New York, United State._ Dominican recruits who graduate as officers of the Police Department (NYPD) continue to lead Latinos who also join the uniformed, and in the graduation on this Friday, December 30, 2022, 31 Dominicans from different provinces of their country received their diplomas in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden headed by Mayor Eric Adams and other authorities.
The recruits successfully completed a six-month training program at the NYPD academy, and among the graduates is Joel Guzman, who lifted up his Dominican pride by thanking the support of his family.
“For me, it is a pride to represent the country and I just want to show that not all police are bad as it sometimes appears in the news,” Guzman said.
“We all come from good families like my father’s who taught me to be right,” added the new NYPD officer in an interview with reporter Ricardo Villarini of the 47 Telemundo news.
His father, Rudobino Antonio, who accompanied him at the graduation, said, “we are from the countryside and my countryside has given something beautiful.”
He added that he appreciates the respect his son has always had for others.
NYPD spokesperson Detective Carlos Nieves explained that of the graduates, 196 are Latinos, and of these, 31 are Dominicans representing countries such as the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, and others.
“But the Hispanics who most represent the NYPD are those from the Dominican Republic, like the 31 who graduated,” added the spokesman.
The mayor said that respect and pride is the main foundation of the new police to serve the city and its communities.
“That pride is taken to protect the people of this city,” Adams said.
The first job of the new recruits was to send them to the New Year’s celebration in Times Square, where one of them was hit by a machete by an Islamic extremist native to the state of Maine, who left another newly graduated police officer also injured.
The assailant received a gunshot wound to his shoulder.
