Scott Collins– an Albany union organizer with SEIU Local 200 United — is under fire for comments he made on social media showing support for a felon armed carjacking suspect who shot two officers as they approached him.
Troy police officers Joshua Comitale and Chad Klein were injured during a shootout with a suspect, while they were responding to an attempted armed carjacking Saturday night in Lansingburgh, NY.
Police say 39-year-old Thaddeus Faison was spotted in the area shortly after cops received the call. A short chase ensued on foot and that’s when police say Faison shot Klein in the shoulder, “at point-blank range” and struck Comitale multiple times in the legs.
The suspect, who was described by the police chief as “very violent,” was a career criminal. According to the Dept. of Corrections, Faison served “two stretches in state prison between 1999 and 2010 for weapons possession and drug sales and was returned twice for parole violations.”
Many people in the community outside Albany turned to social media to commend the officers for their heroic actions, and for getting Faison off the streets, according to the Daily Caller.
But Collins decided to denounce them instead. Collins was apparently upset by a tweet from Democratic mayoral candidate Rodney Wiltshire which read, “Please say prayers for our officers who were just shot in the line of duty.”
Collins’ odd and forceful response to Wiltshire’s tweet was this: “AND FOR THE SUSPECT TOO, FFS.”
Wonder if @seiu200united knows or cares that their hooligan supports criminals instead of unionized police officers. pic.twitter.com/r2tvTKCmud
— Harry Tutunjian (@Harry4Troy) August 23, 2015
Collins, who has reportedly been active in past anti-police rallies, also tweeted these remarks: “While the reactionaries vie for who loves the cops the most, my thoughts lie with Thaddeus’ family – he is more than the sum of his mistakes.”
The union organizer went on to write that the police officers were to blame for the shooting incident because, “Up until Klein and Comatile showed, everyone was alive and unharmed.”
Both officers are expected to recover from their injuries.
Faison was killed in the gun-battle with cops. Klein and Comitale became the first Troy officers shot in the line of duty in at least four decades, according to The Times Union.
That guy is a complete wack job! He needs to be on a watch list.
What a disgusting pig. I live in the vicinity of this and several bullets from Fiason entered my home and one in particular nearly hit me in the head. This scum shot first at officers that asked him to halt. He had no regard for life on any level. Its fortunate myself and many other peaceful, innocent people in the general vicinity were not killed or harmed. Burn in hell.