Cop Sues NYPD Over “Retaliation” For Wearing Mask

Gothamist reports:

In late March of last year, as the pandemic was raging in New York City, Karen Ramirez, a 39-year-old police officer, began wearing a mask to work at the NYPD’s headquarters. The professional consequences, she alleges, were swift.

Police leaders — including three sergeants and a lieutenant — “made fun of and retaliated against” her over the health decision, according to Ramirez, who is suing the department in Manhattan Supreme Court.

At the March 25, 2020 roll call, just one week before the federal government recommended all Americans wear masks, Sergeant Carmine Nicastro “started cursing and yelling” at Ramirez about the face protection, the suit alleges.

Read the full article. Dozens of NYPD officers have died of COVID and at the peak of the pandemic thousands were out sick. Ramirez says she told superiors she feared infecting her elderly parents and was subsequently reassigned to the overcrowded annex to One Police Plaza in downtown Manhattan.