Last week, a remarkable discussion about criminal justice policy, judicial discretion and social media etiquette was sparked when the New York City Police Department’s Chief of Patrol, John Chell, authored a post on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) about the arrest of a 64-year-old man named Rudell Faulkner.
Chell’s post began with the phrase “If everyone does their job.” He then offered Faulkner’s case as an example of “why NYC is battling the perception/reality of crime.” Faulkner, Chell explained, has a long history of “preying on New Yorkers in our transit system and in our streets.” And he had just been arrested again, after jumping a turnstile while in possession of “felony narcotics.”
