A day after a New York Post reporter wrote a story about an illicit charcoal BBQ atop 1 Police Plaza on Labor Day, Thee Rant, an unofficial police message board consisting of current and retired NYPD officers has posted photos of the journalist's wife as well as his building address. "Wonder how long it took for Doug Auer to run to the phone to call IAB and DCPI and cry for my head ?" Commenter White Devil wrote, bravely sparing his caps lock key. "Sorry Dougie .. I'm retired. There isn't a damn thing you can do to me. Everything I posted is in the public domain, and therefore LEGAL." Retiring must mean trading "serve and protect" for "hemorrhoids and an AOL account."

One user appears to intervene ("Please keep his wife and street address out of the postings.") before praising White Devil's "info gathering." "I vote for you as Thee RANT investigative reporter," EdPolecat writes.

Photos of Auer drinking beer with friends, smoking plastic-tipped cigars, and posing in a bathing suit and flip-flops prompt homophobic jeers from the users. One post purports to show Auer's name on a list of applicants who took the NYPD's entrance examination.

The tactic of shaming Auer with slurs and personal threats on Thee Rant isn't new: as we noted on Tuesday, the author of NYPD Confidential, Leonard Levitt, had his name dragged through the mud after he had the gall to report on the racist, anti-Semitic comments found on Thee Rant.

What makes Auer's case so interesting is the well-established, symbiotic relationship between the NYPD and News Corp (as one commenter writes, "Does this douche bag know that the reporters who came before him used to partake in 1pp bbqs?") and why rank-and-file officers would want to defend NYPD "brass" who were enjoying a cookout while their subordinates were working. As BAILIFF notes:

I have no horse in this race, but I bet he is quite surprised at how the rank and file guys are defending anyone from that building that they bytch about on a regular basis...

An email sent to Auer's address was returned due to an error on the Post's server. An email to the web editor has not elicited a response. "I'm still holding back ... There's more to come depending on his next article," White Devil writes. If the folks at Thee Rant are reading this, we'll make it easy for you.