Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Vincent Vallelong | President of the Sergeant's Benevolent Association | 07-02-26
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So let me get to Vincent Vallalong, who remains the
- 0:03Speaker 1: president of the Sergeants Benelevant Association. He elected again to
- 0:08Speaker 1: be their president. So congratulations, he's a great guy, great cop.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Congratulations then, and something tells me you agree with Frank
- 0:16Speaker 1: Morano that at the very best, at the very best,
- 0:21Speaker 1: this mayor is a liar.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Yes, he's more than a liar. He's he's a deceitful individual.
- 0:29Speaker 3: Wow.
- 0:30Speaker 2: And it's and it seems as if that he's pulled
- 0:32Speaker 2: the rug over every out from everybody, every city council
- 0:35Speaker 2: member with regards to this budget, and if he did
- 0:39Speaker 2: it with the cops at the last minute, the real
- 0:42Speaker 2: big question should be right now is you know what
- 0:45Speaker 2: else is hidden inside this budget that they did not
- 0:47Speaker 2: look at? Were they asleep at the wheel when they
- 0:50Speaker 2: were supposed to be doing their jobs? And if they
- 0:52Speaker 2: let him do this, who is who he is? Considered
- 0:55Speaker 2: technically a neophyte in this position, you know, if they
- 0:58Speaker 2: let if the senior people let him this, you know,
- 1:02Speaker 2: I hold them accountable, you know, every single one of them.
- 1:06Speaker 2: There are ones that are standing up and screaming and yelling.
- 1:08Speaker 2: That's all well and fine, but what this budget did
- 1:12Speaker 2: was make every single New Yorker a lot less safe.
- 1:16Speaker 1: I mean when you say a lot less safe, because
- 1:19Speaker 1: I do talk to Jessica's you know, Tish, He's a
- 1:21Speaker 1: good fund, very good fun.
- 1:22Speaker 3: We're very close, you know one right, No, I know
- 1:25Speaker 3: you're not.
- 1:26Speaker 1: But when Eric Adams left, there was like thirty one
- 1:29Speaker 1: thousand cops. Eric Adams did not go out of his
- 1:33Speaker 1: way to hire more cops. You understand that now, unless
- 1:36Speaker 1: somebody is lying to me, I believe right now there's
- 1:39Speaker 1: about thirty four thousand. But I'm also aware that about
- 1:43Speaker 1: three or four thousand are about to walk out, and
- 1:45Speaker 1: I have no idea how many are going to walk in.
- 1:48Speaker 3: I get, I get all that. But in this budget, as.
- 1:51Speaker 1: Far as I know, Vince, they're only going to add
- 1:55Speaker 1: five hundred and eighty cops, not five thousand, not ten thousand,
- 1:59Speaker 1: five hundred. I know they wanted a fifth firefighter as well.
- 2:03Speaker 1: Now I'm not okay, not dting one cop, not aating one,
- 2:06Speaker 1: let alone almost six hundred, but it was five hundred
- 2:10Speaker 1: and eighty rot not five thousand.
- 2:14Speaker 2: If you do not promote, if you do not make
- 2:16Speaker 2: police officers, you cannot make supervisors. And when all of
- 2:20Speaker 2: the top minds of this job are leaving in retirement.
- 2:25Speaker 2: Who is to hand down that knowledge to the younger guys.
- 2:27Speaker 2: You are now a year behind in hiring people, which
- 2:31Speaker 2: is in essence what it is that's going to be done.
- 2:34Speaker 2: Five eighty was really was really a minimal number. I mean,
- 2:36Speaker 2: they need a lot more than that. Everybody knows that.
- 2:38Speaker 2: We can say thirty four thousand, we can say thirty
- 2:40Speaker 2: five thousand, but the reality of it is, we need
- 2:44Speaker 2: boots on the ground, We need the cops. The cops
- 2:47Speaker 2: are burning the candle at both ends. They are exhausted,
- 2:51Speaker 2: they're doing all they're doing these extended tours, you know.
