NY cops scolded for mocking pigeon called Fred at WTC Ground Zero

NY POST: CHAD RACHMAN FOWL BALL: A cop on duty at the 9/11 Memorial plaza yesterday is in the line of fire of Fred the pigeon, who has been pestering police

NEW York police were admonished for mocking a dive-bombing pigeon at Ground Zero after a bizarre battle between cops and the angry bird.

Fred, an unmistakable brown and orange pigeon, recently took up residence on a metal fence surrounding the World Trade Center’s memorial plaza — and has been dive-bombing cops stationed nearby ever since.

Fred’s antics have ruffled the feathers of the officers, who were caught jokingly mocking the bird this week. But it looks like the foul-tempered fowl will have the last laugh.

Someone ratted out the bird bullies to police higher-ups — and cops assigned to the World Trade Center site were admonished by superiors at their roll calls Thursday and Friday about hurting Fred’s feelings.

“Your appearance in public has to be professional,” a supervisor chided the cops at the First Precinct station house.

“We’re receiving complaints about police officers’ demeanor regarding a bird [at the WTC site],” the supervisor added. Officers manning the security system at the memorial have even been ordered to pore through surveillance tapes to try to root out the officers who laughed at the bird.

The fact that they have not had any luck finding the perpetrators so far has infuriated police brass even further.

One cop grumbled that from now on, “We were told that if we didn’t go easy on the bird, we would get in trouble.”

The plucky pigeon is said to hate other birds, aggressively chasing them from its territory. But it saves most of its anger for the officers, sources said.

“Either their uniforms or the hats seem to trigger its behavior,” one law-enforcement source laughed over the bizarre pecking order.

Another cop at the memorial said, “[Fred] has good days and bad days. He kinda looks at you sideways when he’s in a bad mood.”

Another cop insisted that the bird is not really at war with the police — he is just angry because they are supposed to ignore him now.

via NY cops scolded for mocking pigeon at Ground Zero | News.com.au.

This entry was posted on December 11, 2011 at 1:53 am and is filed under ANIMALS & NATURE, ODD, WORLD NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.