Hoboken New Jersey Cops in trouble for Katrina Hooter Girls and Guns Pictures

[MJMANDALAY]

Hoboken City Councilman Peter Cammarano is calling on the police department to disband the SWAT team and suspend any of the officers involved in the photographs that have surfaced of members of the team posing with Hooters waitresses holding guns during a trip down South in 2005 to bring relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Cammarano, who is chairman of the council's public safety committee, also said he supports Mayor David Roberts' decision to appoint a civilian director to oversee the police and fire departments.

"I am not confident that things are running smoothly in wake of the latest revelations," Cammarano said. "We sent an elite tactical squad of police officers to New Orleans after Katrina on a relief mission, and now we have graphic images of what was going on down there."

The team included Lt. Angelo Andriani, who is also being sued for what five Hispanic officers say is racism, including one instance - during the same 2005 trip - in which he put a white napkin over his head to make it look like a Ku Klux Klan hood.

Roberts said he wants to wait for a full investigation before taking disciplinary action.

Retired deputy fire chief and curator of the city's fire museum Bill Bergin will be named director of public safety, a new $27,000-a-year full-time post overseeing the police and fire departments.

Bergin will supervise Police Chief Carmen LaBruno and Fire Chief John Cassesa, neither of whom attended today's press conference announcing the new post.

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[d0uche_n0zzle]

No magazine in the weapons. No harm, no foul, IMO.

[Sam_Adams]

The ARs are safe. There aren't any magazines in them. So, they wanted to go have dinner at Hooters and try getting some colleg-age pussy. That's what guys do.

[JimsInfectedEye]

Hell, where do I sign up to be on a SWAT team?

[d0uche_n0zzle]

Pfft, buy your own rifle/gear and *p00f* you're a SWAT guy. tee hee

[Sinn Fein]

This is harmless. Leave the cops alone.

[Stalker2]

Remember Dan from Hoboken.

[MrBogey]

Cops can't have some fun when they're off duty during a god awful mission?

[HummerTuesdays]

Remember Dan from Hoboken.

Miss Dan from Hoboken. He was the besssst.

And I agree...leave the cops alone. They're just blowing off some steam in while (I hope) off duty.

[Sprite]

Leave them alone!! Leave those policemen alone, I mean it!

[Budyzir]

When are people going to learn, NO CAMERAS! Pictures will always come back to haunt you in this PC world. Tailhook in '91 should have been warning enough!

[FAZ8218]

Hell, where do I sign up to be on a SWAT team?
Cops can't have some fun when they're off duty during a god awful mission?
Leave them alone!! Leave those policemen alone, I mean it!
Seriously what the fuck is the problem? Hot girls stop to take pics with men in uniform all the time. So if it's done the other way around now its bad??? This country stinks.

[PEST BY TRADE]

A hot Hooters girl holding my gun would make me happy

leave the police men alone...

[THE FEZ MAN]

fucking pc CUNTS how about fighting real crimes you fucking assholes that feel the need to justify there fucking jobs


i know plenty of swat guys, they earn there money

[MJMANDALAY]

Posted: Monday, 03 December 2007 5:25PM

Hoboken SWAT Team Not Part of Official N.J. Response to Katrina


HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) -- The two trips Hoboken's now-defunct SWAT team made for Hurricane Katrina relief were done outside New Jersey's official response and so are not eligible for state reimbursement, officials said.

"It was a self-deployment,'' New Jersey State Police Capt. Al Della Fave said Monday.

He said the Hoboken unit was not among the several hundred law officers and emergency responders from around New Jersey sent to the New Orleans region after the devastating 2005 storm.

Participants in that effort were coordinated by New Jersey's Office of Emergency Management based on requests made from the affected areas, and were eligible to be reimbursed by New Jersey, Della Fave said.

The possible hit to Hoboken taxpayers was reported Monday by The Jersey Journal, which said city officials said they spent about $5,100 on the two trips.

The disclosure is the latest regarding the SWAT unit, which was disbanded in November after racy pictures from the trip emerged, including some featuring police Chief Carmen L. LaBruno and Lt. Angelo Andriani, who headed the SWAT unit.

Andriani was sued in October by five Hispanic officers, who claim he is a racist who coerced four of them to work on his house when they should have been on duty. Andriani has denied the allegations.

The pictures have been distributed several times since the filing. A new batch was obtained by the newspaper, which described a snapshot showing LaBruno and other Hoboken cops posing with gun-toting Patricia Shane, wife of New Orleans-area developer Henry Shane.

The couple held a dinner at their mansion to thank the officers for bringing supplies to Kenner, La., in 2005.

An unnamed source said Andriani handed the handgun to her, the newspaper said. Asked to respond, Andriani said, "An unloaded gun is nothing more than a paperweight,'' the newspaper said.

Previous pictures have shown Andriani and other officers posing with waitresses from a Hooters restaurant in Alabama who appeared to be holding police firearms in 2006, when the SWAT team went to New Orleans to provide security for Mardi Gras floats. Another picture from that trip shows the chief posing with a female flasher, the newspaper said.

A message seeking comment from Public Safety Director Bill Bergin was not immediately returned Monday. Bergin took office last month and scrapped the SWAT unit.