You should never base opinions off single instances you see a news story of. Both because of the misleading nature of such stories in terms of the information they include or miss out and because single cherry picked instances are not representative.
I agree with the general principle of that, but in this case I do think it represents a broader trend. Walking around NYC, if I see an intentionally obfuscated plate, nine times out of ten it has a police placard in the dashboard.
It’s such a familiar problem to locals that the TV show Billions had an arc where Chuck illicitly obtained a placard and was trying to trade favors for it, but couldn’t because everyone he needed favors from already had one.
I have a scar on my hip because I had to bike on a slippery surface to avoid an NYPD car obstructing a bike lane and had my rear tire slip out in the rain. So this isn’t just aesthetic for me.
I see it constantly, both in person and on social media. I've personally reported many cases to 311 and to officers in person, and every single time they either ignore me or lie about handling the complaint. It's so endemic that a City Council member has introduced a bill that would allow civilians themselves to ticket illegally parked vehicles [1].
So no, it's not a single news story. This one just happened to be a particularly egregious display of NYPD lawlessness.
