Yahoo News NYC health commissioner publicly apologises to NYPD for ‘two rats asses’ remark
New York city‘s health commissioner has apologised for saying “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops”, when she was asked to provide face masks for the New York Police Department (NYPD), at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Oxiris Barbot publicly apologised on Monday, after the New York Post released audio from her phone call with NYPD chief of department, Terence Monahan, where she made the comment.
In March, she told Mr Monahan: “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops.” When he asked for masks to be provided to his force, she responded: “I need them for others.”
In her statement on Monday, Ms Barbot praised the police department.
“The members of the NYPD fight valiantly every day to keep New Yorkers safe,” she said.
Ms Barbot added that her conversation with the chief of department occurred when levels of personal protective equipment in New York were very low, amid the height of the outbreak.
“In mid-March, I was asked to provide the NYPD with a half million N-95 masks, while masks and other PPE were in terribly short supply,” Ms Barbot said.
She confirmed that her team were able to supply some masks to the NYPD, but not as many as Mr Monahan had requested.
“I wished we had sufficient numbers to meet their full request and were ultimately able to partially fulfil what was sought,” she said.
The health commissioner said she apologised to Mr Monahan when the incident occurred, but felt like she still needed to comment publicly to the entire police force.
“This regrettably led to an argument in which words were exchanged between a police official and myself. I apologised to that police official then,” she said.
“Today, I apologise to the NYPD for leaving any impression whatsoever that I don’t have utmost respect for our police department, which plays a critical role on the front lines each and every day to keep our city safe,” Ms Barbot added.
According to Google’s dedicated coronavirus page, New York state has more than 350,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 22,619 deaths.
According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 1.4 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 89,666.
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