The Eternal Excuse

Edward Dailey, 27, joined the FDNY last year, but after a few drinks at a 9/11 party with his brothers on the force, it felt like he'd been there when the towers came down. So when some Bangladeshi at some West Village newsstand started giving him some crap about a pack of gum, he knew he had to do his part.

In the end, the newsstand employee (Dailey claimed the fellow "looked like al Qaeda") had to get stitches to close up a gash in his arm after Dailey allegedly attacked him with a jagged chunk of broken plexiglass. Dailey was charged with felony assault and criminal mischief-though not with a hate crime. He claimed, as so many others have before him, that "9/11 made him do it," but was nevertheless suspended from the department for 30 days without pay.

-Sgt. Don Popadich