Funny how I knew this was another Del Signore hit piece on NYPD and Jews before I got halfway through.

(And yes, I read the whole thing, twerp).

Funny how "Viane Delgado" doesn't exist no matter the search method....

What is wrong is the personal attack on this woman. There were witnesses that collaborated her side and the NY post and perhaps even NYPD created "witnesses" to play the race card and divert the real issue of police misconduct.

Great. Now gothamist is being taken over by the hassidic community.

From earlier today at the NYPost:

CRS_adah wrote:



Congratulations and apologies, NYC, for inheriting one of DC's most beloved nutjobs. Good luck with Ms. Brodigan - trust me, you'll need it.

Do a little digging and you will find many a past associate, both personal and professional, who will tell you stories about this woman that are fairly unbelievable at worst, extremely sad at best.

The unfortunate part of this story is that this police officer MAY have been completely out of line. I consider myself a feminist, and if there is a grain of truth to the reports of his actions, he should be dealt with immediately by his supervisors.

But speaking as someone with a personal history witnessing the crazy that is Ms. Brodigan: as many times as she has "cried wolf" or acted inappropriately ... I believe every word these witnesses say about her anti-Semitic remarks.

Please, someone in Ms. Brodgian's family or circle of friends; get her the mental help she needs.



7/2/2009 4:35 PM EDT

Recommend (3)

Spirit of 76 - You are relying on the reportage of Chrissie Brodigan in your characterization of his remarks. You're ignoring all of her changing stories and bizarre remarks and behavior and making up your mind about Officer Witriol.

Is it possible that he said, "act like a lady and I'll treat you like a lady" in response to something Chrissie said or did? That seems the most plausible explanation given all of the facts that we know, most from Chrissie herself and her interviews and posts here.

I'm still waiting for Gothamist to get back with their investigation and request for records corroborating Chrissie's claim that she was beaten in jail by three other inmates, while she was handcuffed. That she was spit on.

I'm still waiting to see the 'witnesses' descriptions of the 'breast twisting' brutality they witnessed and the photographs.

Shall I hold my breath on that???

In other news, someone who claims to be from DC and an old acquaintance of Chrissie's asserts that she has a history of 'crying wolf' when she doesn't get her way. This post was made today on the earliest message on the NYPost. For whatever that's worth.

You're still missing the point. When you're NYPD, you don't get to say, "If you act like such and such, I'll treat you as such and such." CPR. It's their motto. Treat everyone with courtesy, professionalism and respect, unless they're an imminent threat to public safety. Even if someone is acting out, you're supposed to keep your cool. That's what being professional means. And there were witnesses that said Witriol's tone was inappropriate, not just Brodigan's own account. Remember another couple of unprofessional cops from a couple of years ago. They went up to a black guy sitting in an SUV and acted all superior, even laughing at his badge and calling it fake. Too bad for them that the badge was real and the man was an NYPD bureau chief, answerable only to the commissioner. Too many cops and almost all security guards let the power go to their heads.

FWIW, anyone can claim to be anyone in the NY Post comments section, same as here. There are trolls here who claim to have six figures in the bank. Yeah, I guess that's why they hang around posting 20 or 30 comments every day, probably during breaks from their stock trading.

As far as Witriol’s references to her ‘acting like a women’; I have already offered an explanation elsewhere in this blog as being a purely innocent mistranslation.

No, what you offered was an excuse. Your corrected "If you're going to act like a man, I will treat you like a man" translation would tell me that Witriol doesn't believe in Courtesy, Professionalism or Respect for men or women.

Think what you want of Witriol, but if you think he is stupid enough to make blatant sexist comments in broad daylight in plain view then you need to explain to me how in the world he made it through the academy.

Are you serious? You haven't been reading Gothamist very long, have you? Not a week goes by without a report of idiotic misconduct by police officers, culled from the major news sources. Are any of them so brilliant just because they made it through the academy? Explain how Patrick Pogan got through the academy since he was stupid enough to tackle a Critical Mass bicyclist in broad daylight in front of hundreds of potential witnesses with cameras then lie about it on his report.

Some analysis:

One the one hand we have a police officer with a clean service record and an overriding desire to serve the people of the city. I am also sure that he is aware that he is under extra scrutiny from the public just for being who he is.

On the other hand we have a woman, who any rational objective person who has dome his/her homework, would agree has some serious issues.

Then there are the facts that are undisputed:

The incident took place in public in from of countless onlookers.

Brodigan was carrying a pet on the subway in contravention to the law.

Officer Witriol approached her for the purposes of enforcing the law.

At one point Brodigan became belligerent and combative.

A bystander witnessed the confrontation and called the cops.

Brodigan was arrested.

Now for the facts that are disputed:

Did Brodigan initiate the altercation or was it Witriol?

Did Brodigan hurl anti-semitic invective?

Did Witriol utter sexist remarks?

Did Witriol apply excessive physical force.

Does Brodigan have a medical condition that causes easy bruising?

It stands to reason that officer Witriol initially approached her with good intentions of enforcing the law. He was probably following a directive to enforce this rule. I can then easily see how Brodigan would get confrontational about it. If you have checked her out online you will see that she has many issues in her closet. It also appears that she is highly protective of her pugs. She might have seen herself as protecting her precious pug from the big bad policeman. Since she admits to loosing control and letting loose a string of vitriol against Witriol, it would be highly improbable for her not to have also insulted his background. As far as Witriol’s references to her ‘acting like a women’; I have already offered an explanation elsewhere in this blog as being a purely innocent mistranslation. Think what you want of Witriol, but if you think he is stupid enough to make blatant sexist comments in broad daylight in plain view then you need to explain to me how in the world he made it through the academy.

