Occupy Albany for weeks. The 99 Percenters of Occupy Albany have embarrassed the governor by insisting that he drop his opposition to renewing the millionaire’s tax.

Today, Glenn Valle, the former Chief Counsel to the State Police from 1989-2009 and counsel to the governor’s deputy secretary for public safety from 2009 to 2010, wrote a letter to the editor in the Times Union blasting Cuomo for trying to evict the demonstrators. Noting that he has little in common with their cause, Valle said that the protesters have a “First Amendment right” to do what they are doing and that what Cuomo is trying to do is “repugnant and inexcusable“:

The Oct. 25 editorial, “Occupy Albany’s right to protest,” correctly criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo for an apparent political attempt to order the State Police to remove the “Occupy Albany” protesters from Lafayette Park. While I may share few of the protesters’ views on economic policy, those involved, under the peaceful circumstances of this protest, certainly had a First Amendment right that should not have, at this juncture, been disturbed by the police.

For an elected official to utilize a police agency to threaten peaceful protesters merely because they represent a political inconvenience is an egregious abuse of power. It is something that I cannot recall occurring in my 26-year tenure with the State Police. I believe, however, that your thoughtful editorial neglected to note one critical point: This is the very same Andrew Cuomo who, as attorney general, repeatedly criticized the supposed “political” involvement with the State Police of two former governors. If these allegations are true, it renders his insertion into this matter for political considerations all the more repugnant and inexcusable.



http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/11/01/358793/cuomo-police-counsel-ny-evict-occupy-albany/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Jackpine Radical]

1. K&R

As it happens, I just emailed the Mayor's office in Albany this morning:


"I just wanted to thank the Mayor and the Albany police for their enlightened approach to dealing with the ongoing protest movement. They should be taken as role models for civil authorities across the nation--and indeed the world."

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Bravo!

:applause:

[formercia]

3. ...and Cuomo thought this would be his Attica moment.....

Wrong end of the Stick...:rofl:

[EFerrari]

4. Kick

[myrna minx]

5. K&R n/t