- 2:54Speaker 2: And yet listen, that's part of our job. And I
- 2:56Speaker 2: get it, and I'm not crying about that, but where's
- 2:59Speaker 2: the reinforced When are they coming? Because you know what
- 3:02Speaker 2: they're not. And he ran on defunding the police. That
- 3:06Speaker 2: is what it is he is doing. You can give
- 3:08Speaker 2: me all the political bs you want, okay, but that
- 3:11Speaker 2: is exactly what this is here. And he told everybody
- 3:14Speaker 2: he was putting the minimum amount of police officers in
- 3:17Speaker 2: and then totally stabbed every single one of them in
- 3:20Speaker 2: the back and pulled it out of the budget.
- 3:22Speaker 1: He did mean and you know what he did, Vince hiss,
- 3:25Speaker 1: son of a bitch, because you know, nobody hates this
- 3:26Speaker 1: guy more than I do, having your right there with me.
- 3:28Speaker 1: But he did it, according to Frank and others like
- 3:32Speaker 1: Midnight a couple of nights ago, why did he do that?
- 3:34Speaker 1: Because at that point it was too late, it was
- 3:37Speaker 1: too late for the city council members to come back
- 3:41Speaker 1: and do something about it.
- 3:42Speaker 2: So listen, I don't have I don't have a personal
- 3:45Speaker 2: problem with the speaker, Okay, So I just want to
- 3:48Speaker 2: get that out there right away.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Well when you guy, well you even you even have
- 3:51Speaker 1: correct me if I'm long. You're on the show a
- 3:53Speaker 1: couple of months ago. You even at one point Levy
- 3:55Speaker 1: a lawsuit against Tulie men and right.
- 3:57Speaker 2: Well, I filed an ethics complaint, right right, right, So,
- 4:01Speaker 2: but but you know, if I have to be the
- 4:04Speaker 2: watchdog and I'm a I'm a cop, you know what
- 4:06Speaker 2: is everybody else doing when they're watching all of this
- 4:08Speaker 2: stuff happen. You know, they're going after the likes of
- 4:12Speaker 2: of of of Vicki Palladino, right and and but but
- 4:16Speaker 2: they're they're held to a different standard. You know, she's
- 4:20Speaker 2: in that position to be the counter to the mayor.
- 4:24Speaker 2: And as far as I'm concerned, she even if she
- 4:27Speaker 2: got it the last minute, she could have she could
- 4:29Speaker 2: have paused this. They didn't have to have that budget
- 4:31Speaker 2: done immediately. She could have paused it and said, you
- 4:34Speaker 2: know what, Nope, we're not taking this to a vote.
- 4:35Speaker 2: You know, we're we're gonna we're gonna bring everybody back
- 4:37Speaker 2: in and we're going to look through this whole entire budget.
- 4:40Speaker 2: She's the checks and balances, and she did not do
- 4:42Speaker 2: her job, is the way I see it.
- 4:44Speaker 3: So you're placing blame on Julie Mennon on this.
- 4:47Speaker 2: I'm placing blame on the whole city council. I'm not
- 4:50Speaker 2: placing blame on on one individual. But she is she's
- 4:52Speaker 2: the she's the sheriff in town. She's supposed to be
- 4:55Speaker 2: the one that's supposed to keep everybody in line.
- 4:57Speaker 1: So, Benny, tell me this, how many cops are set
- 4:59Speaker 1: to walk out this year? And some of these guys
- 5:02Speaker 1: cut me if I'm wrong. It's gotten so bad in
- 5:04Speaker 1: this city. We all know you're not making millions, okay,
- 5:08Speaker 1: and you get no respect from the mayor and the
- 5:10Speaker 1: rest of these lunatics in and around him, and about
- 5:13Speaker 1: forty five of the fifty one council members don't give
- 5:17Speaker 1: a ratsass about you guys. So the cops know it.
