![alittlecoconuttart:
Arizona Tourist Takes Heartwarming Photo of NYPD Officer Giving New Pair of Boots to Homeless Man
Taylor Berman
On November 14, Jennifer Foster was visiting New York City from Arizona when she spotted NYPD officer Lawrence Deprimo giving a pair of new boots to a barefoot homeless man. The moment reminded her of a time when, as a young girl, she saw her father, a policeman in Phoenix, buy food for a homeless man.
“He squatted down, just like this officer,” she told the New York Times.
She took a photo of the exchange and described it to to the NYPD in an email. A department official wrote back asking for the picture so it could be posted to Facebook. Late Tuesday night, the picture went online and instantly went viral, garnering over 1.6 million views, 275,000 likes and 16,000 comments.
Deprimo wasn’t identified in the post, and he wasn’t notified that it was going online. After the NYPD released his name, he described the incident to the Times.
The officer, normally assigned to the Sixth Precinct in the West Village, readily recalled the encounter. “It was freezing out and you could see the blisters on the man’s feet,” he said in an interview. “I had two pairs of socks and I was still cold.” They started talking; he found out the man’s shoe size: 12.
As the man walked slowly down Seventh Avenue on his heels, Officer Deprimo went into a Skechers shoe store at about 9:30 p.m. “We were just kind of shocked,” said Jose Cano, 28, a manager working at the store that night. “Most of us are New Yorkers and we just kind of pass by that kind of thing. Especially in this neighborhood.”
Mr. Cano volunteered to give the officer his employee discount to bring down the regular $100 price of the all-weather boots to a little more than $75. The officer has kept the receipt in his vest since then, he said, “to remind me that sometimes people have it worse.”
As for the homeless man, Deprimo never got his name, but said he was “the most polite gentlemen I had met,” and noted that the man’s face lit up when he saw the boots.
[Image via Facebook]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me969tTpHj1qkx16go1_400.jpg)
Arizona Tourist Takes Heartwarming Photo of NYPD Officer Giving New Pair of Boots to Homeless Man
Taylor Berman
On November 14, Jennifer Foster was visiting New York City from Arizona when she spotted NYPD officer Lawrence Deprimo giving a pair of new boots to a barefoot homeless man. The moment reminded her of a time when, as a young girl, she saw her father, a policeman in Phoenix, buy food for a homeless man.
“He squatted down, just like this officer,” she told the New York Times.
She took a photo of the exchange and described it to to the NYPD in an email. A department official wrote back asking for the picture so it could be posted to Facebook. Late Tuesday night, the picture went online and instantly went viral, garnering over 1.6 million views, 275,000 likes and 16,000 comments.
Deprimo wasn’t identified in the post, and he wasn’t notified that it was going online. After the NYPD released his name, he described the incident to the Times.
The officer, normally assigned to the Sixth Precinct in the West Village, readily recalled the encounter. “It was freezing out and you could see the blisters on the man’s feet,” he said in an interview. “I had two pairs of socks and I was still cold.” They started talking; he found out the man’s shoe size: 12.
As the man walked slowly down Seventh Avenue on his heels, Officer Deprimo went into a Skechers shoe store at about 9:30 p.m. “We were just kind of shocked,” said Jose Cano, 28, a manager working at the store that night. “Most of us are New Yorkers and we just kind of pass by that kind of thing. Especially in this neighborhood.”
Mr. Cano volunteered to give the officer his employee discount to bring down the regular $100 price of the all-weather boots to a little more than $75. The officer has kept the receipt in his vest since then, he said, “to remind me that sometimes people have it worse.”
As for the homeless man, Deprimo never got his name, but said he was “the most polite gentlemen I had met,” and noted that the man’s face lit up when he saw the boots.
[Image via Facebook]
(via sharpestrose)
Source: Gawker
![thepeoplesrecord:
Just how many bystanders did New York police shoot?
August 24, 2012
The Guardian is reporting that the nine bystanders who were shot (that didn’t include the shooter’s target) were all shot by police, and that Jeffrey Johnson never fired on police.
The most disturbing detail about Friday’s fatal shooting in Midtown Manhattan is the fact that the wounded included bystanders shot by police, and the latest news suggests stray police bullets may account for “most or all” of those wounded. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed that at least some of the injuries came from stray police bullets as cops opened fire on the gunman who aimed at them, but the police haven’t said how many. Rather, that detail comes from the math reporters are doing with the number of rounds police have confirmed were fired.
Fortunately, most of the injuries were minor. As one victim who as hit in the arm told The New York Times: “I guess, you know, stuff happens.”
The Times’ James Barron and David Halbfinger and William K. Rashbaum introduced the arithmetic reporting: “Some of those injured might have been shot by the two police officers, who fired 16 rounds at the gunman, Jeffrey Johnson 58, said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly — based on the number of people shot and the fact that Mr. Johnson’s gun held only eight rounds.” The New York Times Metro twitter account followed up with this accounting: “Johnson had 8 bullets max. Shot 5 at [victim Steve] Ercolino, 2 left in gun, 1 unfired on ground,” suggesting that the only ones Johnson fired were at his intended victim — although that doesn’t necessarily mean all of them found their mark.
Reuters’ Lily Kuo is reporting eight bystanders were wounded in total, not nine. But if The Times’ figures about the bullets are accurate, the total number of injured wouldn’t affect the story that police bullets accounted for all injuries, because all of Johnson’s bullets would be accounted for. The problem is, the available information keeps changing. Earlier in the day, The Associated Press and others were reporting that Johnson only fired three shots at Ercolino, not five, which would have two of his rounds unaccounted for. The AP’s report now says five. Based on the latest information from The Times, however, and a little math, it looks like stray police bullets are to blame for most, if not all of the injured bystanders.
Source](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9anbg7xee1r6m2leo1_1280.jpg)
