Mayor Pugh defends police videos explaining Croton's policy of limited cooperation with immigration authorities
The videos, posted on the village's Facebook and Twitter pages, have gone viral and come under nasty attacks from all over the country and overseas.
This morning the Chronicle reported on, and editorialized in favor of, two videos posted by the Croton-on-Hudson police department that explain the force’s policy of limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities to strictly criminal contexts. That follows the village’s own policies on this subject, adopted back in 2017. The videos were posted on the village’s Twitter page and its Facebook page, in both English and Spanish.
Even by the time we published our editorial, the videos had attracted what might charitably be called virulent responses, many from individuals falsely convinced that Croton was planning to welcome criminals into the village. The comments included many attacks on Croton police and their chief.
The attacks have continued throughout the day, many of them using obscene sexual references to refer to our chief and village officials.
Mayor Pugh has now provided us with a statement in response to these reactions.
“The response to the Police Department’s PSA from villagers of all political persuasions has been overwhelmingly positive. Although extremists from outside our community (including overseas) have targeted our videos, residents know that the last thing we want is for someone to hesitate about calling the police because of national political controversies. Crotonites understand that our police are here to ensure the safety of all residents.
For that reason, I believe the PSA has been a success. On behalf of the community, I thank everyone that took part—especially our chief, our officers and our community members.”
Pugh affirmed that the videos will not be removed or re-edited in any way.
We will update this story as necessary.
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