From the Mouths of Thugs: 'Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution…if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to.' **Updated**
Update: Sergio Bichao, who reported the original story, tweets that Richard Recine is now a former special officer, having resigned his position. Full story here.
Role models are so important, don't you think? They model behavior for us so that we know how to conduct ourselves on our twisty, winding path through life. So when Special Police Officer Richard Recine of the Borough of Helmetta, New Jersey, see President Obama decimate the friggin' constitution, he knows it's time to do some decimating of his own.
Because al Qaeda.
Writes Sergio Bichao of the Home News Tribune:
A New Jersey police officer was caught on camera telling a resident that police don't have to follow the Constitution because President Obama doesn't, either.
Special Police Officer Richard Recine, of the Borough of Helmetta Police Department, is now the subject of an internal affairs investigation after the video was posted online and was seen by Police Director Robert Manney, who called the comments an "embarrassment."
In the video, taken Monday at the borough municipal building, resident Steve Wronko gets into a verbal confrontation with Recine, who was called to the building because Wronko was seen taking pictures inside.
After Wronko insists he has a constitutional right to record in a public place, Recine responds.
"Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so I don't give a damn," said Recine, who is a retired Franklin, N.J., police officer. "Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to."
Wronko was in the municipal building as part of his ongoing efforts to raise concerns about the local animal shelter. What he got instead was a fascinating lesson in constitutional law from Recine.
Robert A Manney, Helmetta's police director, is understandly upset about the whole thing. Ignoring constitutional niceties is one thing; openly expressing institutional contempt for the Constitution probably pulls the veil back a bit too far.
Recine, who invokes "all the terrorism" as grounds for confronting Wronko, works part-time while collecting a $79,000 annual pension for an earlier police gig. Double-dipping is a time-honored tradition in the state.
The videorecording was made by a 13-year-old, by the way, cuz the kids need role models, too. The fun starts at about the 2:17 mark.
H/T: Jim Dunning
