A New Jersey police office
r went on a verbal tirade, saying police don't have to follow the Constitution because President Barack Obama doesn't either, and the tirade was taped.
In a video posted online, Richard Recine, a special police officer with the Helmetta Police Department, loses patience with Steve Wronko, who videotaped the rant.
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Story continues below video.
When Wronko asserts his constitutional right to record in a public place, the retired Franklin, N.J., officer explodes:
"Obama has decimated the friggin' Constitution, so I don't give a damn. Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution, we don't have to."
Wronko then turns to a person holding the camera to make sure the comment is recorded, and Recine repeats: "Our president has decimated the Constitution, then we don't have to."
Police Director Robert Manney called Recine's declaration "an embarrassment," the
Daily Record reported Wednesday.
Manney said an internal investigation will be wrapped up "very swiftly" because "the evidence is right there."
As a special officer, Recine works part-time at an hourly rate while collecting a $79,000 annual pension from the Franklin Police Department, from which he retired in 2006, the newspaper reports.
Collene Freda-Wronko told the newspaper that she and her husband were at the municipal building to file public-record requests regarding their campaign for reform at the borough animal shelter. She said police have ordered her husband not to shoot video at the animal shelter on two previous occasions.
"He was in our building and he got some of our employees upset," Manney told the newspaper. "They were worried because they've seen him before lurking around. In my opinion, he was looking for an issue."
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