Joe Harker
An NYPD detective decided to mark his retirement by giving his department the finger on the way out.
When leaving a job after 20 years a lot of people probably feel like flipping everyone off on the way out – and Thomas Gambardella did just that on his way out of the NYPD.
The newly retired detective sergeant is one of the more than 2,000 officers who have quit the NYPD this year, the New York Post reports, with more than a thousand retiring and hundreds resigning.
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While he said he 'loved everyone I worked with' and 'some of the people I worked for', he proclaimed on Facebook that he was glad to be leaving 'this sorry excuse for a s**t job'.
Describing himself as a 'true believer' when he started as an officer in 2002, Gambardella shared pictures of himself flipping off a memorial statue after his retirement party.
Gambardella blamed 'soft on crime' policies and the NYPD's control over so many aspects of his life on his decision to stop being a cop.
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He said: "It’s the worst f*****g job in the world.
"They own you. They’re not your friends. All that talk about the 'big blue family'. They don’t care. If I die tomorrow they wouldn’t give a s**t."
"If I needed something it ain’t gonna happen. I’m better off just saying a prayer."
He also said he was 'disgusted' by what he saw as a growing hostile attitude towards police along with calls to defund the police and crackdowns on what officers were allowed to do while on duty.
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There has been some backlash to Gambardella after he made his dramatic exit, with some of his former colleagues upset at his disrespect on his way out.
Some of his fellow officers were also upset that he chose to get a photo of himself showing the finger to a statue which depicts a police officer standing with the child of a dead cop.
The Post reports that some NYPD staff said they were 'stung and angered' to see Gambardella insulting the statue.
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Claiming he has 'diarrhea of the mouth', Gambardella said 'liberalism is obviously a failure' and blamed it for the reasons behind so many officers quitting.
He was also pictured wearing a 'Let's Go Brandon' T-shirt in his leaving photos, which is a popular phrase among Trump supporters that spawned from a NASCAR crowd shouting 'f**k Joe Biden'.
The NYPD's deputy commissioner John Miller released a statement on the officer's retirement which said: "Understanding that in life, you get out what you give, and that at the end of any career a graceful exit is important, I’m interpreting the sergeants hand gesture to say he still thinks the NYPD is number one."
UNILAD has reached out to Thomas Gambardella for comment.
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