- 5:21Speaker 1: So a lot of these guys are walking out even before,
- 5:24Speaker 1: even before they get their pensions. How many cops do
- 5:27Speaker 1: you expect to walk out by the.
- 5:28Speaker 3: End of the year.
- 5:29Speaker 2: I think I can give you what it is in
- 5:31Speaker 2: my rank. Okay, And just an example, this month, we
- 5:35Speaker 2: had thirty five people promoted to sergeant. You had twenty
- 5:38Speaker 2: people promoted to lieutenant. Now this is basic math. That
- 5:41Speaker 2: leaves me with fifteen extra supervisors for the whole entire city.
- 5:45Speaker 2: And then you had eighty one sergeants right now in
- 5:47Speaker 2: rank that filed for retirement. That leaves us at a
- 5:51Speaker 2: negative sixty six. Wow. Where are you making those numbers
- 5:55Speaker 2: up within this next year? Where you want to put
- 5:57Speaker 2: basically a hiring freeze on everybody?
- 6:00Speaker 3: Wow?
- 6:00Speaker 2: That and sid that comes at a cost to the
- 6:04Speaker 2: citizens of this of this city. You know, the people,
- 6:08Speaker 2: the people that are putting money into the city are
- 6:10Speaker 2: expecting a product and they're not getting that product. You
- 6:13Speaker 2: can give away all the free stuff you want, you know,
- 6:15Speaker 2: and You could either put a freeze on housing and
- 6:17Speaker 2: everything else, but at the end of the day, you
- 6:19Speaker 2: can't put a freeze on violent crimes.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Tell me about the morale with the sergeants. I don't
- 6:25Speaker 1: expect you to tell me the morale for the whole
- 6:27Speaker 1: police department. I'll talk to Jessica about that, and I'll
- 6:29Speaker 1: talk to Scott Monroe about the detectives. But in terms
- 6:33Speaker 1: of the sergeants, everybody I talks to talk to says
- 6:35Speaker 1: to me, the morale with the police is way down,
- 6:39Speaker 1: way down, every rank, every file, just about every cop
- 6:44Speaker 1: in the city not exactly walking around feeling great.
- 6:48Speaker 3: What is the truth about the morale with your people?
- 6:51Speaker 2: You have a lot, you have a lot more work
- 6:53Speaker 2: being dumped on these guys. You have ask your desk officers,
- 6:56Speaker 2: just as an example, have absolutely more responsibility, more more
- 7:01Speaker 2: of paper in order to push across the desk, you know,
- 7:03Speaker 2: and less people to help them out to do it. So,
- 7:06Speaker 2: how do you think morale is going to be When
- 7:07Speaker 2: you're doing some somewhere between ten hour twelve hours tour,
- 7:10Speaker 2: you know you're exhausted, you're doing them day after day,
- 7:13Speaker 2: and then you know you're expected to do more work,
- 7:16Speaker 2: and then someone's going to come in and they're going
- 7:17Speaker 2: to they're actually going to give you a command discipline,
- 7:21Speaker 2: which is like a complaint on you know, because you
- 7:22Speaker 2: didn't do your job. You know, there's no room forever,
- 7:26Speaker 2: it seems, you know. And the littlest thing that happens,
- 7:29Speaker 2: these guys are afraid that they're going to get you
- 7:30Speaker 2: the transfer, they're gonna get in trouble.
- 7:32Speaker 1: We saw that a couple of months ago with that
- 7:35Speaker 1: one cop who was being critical of the Democrats, and
- 7:39Speaker 1: he got transferred like that night, I think.
- 7:42Speaker 3: And then what's going on with Eric Drain. What's the
- 7:44Speaker 3: latest with that.
- 7:45Speaker 2: I spoke with him the other day. His spirits are good.
