One YouTube video may do more to improve the image of New York City police officers in the LGBT community than all the positive press releases ever written.
The cop Bruno Mars called for in Uptown Funk? Found him!
This viral video shows one of New York's Finest accepting an invitation to briefly dance with one of the Pride attendees on Sunday. As of Tuesday morning it had been viewed more than 2.2 million times.
As Time magazine reported, most NYC cops remained stoic as they stood guard at the parade, but this one officer "went above the call of duty. Way above."
Sadly, the officer's identity is still unknown. The Advocate reached out to the NYPD for more information (and, ummm, a phone number maybe?), and we're still waiting.
Time reported the clip was posted by Paige Ponzeka, a member of an LGBT softball league. One of Ponzeka's fellow marchers, Aaron Santis, told BuzzFeed that he'd been unsuccesful in finding cops to dance with him all day.
Finally, he found Gay Pride Cop, as Gothamist dubbed the officer.
"I didn't expect him to get into it as much as he did," Santis told BuzzFeed. "The crowd just loved it and I think it made him want to dance more." He added: "It was such a fun moment. He was such a good sport and I'm so glad he decided to dance."
Gothamist concluded: "sometimes it's possible to step back and appreciate how much has changed for the better since police raided the Stonewall Inn, sparking riots and a national gay rights movement. This is the kind of community policing NYC could use more of."
And we echo their suggestion that somebody needs to shoot a music video with Gay Pride Cop to help recruit the NYPD of the future.
Watch the video below from YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Hl972jf8cs4
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