Now-former Port Authority commissioner Caren Turner deserves every ounce of blowback she's gotten for the master class in pomposity, presumptuousness and bad parenting she put on in the police dash-cam video that forced her resignation from the bistate agency.
But as Turner, a Chris Christie-appointee, gets put through the wringer for her obnoxiousness _ and the, yes, wealthy white entitlement she embodies _ spare a moment to praise the Tenafly police officers who stood there like gentlemen and took the abuse.
Police Officer Matt Savitsky in particular was a picture of professionalism as he kept his cool and did his job, repelling Turner's attempted name-dropping and rank-pulling without escalating the confrontation.
Turner had been called to the roadside to pick up her grown daughter and three others in a vehicle being impounded for lapsed registration.
The 16-minute dashcam video is a rubbernecker's dream:
Turner _ who chaired the PA's ethics committee _ tries to cow Savitsky and his partner, Tom Casper, showing them her business card, flashing her PA badge and insisting they call her "commissioner."
She demands an explanation for the stop, even though she isn't entitled to one, and even though one had already been given to the adult driver of the car and his passengers, Turner's daughter included.
She strongly implies she deserves special treatment as a friend of the town mayor and someone who was "heading up over 4,000 police officers" (the Port Authority employs less than half that).
Most menacingly, she says there will be hell to pay for the refusal to bow to her wishes.
Rotten cherry on top, she throws around irrelevant associations with MIT and Yale, tossing in an F-bomb for good measure.
Through it all _ even when backed up against his vehicle by an irate woman demanding satisfaction _ Savitsky remains calm and polite but firm. He treats Turner with decency while refusing to bend one damn degree to her putrid displays of privilege.
Videos of cops behaving badly, especially when the civilians in question are black and brown men and women getting the short end of the stick, routinely go viral.
Here's hoping the world gives Savitsky and Casper a good, long moment in the sun.
