Sandy MaloneNew York, NY – A New York City actress has been fired from her acting company after she posted a rant about street closures for New York Police Department (NYPD) Officer Jason Rivera’s funeral to social media on Friday (video below).
Officer Rivera and his partner, NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora, were fatally shot in the line of duty while responding to a domestic dispute in Harlem on Jan. 21.
Tens of thousands of police officers from all across the country descended on Manhattan to pay respects at the fallen hero’s funeral on Jan 28.
Numerous roads were shut down and sidewalks were blocked off as hundreds of police vehicles participated in Officer Rivera’s funeral procession.
Hundreds of officers arriving for funeral of #JasonRivera @StPatsNYC – Rivera and Partner Wilbert Mora were killed after responding to a domestic disturbance in Harlem a week ago @NY1 #NYC pic.twitter.com/goC6p6GgBi
— Roger Clark (@RogerClark41) January 28, 2022
But one city resident wasn’t feeling mournful as everyone else around her grieved for the loss of the 22-year-old police officer, and she expressed her displeasure with the inconveniences on TikTok, the New York Post reported.
“We do not need to shut down most of Lower Manhattan because one cop died for probably doing his job incorrectly,” Jacqueline Guzman ranted in the video posted under the TikTok handle @vinylboobs.
“They kill people who are under 22 every single day for no good reason and we don’t shut down the city for them,” Guzman added.
She panned the closed street lined with police cars and ambulances and then continued her rant, the video showed.
Fifth Ave in New York is a sea of blue outside of the funeral for NYPD officer Jason Rivera, who was fatally shot while responding to a 911 call.
Breathtaking.pic.twitter.com/OcyrVzoZlV
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 28, 2022
“Like this is f–king ridiculous,” Guzman complained. “This is f–king ridiculous. What if somebody is having a heart attack in this area? Nobody can get to them because it’s all blocked off for one f–king cop.”
Her post was met with immediate blowback from people across the country.
The actress took the video down shortly after she posted it, but not before offended viewers captured it for posterity and dissemination, the New York Post reported.
The acting company that Guzman worked for, Face to Face Films, posted a statement to its Facebook page on Saturday that said it didn’t condone or support the comments she had made about Officer Rivera.
“As a result, she is no longer a member of our company,” the statement concluded.
Guzman has since deleted all of her social media accounts, the New York Post reported.
Her biography of on the Face to Face Films website said she was “a Cuban American actress based in NYC, originally from Hialeah, Florida.”
The police officers’ union put out a statement that condemned Guzman’s “hate” and asked the city to support them, the New York Post reported.
“New Yorkers turned out by the thousands yesterday to help us honor our fallen brother. One person spreading hate cannot erase that. This kind of garbage has polluted the conversation for far too long. We need the New Yorkers who are standing with us to speak up and push back,” NYPD Police Benevolent Association (PBA) President Patrick Lynch said.
Watch Guzman’s disrespectful rant in the video below. WARNING – Obscene Language:
Complaining about the Officer Rivera’s funeral on 5th Ave NYC pic.twitter.com/n08Te6OaaB
— Blue Lives Matter 💎 (@RetiredNYCPD) January 29, 2022
Holly Matkin
