SEPTEMBER 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 13
THIS MONTH
CHIEFS URGE PUBLIC TO BACK UP COPS
Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President James McDermott. (Photo by Bruce Adler)
“When you look west, you see New York
City and a spike in crime that is due, in
large part, to Albany’s reckless policies
of releasing criminals back into our
communities,” he said. “Violent crime
is up significantly, shootings are up 177
percent, homicides are up 50 percent,
and Nassau County is right in their
backyard. Now, of all times, is not the
time to be calling for anything other
than full-fledged support for our cops
and emergency services, which is the
thin blue line preventing the spread
of this crime wave to Nassau and Long
Island.”
MEET DIGEROLAMO
Noel DiGerolamo, like McDermott, also
started his career in the NYPD, and
moved to the Suffolk County Police Department
nearly a quarter century ago.
Noel was born in Suffolk and has
spent most of his life living and
working in New York. In 1990, he
served with the 800th Military Police
Brigade during the Persian Gulf War
in Saudi Arabia. Upon his return,
Noel joined the NYPD in 1992 before
entering the Suffolk County Police
Department in 1995. In 1999, he was
elected to serve as a union delegate
before being elected to the Board of
Governors as the 1st Precinct Trustee
in November 2000. He was elected
vice president and then assumed the
role of president in 2012, after the
retirement of his predecessor.
DiGerolamo represents more than
2,500 active duty police officers in
the county, and is known as a powerful
force in policymaking and
politics on the Island. DiGerolamo
was named to the Long Island Press
Power List in 2019, and is a vocal
proponent of pro-law enforcement
and pro-public safety policies that
put law and order first.
“There has been much, extremely
rushed, pro-crime and pro-criminal
legislation passed in Albany in the
past two years,” said DiGerolamo. “Regardless
of their political affiliation,
dozens of state assembly members and
senators from Long Island — elected
by Long Island residents — were radicalized
by the unhinged left. Now,
with the repeal of our civil rights law,
known as 50-a, disastrous bail reform
which releases criminals back into our
community to again commit crime,
and this defund-the-police movement,
police officers are under attack, plain
and simple.”
Noel had a plea for Long Island’s
law-abiding citizens: “Call your legislators,
your state officials and your
members of Congress and tell them stop
the war on police.”
DiGerolamo often works both behind
the scenes, and through public channels,
to ensure the best for his members
and the communities they serve.
“A strong police force is good for the
public and bad for criminals,” continued
DiGerolamo. “Anti-police policies
not only hurt our officers and inhibit
them from doing their jobs, but also
allow crime to fester, violence to rise,
and law and order to be lost.”
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
