Yesterday, the Daily News revealed that Colin Farrell attended the funeral for police officer Eric Hernandez, the rookie cop who died from gunshot injuries (on-duty cop shot the off-duty and armed Hernandez, who had been roughed up by some men at a Bronx White Castle, in a sad case of mistaken identity). The story stated Hernandez, a star on the NYPD football team, had been among the players asked to appear as an extra in the upcoming cop-corruption movie Farrell is starring in, and that Farrell had gained permission from Hernandez's dad to attend - and bring people to film the funeral for research purposes - even though Hernandez's mom didn't know anything about it. But now it turns out that Hernandez's father had no idea that Farrell and a film crew were going to be there and didn't give permission for them to film it. The football team manager's, Ed Gardner, who had told the News yesterday that there was permission, now admits that he only told the families about the filming after the funeral - and adds that the film will have a tribute to Hernandez at the end and that the film crew would pay for the tombstone and a plaque for the stationhouse. The father, Efrain Hernandez, is taking the high road, saying, "A movie, or complaining about it, seems pretty insignificant compared to everything else," but added that Hernandez said nothing about the movie. Hmm - and it seems tacky not to tell the family until after the funeral, though the camera crews probably blended in with all the other news crews there.
And some rookie cops are applying for food stamps because the $25,100 starting salary is so low. Mayor Bloomberg took the opportunity to harsh on the police union for going into arbitration and not dealing with the city - which is a veiled threat to other unions, we think.
Photograph of Hernandez's funeral from Newsday
