Everyone has, at one point or another, been stuck in a car behind a slow-moving garbage truck and cursed their luck. Most people, however, have not gone so far as to call some friends over so as to "do something" about it. But that is exactly what it appears 28-year-old Henry Rink did Friday evening when he couldn't get past a garbage truck on East 96th Street in East Flatbush. After yelling obscenities at two sanitation workers blocking his Dodge Charger it appears Rink called a friend over to sucker punch the workers.
“While I was in the middle of loading, I got punched right in the mouth,” the attacked garbageman, Vincent DeBlasio, recalled. The man who hit DeBlasio quickly ran off when the sanitation worker hit the ground (DeBlasio was later treated for cuts and other minor injuries). The attack came moments after the Dodge driver had gotten out of his car and screamed a variation of "Park that thing; put that truck somewhere," at DeBlasio's partner.
Cops have arrested the angry driver, who already has five years in jail under his belt, but are still seeking the man who hit DeBlasio. Meanwhile the sanitation workers union is using this as a reason to call again for it to be a Class C felony to attack a sanitation worker—as it is if you hit peace officers, cops, firefighters, emergency medical technicians or traffic enforcement agents. A bill that would do just that passed the State Senate last year but never got out of committee in the State Assembly.
“It seems like it is happening on us more and more. As soon as the weather gets better, the people are driving around more and they are very impatient. All we are doing is doing our job. We realize that people are in a hurry, but we are just trying to do our job,” Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, told the Times. We feel for DeBlasio—violence is never the answer, people— but we wish the sanitation union were as worried about doing their job when the weather wasn't better...