- 7:50Speaker 2: We've we've been raising money for his legal defense still
- 7:54Speaker 2: and you know, listen, author I Donald is doing a
- 7:56Speaker 2: great job with him. You know, the best thing to
- 7:59Speaker 2: do is just keep Eric's spirits up, you know, until
- 8:01Speaker 2: the trial's going along. I mean not the trial, but
- 8:03Speaker 2: they're preparing their appeal. And until that happens, you know,
- 8:07Speaker 2: we won't have a decision. But you know, he's home
- 8:08Speaker 2: with his family and he's having you know, he's enjoying
- 8:11Speaker 2: the time with them. You know, it's very precious.
- 8:12Speaker 1: Then Vincent Valalang is the SBA president in all transparency,
- 8:17Speaker 1: he's also a good friend of mine. Then tell me
- 8:20Speaker 1: how you get young kids to want to be cops
- 8:24Speaker 1: in this city, because at least on this show, almost
- 8:28Speaker 1: every conversation is bad.
- 8:31Speaker 3: It's bad.
- 8:31Speaker 1: You know, the mayor hates us and hate you guys,
- 8:34Speaker 1: and plenty of other officials hate you as well, and
- 8:37Speaker 1: you're down on the city council speaker, and you know,
- 8:41Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem like it's a very attractive job
- 8:44Speaker 1: these days. How do you, guys, the veterans who have
- 8:47Speaker 1: lived and breathed this job your whole lives, how do
- 8:51Speaker 1: you guys get young kids motivated to want this job.
- 8:57Speaker 2: You tell them about the experiences that you had. You
- 9:01Speaker 2: need to show them that there is a light at
- 9:03Speaker 2: the end of the tunnel with this and what you're
- 9:05Speaker 2: doing is actually is actually good for the people that
- 9:09Speaker 2: you protect day in and day out. I know that's
- 9:11Speaker 2: you know, it seems a little like a cliche, but
- 9:13Speaker 2: you know, I didn't have to grab my son by
- 9:16Speaker 2: the ear and make him take this job. I have
- 9:18Speaker 2: four kids. I could one of them became a cop,
- 9:21Speaker 2: you know, And you know, in today's day and age,
- 9:24Speaker 2: everyone says, oh, well, you know, you know why why
- 9:26Speaker 2: you're putting them in this job? You know no one
- 9:27Speaker 2: wants it. Well, there's a problem with that when no
- 9:29Speaker 2: one wants it, you know, when you're bringing young kids
- 9:32Speaker 2: into a job and making them work tireless hours over
- 9:35Speaker 2: and over again, and there is not enough people to
- 9:37Speaker 2: handle these jobs. Of course you're going to be down
- 9:40Speaker 2: on what it is you do. But this is the
- 9:42Speaker 2: greatest city in the world. You know, it should sell itself.
- 9:46Speaker 2: We shouldn't be having these politicians that create like this,
- 9:49Speaker 2: this gloom and doom or you know that they force
- 9:52Speaker 2: feed their politics down your throat. How do you get
- 9:54Speaker 2: them to take the job? You know what, again, you
- 9:56Speaker 2: have to tell them it is really it's a great
- 10:00Speaker 2: job to raise a family with. You know, at the
- 10:03Speaker 2: end of the day you get to you know, it's
- 10:05Speaker 2: enough money for you to put your kids through school. Yes,
- 10:08Speaker 2: you have to sometimes take a second job, but you know,
- 10:10Speaker 2: that's that's reality. That's that's what life is. And but
- 10:13Speaker 2: I will tell you this before before we go off
- 10:16Speaker 2: at some point, congratulations on your Hall of fame. Thank you,
- 10:20Speaker 2: And I also set my temperature to sixty three.
- 10:22Speaker 3: Ah, good for you, f the mayor seventy eight degrees?
- 10:25Speaker 3: What is he nuts? Last one?
