New York Police Officer Facing Termination After DWI

John Lewis of the Schenectady Police Force is facing termination after a DWI arrest on Saturday night. According to reports, police were called to the scene of an accident in a hospital parking lot. They were told of an intoxicated man who had left the hospital parking lot after crashing into another vehicle. Lewis was found and taken into custody for Aggravated Unlicensed Operation, Driving While Intoxicated, and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. He was held in jail without bond.

Reports say this is not the first time Mr. Lewis has been in trouble with the law. In fact, he was fired from the police force in 1998 for using a racial slur. It was ruled that he was fired without sufficient cause, and he was re-instated. From there, it seems Lewis’s problems only grew. He was arrested five times for a variety of crimes including but not limited to fourth degree criminal mischief, third degree stalking, second degree aggravated harassment, eavesdropping, and computer trespassing. He also received a DWI charge in December 2008 after a crash. Through all of this, Lewis has been suspended without pay and is now facing termination…..again.

We teach our kids to respect police officers. And we ourselves are supposed to respect them. How is it that someone like this could even be a part of a Police Department? How is someone who has been charged with crimes repeatedly supposed to go to work and protect our cities from the very crimes he’s being charged with? This current DWI arrest could have been prevented if an ignition interlock would have been mandatory for Lewis’s vehicle after his first DWI arrest. Or better yet, if they were mandatory on ALL vehicles, then even the chance of him getting behind the wheel of someone else’s car after drinking wouldn’t exist.