Reminder: Two NYPD Officers Are Being Investigated For Killing/Beating New Yorkers

Hurricane Sandy and the presidential election have dominated the headlines here in the Big Apple for the last two weeks. But let's not forget what was going on in New York before that bitch Sandy dropped by: two NYPD officers are under investigation for what could potentially be pretty appalling crimes.

In one case, a detective fatally shot an unarmed National Guardsman on a Queens highway for no apparent reason. In the other, two NYPD officers in Brooklyn beat the crap out of a man in a Crown Heights synagogue -- also for no apparent reason.

Both officers are under investigation by both the NYPD's internal affairs division and prosecutors in their respective counties. In neither case have district attorneys determined whether they will file criminal charges against the officers, prosecutors told the Voice this morning.

In the case of Detective Hassan Hamdy, a 14-year NYPD veteran who fatally shot Guardsman Noel Polanco on October 4, prosecutors say "the matter is still under investigation and there is no timetable for its conclusion."

As for NYPD Officer Luis Vega, who was seen on video beating the crap out of Ehud Halevi for doing little more than sleeping on a sofa, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office says the same thing: "It is still an investigation. I do not have a timetable as to when there will be a decision."

Both cases seem to be blatant instances of overzealous cops abusing their positions of power -- and we wouldn't want a hurricane to cause these stories to fall by the wayside.

We will say this: if a regular citizen were caught on camera dishing out a beating like the one Vega gave Halevi, we probably wouldn't be waiting a month later to find out whether that person was getting charged with a crime.