New York auxiliary police officers are unhappy about the Feb. 13 episode of “Law and Order,” in which an auxiliary officer fired a bullet into a crowd of protesters, killing a woman, the New York Times reports. The character was prosecuted and convicted of second-degree murder and attempted murder. The episode provoked a bitter protest from the ranks of the city's 4,500 authentic auxiliaries. Real-life auxiliary officers, while they do carry nightsticks, are not issued firearms.
The auxiliary officer's character was dubbed a “wannabe” police officer and not a “real cop.” “That's the part that gets us,” said Auxiliary Police Officer Michael Stewart. Paul Browne, chief police department spokesman, said the “Law & Order” plot “certainly was a departure from reality.” Audrey Davis, a spokeswoman for the show, said, ” 'Law & Order' is fiction. These are not real stories. We are not saying an auxiliary cop, in real life, shot someone.”
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/nyregion/21auxiliary.html?ref=nyregion