The officer in the video, apologizing for his alleged remark. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman May 9, 2019

A New York City traffic cop is under scrutiny after he reportedly called a motorist a “stupid Jew” at an intersection in Manhattan on Tuesday, Yeshiva World News reported.

According to YWN, two Orthodox Jewish men were driving in East Midtown during rush hour when they tried to make a turn to get out of the lane they were in. The cop approached the car and said, “You can’t make a right turn, you stupid Jew.”

The driver then parked the car, while the passenger went to film himself asking the cop for his badge number. In the video on YWN’s site, the cop initially refuses to give his badge number and apologizes.

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“I didn’t mean what I said, I apologized to the other gentleman,” the cop says.

In an emailed statement to the Forward, a media relations officer for the New York Police Department wrote, “The incident is under review. There is no room for intolerance in NYPD.” The officer did not answer a question about whether the officer is being disciplined, or if he has a history of misconduct in any way.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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