Mathew Bianchi took routine traffic stops seriously and handed out tickets regardless of people’s connections within the Police Department. He says he was punished for it.
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The police unions distribute the wallet-sized courtesy cards — sometimes referred to as “get out of jail free” cards — to members, who in turn pass them out to friends and family. Bianchi had been instructed to let card carriers off without a ticket.
By the time he pulled over the Mazda in November 2018, drivers were handing Bianchi these cards six or seven times a day. But this woman’s card was a little older, a little tattered-looking. It was difficult to make out the contact information of the officer who had given it to her, which is usually written on the card’s back. So Bianchi did the wrong thing, which is to say, the right thing: He wrote the woman a ticket.
Though Bianchi didn’t know it then, he had just begun what would become a yearslong struggle to do the job the way he thought it should be done. He had inherited his moral obligations — and a strong dose of stubbornness — from his grandmother, who raised him on Staten Island. But he had no family in the Police Department, and no one who could tell him what to do when its leadership began to turn against him.
The month after he stopped the Mazda, a high-ranking police union official, Albert Acierno, got in touch. He told Bianchi that the cards were inviolable. He then delivered what Bianchi came to think of as the “brother speech,” saying that cops are brothers and must help each other out. That the cards were symbols of the bonds between the police and their extended family and friends.
Why are these cards legal to begin with? Call me naive, but if you violate traffic laws it shouldn’t matter who your sisters dogs best friends owners cousin is.
Because it’s just a piece of paper. It has no actual legal power, but because of ambiguous police “discretion” and internal thin blue line/“ingroup” social politics, it has the same effect as an actual “i can break the law” card.
Even a law against them wouldn’t necessarily stop them, since its cops that enforce laws, and they can just not enforce that one. We should still pass it, with deep penalties for both the cop who takes these and the presenters who try to use them, but its still a corrupt group policing itself, so they wont end until there is actual systemic oversight of police departments.
It’s evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Or it would be, if cops had any legal obligation to follow or enforce laws.
So why don’t we start copying them and giving everyone one?
The issue is that the people who have them tend to want nothing more in life than to suck on the thin blue line and they protect it like it is their emotional support assault rifle. Well, actually, they protect it a lot more since they tend to not flash it in every park and 7-11 they can find.
But once you know what they look like in that jurisdiction (or a nearby one)? Yeah, they are trivial to fake. But it only works if you look like you are middle/upper class white.
Back in high school we allegedly stole the wallet of the rapist football player, stole his card (and his money), and made a bunch of fakes. Worked well until a Korean girl got her mom’s car completely fucked up by an angry cop. She wold have gotten a drug charge from the baggy they tried to plant but this was right around the time camera phones were becoming a thing and they didn’t realize how worthless the 20 seconds of video on those things were.
Because we don’t have the monopoly on violence.
No, I mean physically copy the cards.
Its not like they’re legally binding or impersonating a police officer.
You probally could. Thats another issue with them. They are an unregulated and unmonitored “break the law” pass given out to strangers.
Based on the article, you need to write a cops name on the back as that’s the common “security feature” they add to prevent counterfeits, but thats it.
Of course, if the cop figures out it’s a fake, they will apply every ounce of possible bullshit they can to ruin your life.
Ideally, everybody would have one. Then the cops won’t have any idea whose are real and whose aren’t, and if they just start indiscriminately ruining everyone’s life things will be much the same as they are now but at least those “special” people won’t be immune any more.
Even that doesnt “hack” the system, because it’s nebulous and has paper thin rules. The only requirement is that it loosely IDs an “ingroup” not bound by the law like the “outgroup.”
They can change the cards at any time to defeat the hack. They can change it to a hand signal and a card. As long as its informal and not written down or explicitly acknowledged, it can be anything.
They can also just opt not to apply it even if you have the “right” card if you are perceived to be in the “outgroup,” i.e black/brown, or in an old beater, or or or…
The purpose of traffic stops isn’t even to punish people who violate traffic laws. Not really.
It’s to create a pretext to stop and search whoever they want.
Bull and shit. This was not a stand for the sanctity of the justice system! He thought he was being had by someone who had a bad copy of the hundreds of “get out of jail free” cards. He thought nothing of every single other card he gladly accepted. He tried to call someone bluff and got it wrong and got told off then whent sulking to the papers about it.
I think this is a case of don’t let great get in the way of good. At least he took a stand at some point. He did better than most cops.
Bianchi found himself pulling over the same people three, four, even five times. Bianchi stopped one teenager about a dozen times; he got so familiar with the family that the kid’s father began sending him holiday greetings. (The kid is now a police officer.)
Shocked….
This tries to make it sound like he was making a stand for the right thing when he allowed many card holders go.
It’s one of the few that he actually wrote a ticket to that bit him on the ass and now for some reason The Times is doing this saintly write up on him.
While he did the right thing, it was clearly for the wrong reason. He is fine with the system. He just thought someone was gaming it.
The outcome is good in that the system is rightly being scrutinized along with the union. But let’s not hold this guy up as some sort of hero. He just wants that system to be more secure.
Bianchi was starting to view the cards as a different kind of symbol: of the impunity that came with knowing someone on the force, as if New York’s rules didn’t apply to those with connections.
It boggles my mind that people can be that naive. This has been the way since prehistory.
Ya know, I’m starting to think these people may be a gang. And I thought Mexico was corrupt with cartels owning the police force down there .
I want a get out of jail free card
Then go get a cop job, it’s not like it requires any training
This says she had an old beat up card, but the article says she didn’t have one at all.
Different stops.
By the time he pulled over the Mazda in November 2018, drivers were handing Bianchi these cards six or seven times a day. But this woman’s card was a little older, a little tattered-looking.
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The stop that ended Bianchi’s career in the traffic division was unremarkable.
It was Aug. 31, 2022. He was parked above Hylan Boulevard, and a woman wearing scrubs passed him in her car. She appeared to be using her phone. Bianchi pulled her over on a side street.
The woman didn’t put up much of a fuss, Bianchi said. She didn’t have a courtesy card and she didn’t drop any names. Bianchi wrote her a ticket and sent her on her way.
That’s what I get for skimming. Thanks for the clarification.
Is an idealistic cop the kind of cop who commits domestic abuse against their spouse because they believe in the goodness of it not because they enjoy it?
Comment on the article please.
I did, my comment is that there are no good cops.
I struggle to find an argument for that, but I wonder, what is your solution for fighting crime if not the cops—who are clearly selective, as this article suggests.
And we all think you’re a child for that comment.
Are you not understanding the context of idealism here?
If the cop was idealistic in this context he wouldn’t be doing what the shitty cops do, he’d be trying to put the shitty cops away, for all of the reasons that make the shitty cops shitty cops.
More idealistic cops would be a nice change, too bad too many of those cops are usually forced out of the job early into their careers.
The new Netflix true crime doc American Nightmare has a perfect contrast between shitty cops and one that stepped up to do her job the right way. (Fuck the Vallejo PD!)
