New York Daily News

Cops fume over squad car pot vid

- BY THOMAS TRACY

Respect for the NYPD may be going up in smoke.

A video posted Friday on Instagram shows two men brazenly divvying up a quantity of marijuana on the back of an NYPD patrol car — the third video posted in the last week of police being disrespect­ed while on the job.

The video, taken in July at the Bushwick playground on Knickerboc­ker Ave. in Brooklyn, shows a man putting a digital scale atop the cruiser’s trunk and weighing the weed while the other records.

“You, you want an eighth?” one man asks the other as a cigarette dangles out of his mouth.

They discuss how many grams of weed they are splitting before the short clip ends.

The patrol car from the 83rd Precinct appears to be parked and unoccupied.

No police officers are seen in the video — although some cops say the disrespect for the NYPD is palpable.

“This is an all-time low,” said a high-ranking NYPD officer who saw the video. “The department has to step up now. They’re selling drugs on the back of a police car!”

Another police official said the video was most likely recorded when the cops assigned to the cruiser were out of the vehicle on a job.

The video was posted on the Instagram site New York City Uncut.

David Jiminez, who was given video credit, said the clip was recorded “for laughs” and was in no way meant to disrespect cops.

“Someone was killed in the park a few days prior and everyone was uptight about it, so I thought it would be a good way to break the ice,” he said.

Jimenez said he believed the NYPD left the unoccupied squad car at the park as a deterrent.

“I wasn’t disrespect­ing anyone. I appreciate everything the NYPD does for the good of the community,” Jimenez said.

No money was exchanged in the video, so it wasn’t a criminal act, Jiminez noted.

An NYPD spokesman said the incident is “under investigat­ion.”

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