Late last night the Senate approved a bill exempting retired police from certain provisions of the SAFE Act:
“… Republican Sen. Marty Golden, a retired NYPD officer from Brooklyn, said the change would affect 200,000 people around the state. “After working 20 years or 30 years as a police officer, or a peace officer, or as a federal officer, they encounter people when they are with their families and when they are in their communities, and they act appropriately,” he said. “They’re not a separate class of people, ladies and gentleman, but they are an experience class of people. … They know how to deal with the criminal element, so if anybody deserves to have a 10-round magazine” it is them …”
They’re doing this hoping to get the police unions off their backs. What it will likely do is inflame an already seriously pissed off public, especially with Golden’s statement. Since Dean Skelos has to know he’s dug himself and the Senate Republicans into a deep hole over their original SAFE vote, I guess he figures that since they can’t climb out, why not keep on digging?