- 10:28Speaker 1: I remember when he won and you are riding op
- 10:31Speaker 1: eds and coming into the studio with me, and you
- 10:33Speaker 1: were hesitant to really kill him, you know you, I
- 10:36Speaker 1: know you hated him, but but maybe I shouldn't say that,
- 10:40Speaker 1: but that's how I felt. But you're wanting to give
- 10:42Speaker 1: the guy a chance. Do you realize it's only been
- 10:46Speaker 1: seven months, seven months of a four year term, and
- 10:50Speaker 1: he's already campaigning and planning for the next four And
- 10:55Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but Dave Portnoy and Curtis Sliewa, they're not
- 10:58Speaker 1: beating Mamdani all. It looks like he maybe you should
- 11:01Speaker 1: win to win again seven months? Is he as bad?
- 11:06Speaker 1: Not as bad? Worse than you thought when he won
- 11:10Speaker 1: back in January?
- 11:11Speaker 2: There is nothing that sells be on him being a
- 11:15Speaker 2: true leader of the city. You can't balance a budget.
- 11:18Speaker 2: When you do balance a budget, it's supposed to be
- 11:20Speaker 2: a correcting past spending and moving forward, not dumping, not
- 11:25Speaker 2: not raising money as someplace else, or getting getting freebies
- 11:28Speaker 2: from a governor and then turning that over and giving
- 11:31Speaker 2: them out to people who bring nothing back into the
- 11:33Speaker 2: tax space. You know, do I have any faith in him?
- 11:36Speaker 2: I'd like to, but you're seven months in, I have
- 11:40Speaker 2: absolutely none.
- 11:42Speaker 1: And in terms of the way he's treated the comps,
- 11:44Speaker 1: like you said, he campaigned on defunding the police, he's
- 11:46Speaker 1: really doing that.
- 11:47Speaker 2: He really is, right, it's my understanding. You know, he's
- 11:52Speaker 2: a nice guy when he talked to him, but you know,
- 11:53Speaker 2: I haven't talked to him seven months in. He doesn't
- 11:55Speaker 2: want he doesn't really care about what the opinion is
- 11:57Speaker 2: of the people who are actually doing this job day
- 11:59Speaker 2: in the day out. So how do I have any
- 12:02Speaker 2: respects for someone who doesn't care what it is that
- 12:04Speaker 2: I actually do. But he's making decisions on what it is.
- 12:07Speaker 2: You know.
- 12:07Speaker 3: That's the bottom line, Vinny.
- 12:08Speaker 1: I love your congratulations on again being the president of
- 12:12Speaker 1: the SBA. Couldn't think of a better guy for that job.
- 12:15Speaker 1: You know, an amazing man, a great cop. And New
- 12:18Speaker 1: Yorkers love you. They don't love Mam Donnia and know
- 12:20Speaker 1: he won. I know he won, but trust me what
- 12:22Speaker 1: I tell you, the majority of New Yorkers don't love
- 12:24Speaker 1: this guy.
- 12:25Speaker 3: But they love you. Thank you, Vinny, Thanks Si, God
- 12:27Speaker 3: bless you.
- 12:28Speaker 1: Vincent Valalog right there, the president of the SBA, and he's.
- 12:32Speaker 3: Pissed and he should be pissed.
- 12:34Speaker 1: He's pissed at Julie Mennin, He's pissed at the City Council,
- 12:37Speaker 1: he's pissed at Mom Donnie. I'm sure he's pissed at
- 12:40Speaker 1: a couple of big wigs in the NYPD as well,
- 12:43Speaker 1: because yes, in this one hundred and twenty six billion
- 12:47Speaker 1: dollar budget, one hundred and twenty six billion dollar budget,
- 12:53Speaker 1: he couldn't find a way to add one cop, not
- 12:57Speaker 1: one or that fifth firefighter. Disgraceful. Shame on you, mister Mayor.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Shame on you, mister Mayor.
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- 13:35Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder what the heck
- 13:38Speaker 3: Is going on here.