Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly aren’t too concerned over a viral video of New York cops dancing dirty with some scantily clad ladies at Brooklyn’s West Indian Day parade.
The New York Post reports Bloomberg even went so far as to say the video was a great advertisement for New York City.
It’s quite common for tourists to get their picture taken with New York cops, Bloomberg explained, while elsewhere in the world people are reluctant to even talk to their police officers.
« It sends the message that police officers are our friends, not our enemies, » he said, half-smiling, of the video while Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz nodded in the background .
And Kelly, who said Tuesday that dancing cops would be investigated, tried to downplay the incident. “I would prefer that it not have happened. But I don’t want to make too much of it,” he said.
Kelly also wanted people to remember that this is the West Indian Day parade we’re talking about, and that everyone, even cops, goes a little wild.
“You have to put it in the context of the parade,” the commissioner said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “I’ve seen officers in my experience…sort of, you know, get caught up in the spirit of the parade. These young women approached the officers. They didn’t go out of their way to be approached.”
The video also might be the best community outreach the NYPD achieved that day, after officers allegedly racially profiled a city councilman.
