Learn From The Masters

Reverend Sharpton and Mayor Bloomberg show us how it’s done:

It was an odd moment in the aftermath of the police shooting of Sean Bell: the Rev. Al Sharpton posing with Mayor Bloomberg before TV cameras at a City Hall press conference but then bolting before the first word was uttered.

Bloomberg explained Sharpton’s hasty departure Monday by saying the reverend had to rush to a meeting with the victim’s family.

In fact, Sharpton hadn’t wanted to attend the press conference at all — but was persuaded by the mayor to put in a brief appearance, sources said.

With Sharpton at his side, Bloomberg could demonstrate that he had reached out to the most fiery critic of the NYPD.

But by leaving early, Sharpton avoided putting himself in an awkward situation where he might have to publicly disagree with the mayor, whom some had expected to defend the police.

Two-Drink Limit?

Undercover police officers working in nightclubs are under strict orders to adhere to a two-drink limit:

It is an upside-down kind of police work, the opposite of the men and women in blue on sunny streets. There is no uniform, and often no gun, no badge, no bulletproof vest, no radio car with lights and sirens. Instead, officers drive rental cars and are armed with city-issued money and a two-drink limit.

Undercover police work in the city’s nightclubs is a dangerous and vulnerable assignment, the sort of work assigned to the new citywide Club Enforcement Initiative. That unit is under new scrutiny after a police shooting outside a Queens strip club shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday.

According to the police, five officers on the club detail shot into the men’s Nissan Altima, killing a bridegroom and wounding two of his friends. The officers fired 50 rounds, the police said, after the men struck an officer with the car and twice slammed it into an unmarked police van. Officials have said the officers believed there was a gun in the car, but none was found.

Wait, wait — what’s that about a “two-drink limit”?

The officers are allowed two drinks. “We authorize them to have two drinks, and no more,” Mr. Kelly said at a news conference. “This initiative started at one in the morning, so they were there for three hours.”

To abstain from or refuse alcohol, said those familiar with the unit’s tactics, could conceivably tip off other patrons that an undercover operation is taking place.

. . .

At least one of the two undercover officers inside the bar had had two beers between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., Commissioner Kelly said. That officer was one of the two who did not fire in the shooting. Five officers from the team of seven fired at the Altima. One officer with 12 years of experience fired 31 rounds.

The other undercover officer fired the first shots. Those familiar with that officer’s account have said he believed the men were armed. It is unclear if that officer drank in the club. The police have not yet been able to question him while the Queens district attorney conducts an investigation, Mr. Kelly said.

A commanding officer found all the officers fit for duty — meaning they showed no signs of being impaired by alcohol — during the operation outside Club Kalua in Jamaica, the police said.

Time Was, You Could Innocently Brush Up Against Your Student’s Breast

Urban students lack even a basic understanding of science, perhaps due in part to fewer (and less!) hands-on learning opportunities:

A physics demonstration landed a Queens teacher a suspension from his job and he now faces allegations of improperly touching a student.

Teacher Leonard Brown says he’s done the demonstration on Newton’s Third Law of Motion in countless physics classes in an 18-year teaching career. But when he called a female student to the front of his class at Benjamin Cardozo High School on Nov. 15 to help illustrate that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, he got a reaction he didn’t expect.

He asked the student — from Cardozo’s elite Da Vinci Math Science Institute — to hold her hands up against his and lean against his hands with all of her weight, he said. He also put his hands on her shoulders before the demonstration.

Brown said he heard the girl claimed he touched her breast during the process — an allegation he denies.

“Assuming I wasn’t moral and ethical, I’m not stupid,” he said. “Do they think I’d be stupid enough to molest a girl in front of 34 witnesses? To me, this is absolutely insane.”

He was yanked from his classroom on Nov. 16, he said. Special schools investigator Richard Condon requested Brown’s removal from the classroom until the investigation is complete.

Kids — so touchy these days!

If Offered, I Won’t Take The Money I Didn’t Ask For

Councilmember Tony Avella won’t take the pay raise the Council voted itself. Something about “principle”:

After denouncing a recent pay hike for his colleagues, Queens Councilman Tony Avella said yesterday he won’t accept the $22,500 raise to his current $90,000 salary.

“For me this was a matter of principle, and I believe in putting my money where I put my mouth,” he said.

But he admits, “My wife isn’t too happy.

Previously, the maverick Democrat had said he was considering accepting the raise but donating the money to charity. Had he done that, he could have boosted his tax deduction for charitable contributions and also hiked the eventual value of his pension, which is pegged on gross earnings.

I don’t get it — what’s the point of grandstanding then?

Between Simpler Transfer Or Fancy Roof, I Want The Roof!

The architecturally ambitious street-level structure at the proposed Fulton Street Transit Center is reduced to a mere “fancy roof” by MTA board members upset at the lack of funds for — I guess — more useful features:

The long-delayed and overbudget Fulton Transit Center is slated to have a 20-foot-tall glass dome, envisioned as a beacon to travelers and symbol of post-9/11 renewal.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority doesn’t have the funds for an underground passageway that would provide faster, and simpler, transfers among several subway lines, an official said at an MTA committee meeting.

“I won’t support a project like this that’s going to discombobulate tens of thousands of daily riders every single day because you want a fancy roof,” veteran board member Barry Feinstein said in a rare burst of anger.

The Fulton Transit Center will replace the confusing and antiquated Fulton St./Broadway Nassau complex where trains on nine lines — the A, C, J, M, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — now stop.

. . .

The passageway that critics say is missing from current plans is a north-south underground “connector” passageway between the R/W Cortlandt St. station and the E train terminal at the northern edge of the Trade Center site.

Without it, riders looking to take the Broadway or the E lines would have two options: Go up to the streets and brave the elements, or take a more circuitous underground route through the PATH station.

Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA’s Capital Construction Co., said his engineers would search for solutions, but he said money is tight.