Good Dominican, Bad Dominican

This is front page news? Oh JDS, I love you. 

Ok, good job, officer.

Next story, please.

I can understand and condone sarcasm regarding NYPD actions with regards to OWS or other matters, but this cop seemed to do everything right in this situation.  If this had been a non-cop passenger who helped out, there probably would none of the snark.

The condescending comments in this article, especially with regards to the other matters like the bike lane and the hipster cop, were totally unnecessary and  Mr. Del Signore comes off as a petty-minded douchebag.

If Mr. Del Signore didn't want to buy into the NYC media wave of praise for Mr. Mercado, just take a neutral tone by reporting the facts.  "NYPD cop restrains allegedly belligerent drunk on Jet Blue flight."  Done.

Meanwhile, all the commenters who don't realize that the article is about The Daily News' fetishization of cops and not the cop himself come across as missing the point. Not that that ever stopped you from being pissed off at strangers before though, amirite?

This commenter did realize that the article was making fun of "fetishization of cops" and did not miss the point, but the problem is Mr. Del Signore did take some personal cheap shots at Mr. Mercado [the babies comment, the bike lane comment and hipster cop comment]. 

If Mr. Del Signore actually kept his snarkiness aimed at either the Daily News or Post, I wouldn't have cared.  I personally don't think this story is really newsworthy, especially the
super-positive coverage given by the NYC tabloids, but I'm guessing it
was a slow news weekend and both the Daily News and the Post were
probably tired of writing Black Friday shopping stories.

I'm sorry, I guess we're talking about different articles. I was referring to the one above. Could you link to the one with the personal cheap shots? 

Considering I actually point out the three instances, you must be reading some other article.  But let me reiterate.

First, JDS implies that Mercado overreacted because "the babies were crying, I could see the fear in the passengers’ faces," when in fact that Mercado acted only after
Ynoa struck the flight attendant 4 times.

While the fact of hitting the flight attendant is mentioned in the 1st paragraph, by omitting it in the narrative of the 2nd paragraph, JDS gives the impression that Mercado overreacted.  Babies crying, fear in passengers' eyes ---> Mercado restraint of Ynoa is an overreaction.  But if JDS had repeated the actual sequence of events, Ynoa hitting flight attendant ---> babies crying, fear in passengers' eyes ---> Mercado's restraint of Ynoa is viewed as civic and potentially heroic. 

Also noticed how I omitted the fact that the flight attendant is male in my narrative because a male hitting a female is culturally perceived as more heinous than a male hitting a male, thus making Ynoa look worse and Mercado look more heroic.

Second, JDS links Mercado's next quote to a bike lane problem as if Mercado is personally responsible for it.  A classic guilt by association technique.

Third, JDS links Mercado to Rick Lee aka The Hipster Cop, a fame seeker and well-deserved object of derision.  Another guilt by association technique.

It appears that Mercado did a good deed and seems to be modest about his actions.  It would be another thing if he attempted to seek out fame and publicity, but he doesn't deserved to be sniped at for being an mensch.  And it's not his fault what the NY tabloids write about him.

Just because you don't like the author doesn't mean you get to interpret things exactly the opposite as presented just to get pissed off about it. Linking the cop in question to behaviors that are associated to the NYPD as a whole is exactly the opposite of a personal attack. It is depersonalizing him and making the criticism about the institution and not the individual. 

I suppose the baby quote could be construed as an attack on the cop, but I read it as a jab at the whole hero narrative of the source article. That would be an interpretation more consistent with the actual content of the Gothamist article and the intentions of the author (which we know from the comments that he has liked).

A little snark and sarcasm is fun, but come on, Nickleback?  That's just downright uncalled for.

"Mercado, a Bronx cop who was off duty and returning home from a Thanksgiving vacation"

Thanks so much for clearing that up. I never would have guessed that NYPD isn't always on the job in the friendly skies.

Given that the NYPD now has it's own intelligence division and operates around the world it is no longer easy to assume that an NYPD officer is off duty while not in NYC

I'm pretty sure no cops from any police force, NYPD included, are on duty inside an airliner in flight. Especially in international airspace. I'm also pretty sure that any NYPD official operating overseas does so only as an observer or liaison and has none of the official powers of a police officer.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/24/...

What's your point? Nothing in that article mentions their powers inside an aircraft, never mind in international airspace. In fact, the article you cite questions the legality of the actions of NYPD's intelligence unit.

I can only think of one situation where an NYPD officer would be on duty while in flight: if he's accompanying a fugitive being remanded to NYC in an interstate extradition case.

Hey look I'm not trying to argue anything here, I'm just trying to point out that it's not as easy to dismiss the NYPD being in action strictly within the confines NYC anymore.  In this case it seems like the suspect was doing whatever he is accused of doing and this cop was there and did what he does on the job all the time as he stated.  I wasn't trying to prove you wrong just wanted to make the point that the NYPD now does operate outside of NYC.

The most disrespectful part of this article was the inclusion of the Nickelback video.

Not even sure how anyone with a brain could actually like Nickleback!

Perhaps something we can all agree on!

JDS would have been one of "more babies" to start crying if nothing was done by the hero cop