Second Safest City Blog

Despite being directly in violation of state vehicle and traffic law, county legislator Jacques Michel, D-Spring Valley, insists that he is allowed to have them.

The Journal News article, titled “Rockland legislator not allowed to have red lights in his car” notes:

This is not the first time a public official has been found with emergency lights. In December, Spring Valley Mayor George Darden was issued a warning by Clarkstown police after illegally using emergency lights in his car while he was navigating traffic at the Palisades Center in West Nyack. Darden said at the time he was allowed to have the lights as the mayor in case of a disaster or other emergency. In 1997, then-Spring Valley Mayor Allan Thompson was investigated by state police after reports surfaced that he was stopping people by using the emergency lights on his car. Thompson admitted he pulled two people over. He was never charged.

The Rockland Urinal News broke the story on Spring Valley Mayor Darden using illegal emergency lights to get through mall traffic.

For this gross abuse of public trust, what happens? Did he get charged with public corruption?  Did he resign?  Did he apologize?  Did he get charged with class E felony criminal impersonation of a police officer? Maybe he was issued a ticket for having illegal red lights?

No, he got a warning from the Clarkstown Police. We can only speculate, but here’s why we think this is so.

As many readers here know, Clarkstown is said to be the 2nd Safest City(tm).  Everyone’s entitled to their own interpretation of that statistic.  To the writers here, it is actually a farce that is used to justify high property taxes and unjustifiably high salaries and benefits for municipal employees including police.  But Clarkstown Police claim it is because of strategies including using completely unmarked cars with officers in plain clothes carrying only a badge that we are so safe.  Mayor Darden was simply establishing a low profile presence and policing the area during the busy holidays. He is just pitching in with the effort to keep the mall free of crime. We are the 2nd Safest City(tm) because even neighboring town’s mayor have police lights now and patrol our streets at no cost to us! The officer that issued him a warning was merely saying thanks to Mayor Darden for helping pitch in and keep the crime down in the 2nd Safest City(tm).

The Urinal News claimed that it would follow up on this story, but it did not.