May 3, 2008
Horse Makes It Home on His Own
After getting spooked and throwing its mounted officer yesterday, Aldo the police horse managed to make its way home to the station house at 6th Ave. and Ericcson Pl. Aldo freaked out at the sound of screeching brakes in Soho yesterday afternoon, causing him to throw his rider, who was taken to St. Vincent's with minor injuries. After getting the cop off his back, Aldo ran free through the streets before ambling about ten blocks home. NYPD spokewman Paul Browne says that Aldo "knows his turf."
The NYPD decided to double its number of horses on duty in 2006 because they work for even less than rookies and are about as effective as 10 individual officers while controlling crowds.
Photo of thrown officer by Rob Johnston
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"because they work for even less than rookies "
Tell us how you REALLY feel.
Are you sure Aldo is Italian? He looks more Portugese or Greek.
I believe the horse stable is at Ericson and Varick, not Sixth Avenue.
i know i wasn't the only one who saw the horse run straight into a moving car ... its been reported that the horse had a few cuts. i also saw a nyc cop tell the car's driver (his car was VERY damaged): "don't worry, the city'll pay for that"
Poor horse. They really don't belong in such heavily car-trafficked areas. And HughGass, I wouldn't be surprised if the cost of keeping a horse in Manhattan for one year was *more* than the measly 26k* they pay rookies.
*something like that
Here is my question: Why the hell, in the year 2008 in the City of New York, do we still have Mounted Police? What possible purpose do they serve that couldn't be afforded more effectively by bikes or maybe even scooters? I mean, other than inflating the ego of the cop riding it. In addition to shitting everywhere, horses are huge, expensive to properly care for, not much faster than an athletic cop would be on a Huffy, and as this article shows probably less safe than any other method of transportation.
Basically what I'm saying is horses are terrible animals.
horses are huge, expensive to properly care for, not much faster than an athletic cop would be on a Huffy
That's funny. Have you seen NYPD lately? Athletic cops are rarer than a two-dollar bill. Remember the 500-pound officer who tried to sue?
How about switching them to Segways? Unless they're all as dumb as Dubya, I doubt we'd see any stories about Segways throwing their riders. Where have you gone, Marshal Sam McCloud, our city turns its lonely eyes to you, woo woo woo.
Horses are very effective for crowd control. More so than a bunch of cops. Plus they're better looking and more intelligent.
Yeah, good point Snoopy. Using one exceptionally big, dumb animal to control crowds through threat of trampling is more effective than a regular big dumb animal with a uniform and a nightstick.
Controlling crowds? What crowd was it controlling? It looks like it was doing what NYC mounted cops in are always doing - looking like smug smartasses for having such a huge ugly monster IN A CROWDED CITY, and as a result getting in the way of pedestrian and vehicular traffic for absolutely no reason. Clearly if these monsters are unstable enough to be spooked by casual brake-screeching, they shouldn't be appointed to public safety positions.