11,000 Police Officers Sign a Petition for a New York Cop

When more than 11,000 police officers speak out on a question of justice, it would behoove politicians, prosecutors, and judges to take heed. That’s the upshot in the case of one of New York’s Finest, Sergeant Erik Duran, who is due on Thursday to be sentenced by a judge at the Bronx. Duran was convicted of manslaughter after his effort to stop a fleeing suspect led to the alleged criminal’s death. Police officers across America urge that Duran be spared jail time.“The job of protecting the public from criminals is inherently dangerous, and carries with it unforeseen risks,” avers the petition, launched by the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association and signed by thousands of police. The officers assert that “we cannot be expected to effectively do our jobs while knowing that a good-faith decision made in a rapidly evolving situation might cost us our freedom.”It’s hard to argue with that logic, as Duran’s case makes clear. The officer is under legal scrutiny for trying in 2023 to stop the escape of an alleged drug dealer, Eric Duprey. After reportedly selling cocaine to an undercover officer, Duprey was speeding away on a motor scooter. In what the petition calls a “split-second decision cops are forced to make every day,” as the Daily News puts it, Duran tried to halt Duprey by throwing a plastic cooler at the suspect. Yet the alleged criminal, who, per the News, omitted to wear a helmet, ran into a tree and fell off the scooter. Duprey hit his head on a curb and, prosecutors said, died “almost instantaneously.” The sergeant, dubbed in the tabloids the “cooler cop,” explained that he had tossed the drinks bin at the suspect because Duprey, in his flight from the alleged drug bust, was speeding toward police officers and “was going to kill my guys.” As Duran testified in court, Duprey appeared to be “going so fast he’s gonna crash right into them.” In February, Judge Guy Mitchell, an appointee of Mayor Bill De Blasio, found Duran guilty of second-degree manslaughter. The head of the sergeant’s union, Vincent Vallelong, has asserted that Judge Mitchell’s ruling “was a miscarriage of justice.” Duran could face up to 15 years in prison, but the petition asks for a “nonincarceration sentence.” Mr. Vallelong described Duran as “the all-American kid who joined law enforcement to serve his community,” and marks the discrepancy of punishing the sergeant for trying to enforce the law. “It’s kind of ironic,” Mr. Vallelong told the New York Post, that “you have this criminal justice reform movement and they want to take people who’ve committed violent crimes out of the prison system.” In Duran, Mr. Vallelong contends, “you have someone who has never been charged with a crime before,” yet Bronx prosecutors “want to put him in the system for up to 15 years.” The sergeant, a son of Ecuadorian immigrants, is married with three children, the Post reports. Duran’s union is appealing the sergeant’s conviction, and his lawyers seek to keep him out of jail while the dispute is pending. The push to jail Duran echoes the logic that led Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, to prosecute a bodega clerk, Jose Alba, for defending himself from a violent customer who died in the scuffle. Mr. Bragg dropped the case only when he concluded he couldn’t prove Mr. Alba “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force.” Higher courts, one can hope, could well take a clearer-eyed view of Duran’s effort to uphold the rule of law.

11,000 Police Officers Sign a Petition for a New York Cop

11,000 Police Officers Sign a Petition for a New York Cop

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