Officer Tasca, defying a police taboo
Police have a hard, crucial and dangerous job, so it is not surprising that the profession has developed a culture of rigidly enforced mutual support, the famous “blue line” that represents order against chaos, with police protecting society from the lawless and the predators, and making solidarity among the components of that line a key element in its strength. I understand why the culture has evolved to be what it is, and why an ethic of unconditional loyalty and trust thrives in police departments. There are times. however, when enforcing the integrity of the blue line serves to undermine it, and the saga of Officer Regina Tasca of the Bogota (New York) Police Department appears to be one of them.
She stopped two officers who were beating a helpless and emotionally disturbed young man for no apparent reason, and reported the abuse to her superiors. In response, she was asked to surrender her badge and gun, and is being psychologically evaluated to determine if she is fit to be a police officer any more. Because any cop who crosses the blue line must be nuts, you see.
The two officers she reported? Nothing—no investigation, no reprimand.
This is not a “they say-she says” situation: the beating and Tasca’s intervention is on videotape, which shows a mother screaming for police to stop punching her son on their front lawn. The mother had called 911 to have her emotionally disturbed son Kyle taken to the hospital. Tasca responded to the scene while the ambulance was en route, and called for back-up according to protocol. The Ridgefield Park police sent two officers to assist. Tasca, luckily, had turned on her video camera.
The arriving officer charged the disturbed man and tackled him. Then another officer jumped out of his squad car and started punching the young man in the head. On the tape, you can hear the mother screaming,”Why are you punching him?” and the son shouting”Stop punching me!” Tasca was able to pull the punching officer off the man, who was taken to the hospital. He was never charged or arrested for any offense. He did not have a weapon, never resisted and was not violent.
Tasca says she is being punished and turned into a pariah for crossing that blue line by refusing to support another officer who was using excessive force. She is also the first female officer in the history of the small department, and gay. Would a senior officer have the status and credibility to defy the blue line in such a situation without sanctions? Maybe. It is not the identity of the intervening officer that should matter, however; it is the wrongdoing being stopped.
Maintaining the integrity of the blue line is critical, but requiring good officers to become accessories to brutality, abuse and corruption won’t accomplish that goal. It undermines it. Punishing an officer who places public trust and protecting citizens from harm above professional loyalty is both unethical and self-defeating, or to put it more crudely, stupid.
Ethics Alarms 
Excuse me. I need to go vomit now.
Which exactly was it those two clowns were doing: serving or protecting?
–Dwayne
Oops – New Jersey – not NY – we already have enough bad press without attaching New Jersey’s ethical violations to us! Thanks for the story – hopefully the publicity will be enough of an embarrassment to the Bogota Police Department that she will be re-instated, although it might be an uncomfortable working environment for her forever afterwards.
I don’t think it has much to do with the blue line per se- I think this PD was a good ol’ boys club that did whatever it pleased before she got here, and being the newcomer (and a woman), she was automatically singled out. If a longer-standing member of the PD had done it, there would be a different result.
Just the facts, ma’am…. The story linked says the female officer is an 11 year veteran and has received commendtions for her work in the past. That same story says the officers were from the neighboring town/city of Ridgefield (?), not her own department. If the published story is accurate, she is a long-standing member of the department, her department.
Why were they sending cover officers from another department? She was the only officer on duty in her department that day. This excuses nothing of what the cover officers did, or are alleged to have done…[ yes the video tends to make the use of “alleged” a bit of a joke.] It does create a problem not uncommon to small departments everywhere: are assisting officers from outside agencies bound by their own department’s policies, or those of the “host” department. I say that the citizens of the town have every right to expect police services in their town to comply with the policies their political leadership dictates: “Visiting” officers need to arrive with company-manners.
Thanks, Mike: good observations.