Angry blue horde packs courthouse

They waved signs, sported custom protest T-shirts, chanted against Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ridiculed the New York Police Department’s white-shirted top brass. It may sound like Zuccotti Park’s Occupy Wall Street protests, but it was the Bronx Criminal Court on Oct. 28 and the protesters were primarily cops.

Crowded into a packed courtroom, in the hallways of the courthouse and in a mass outside, Police Benevolent Association members and their supporters created a raucous scene as 21 people — including 16 Bronx officers and police union officials — were arraigned for a variety of charges related to a three-year-long ticket-fixing investigation.

Inside, a horde of large PBA officials blocked the entrance to the courtroom and set up their own rules — supported by officers of the court — for who should be allowed in and out. First, family of the suspects, then current and former PBA delegates and finally officers of the 48th Precinct, which had several men implicated in the scandal.

The off-duty officers physically blocked a Riverdale Press staffer when she tried to enter the public courtroom. One  court officer who would not give his name even threatened to arrest her, though what charge he would have pressed was unclear. 

Among those charged with crimes related to ticket fixing was Joseph Anthony, a PBA trustee and former 50th Precinct delegate, who may have helped retired police officer James Finnegan get preferential treatment after a January drunk driving stop in Kingsbridge.

Mr. Finnegan was among the current and former PBA delegates manning the courtroom’s door.

Outside the courthouse, cops wearing T-shirts that read, “Improving everyone’s quality of life but our own,” waved signs and chanted.

While it was clear how they felt about ticket fixing — one popular set of signs read “It’s a courtesy, not a crime”  — their feelings about Mayor Michael Bloomberg were a little more muddled.