NYPD Food Felonies Unit to Help Make Better Food Choices



Inspired by the dramatic improvements in New Yorkers' health and well-being after he banned smoking and junk food, as well as large sodas, salt, trans fats, Styrofoam food containers, and loud earbuds, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that the NYPD is organizing a Food Felonies Unit (FFU) to further combat the proliferation of food crimes.
The Police Commission, which will directly oversee the Double-F-U operation, has already reassigned more than 150 officers from various precincts and equipped it with new public-health-enforcement technology, such as, hidden cameras and GPS tracking devices.
"We're used to this kind of work when it comes to drugs," said Patrick O'Brien, a spokesman for the New York Retired Police Syndicate. "The Commission has signaled it wants the best officers from the precincts' Narcotics Task Forces working on food cases. Trust me,” he declared, “they are going to be putting a lot of people in jail."
With the expected deluge of new arrests, the District Attorney's Office is also expected to reprioritize its caseloads to meet the flood of food felony charges that NYPD will be sending to them.
Other experts see the Double-F-U as a way to bring in much needed revenues through fines and penalties. Thus, a soda tap that dispenses 17 ounces of soda may lead, not as much to the arrest of a food vendor, as to a hefty fine that will help defray enforcement costs.
As local restaurateurs are hiring food law attorneys to help them navigate the new standards and regulations, the NYPD is retooling many of its old stand-by enforcement aids.
"They've already retrained several canine units to detect trans-fats in foods, which will save on lab costs," said O'Brien. "But they'll still have to use old-fashioned officer-led searches because the dogs can't smell the difference between 16oz. bottles and the illegal sizes."
While certain criticism is expected, many believe that Mayor Bloomberg's battle for the greater good is larger than one person's individual liberties.
Most New Yorkers agree agree that in a city which relies on restaurants and street vending for much of its food, additional scrutiny is only expected to improve the quality of their own dining choices.
"Oversight always makes things better," O'Brien says. "And restaurants are no different. The closer we watch 'em, the better they will perform to avoid bringing down the heat, so to speak."
Authorities are assuring New Yorkers that, while the Mayor's Double-F-U will be saving them from their unhealthy lifestyles, the skyrocketing health benefits are expected to save the public millions in treatment of preventable diseases.
"Once the people feel good about it, they will not give a damn about the government crackdown on illegal foods substances or the persecution of food criminals," said Shapiro. "New Yorkers value compliance so long as it makes them feel good."



Mayor Bloomberg: The Wizard of 16oz
And also this - author unknown...





Steve Zirnkilton: In the Bloomberg justice system, unhealthy eating violations are exceptionally heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these felonies are part of an elite squad known as the Double F-U. These are their stories.
LAW AND ORDER
FOOD FELONY UNIT
(ching ching!)

Back when I was boy there was a "hamburger joint" across the road from a cemetery called Palace of Poison. Sign in window had this legend in flashing neon lights, "Eat Here If It Kills You." It would have been such happy death. Any comrades visiting our Gateway Soviet should go to Carl's on Manchester Rd. in Rock Hill Prospekt. Is last Real "hamburger joint" we have left.




♫ they'll






A good beating with wooden batons and boot heels on their faces will disabuse these New Yorkers of their base desire to eat. They need to be re-educated. They need to be satisfied with the ration coupons for their weekly bags of brown rice, cigarette paper and soybeans for their intake of healthy food substances that are approved by the National Executive Food Dependency Committee headed by Comrades Matrona Waters of the Socialist People's Republic of Mexifornia and Bogdana Lee of the People's Gun Free Zone of Texas.





The Progressive Rage Boys respond to a New York Judge striking-down NYC Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sodas: Mayor Bloomberg declared the Judge's decision unconstitutional because "No soda container should be taller than I am." Al Gore also condemned the decision because "Large Carbonated Sodas Cause Global Warming," and President Obama cried, "Michelle will be OUTRAGED!"
--KOOK