Many of the people on this site live next to or among hassidim. Over time there have been issues that have caused resentment towards hassidim from frequenters of this site. But if you are truly free thinking open minded liberals as you claim, you should be able to separate out your preconceived attitudes about hassidim and this particular issue and give Officer Witriol the benefit of the doubt.

"Think what you want of Witriol, but if you think he is stupid enough to make blatant sexist comments in broad daylight in plain view then you need to explain to me how in the world he made it through the academy."

While you have some hits and some misses among your points, that one's a wild miss in view of other well documented actions that could be considered "stupid" but were taken by NYPD police officers who have made it through the academy.

Jay, thanks for your partial compliment. Of course I agree with you that cops have done worse. But very rarely when they knew they are being scrutinized.

Besides, I am viewing it from the premise that I know for a fact that his comments were not sexist because I understand exactly what he was really trying to say. I suffer from similar slips of the tongue when I am at a loss for words, and have reach into my reservoir of Yiddish idiom and translate them on the fly.

Fair enough. Then I'd recommend sticking to that point and not using an argument that graduating from the police academy is evidence that he -- or anyone else -- wouldn't be "stupid enough" to do something wrong on the job.

Hey GOTHAMIST/John -

While youre busy tracking down the named witness, maybe you can also substantiate Chrissie's other claims? You know, like how she was beaten by three other prisoners and spit on? It'll be hard for you Johh, because Chrissie Brodigan's stories keep changing.

She is trying to paint herself as a victim and in her most recent storytelling neglects an awful lot of the facts which she'd previously admitted.

She has admitted here and on her other sites (which she's since deleted - wonder why?) that:

- She was verbally abusive to the police officer. She admits to calling him an "asshole" as part of her diatribe of insults.

- She now claims to have had a panic attack.

- She 'doesnt remember' if she hurled anti-Semitic insults at the officer. She said this many times, and now 'remembers' that she did not. Uh huh.

- She admits to resisting arrest, sits on the floor to avoid arrest and then claims brutality because her upper arms have small bruises - bruises which were caused by her forcing the officers to lift her from the floor.

- She initially claimed that the officer "twisted her breasts". When confronted about that claim on another site, she said, "he MAY have been excessive". So, maybe that didn't happen. And maybe he wasn't excessive.

- She now spins this into an anti-woman thing and sends her story and photos to a feminist blog. Anti-woman, because after calling the police officer an 'asshole', refusing all of his instructions, being aggressive and belligerent - he had the nerve to ask her to behave like a lady. Gasp - that'll set back the cause a few hundred years, huh ladies?

- Earlier in the day, she claimed to have been injured by other inmates who punched her and spit on her in jail. (Bringing into question where she got any of her alleged injuries.) This was all forgotten by the time she was on TV.

- Regarding the "witnesses" you cite above, including the photographer - as he states above, he was not there for the entire incident. His girlfriend, who previously said she saw the whole thing, got called out on that when she also said she ran upstairs to call 911. So NEITHER of them saw the whole thing and it's entirely plausible that Chrissie toned it down when the camera was on her.

So, GOTHAMIST/John - let us know when you locate the three prisoners who beat Chrissie. I'm sure she filed a complaint, you know? And let us know when you get the photos of her back punches.

And maybe you should think about apologizing to the cop when you realize you've been played? Just sayin'

I agree - bad call on this story. I don't care for the cynical view expressed that the cops and papers are acting in bad faith. Somebody is lying, but you haven't established anything solid yet.

She didn't return your call or request, so she doesn't exist?

After all who wouldn't be dying to be contacted by Gothamist?

What you're suggesting is possible, but the tone of this article sucks.

JDS is getting all Woodward and Bernstein on this. It's kind of cute but kind of sad when you realize how much work he's putting into such a dumb, pointless story.

"Yeah, I broke the Sick Pug Cop story..scoop of my life, I tell ya.."

Do you so-called "journalists" at Gothamist even purport to be objective? Every time some psychotic retard resists police action and it becomes a news story the NYPD must be lying and fabricating a cover story behind the scenes? Good grief, I think I'm going to go vomit in my tote bag. I've had enough of Gothamist for another month.

"Do you so-called "journalists" at Gothamist even purport to be objective?"

Uh... no, they don't. I've never seen anyone writing for Gothamist claim to be objective in their writing. This is a blog. Go to the Fox News or CNN sites if you want to read something from writers who claim to be objective.

This post, like most on Gothamist, is a commentary on a news story. Commentaries express opinions.

THE ONLY WHO MUST BE ASHAMED IS NO OTHER THEN Chrissie Brodigan for all her lies that she spread AND OFFICER JOEL WITRIOL SHOULD BE PROUD OF THE GREAT WORK IN WICH HE IS DOING BY SEARVING THE CITY OF NEWYORK AND ITS RESIDENTS

Yoilish, Efsher tisti yedem einem a toive in shvagst shoin shtil. Di meinst di helfst einem mit deine naarishe commenten? Di vazt nur far yedem az di bist a putz. Nuchdem farshteisti nisht farvoos mezugt az alle chasidim zenen beheimes.